Top Ten Tuesday || Unlikeable Characters

Happy Tuesday, readers! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and features a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is unlikeable characters you can’t help but love. I’ve realized that making a top ten list is difficult for me usually because trying to think of 10 different books or 10 different characters off the top of my head is a lot. So I’m making this one a top 5 as I’ve done occasionally in the past.

Above is a picture of the book I was reading on Halloween yesterday. 🎃 👻 I really wanted to read The Black Phone short story because I watched the movie a couple months ago. It’s really creepy/sad.

Moving on to Top Ten Five Tuesday, let’s jump into the unlikeable characters that I can’t help but like.

1. Holden from The Catcher in the Rye. Yes, I get it- he’s a whiny, judgmental teen. I don’t care! I related a lot to this character in my own angst-filled teen years. Reading the book as an adult, I can see that Holden is a kid who is going through a lot of mental health issues and trauma, which I think is missed in the whole “but he’s whiny” debate.
2. Cardan from The Folk of the Air series. He’s just the worst and the best and the worst. He’s cruel and pompous, but there is something intriguing about his character that makes readers fall in love with him which I find fascinating and really difficult for an author to pull off. Jude could also easily have a separate spot on this list!
3. Amy from Gone Girl. I think I fell in love with Amy during the Cool Girl monologue in this book. She’s an extremely flawed in many ways, but I can’t help but to like her.
4. Dorian Gray from The Picture of Dorian Gray. Ugh this prideful, narcissistic character who is also so tortured and internally tormented… I do love/hate Dorian!
5. Ingrid from White Oleander. Ingrid is just truly awful in every way. So manipulative, self-absorbed, and toxic. She ruins so many lives, and yet she has that whole otherworldly beautiful poet thing going on that makes it more of a love to hate thing.

Do we share any common characters on our lists? Be sure to share your post in the comments too if you have one!

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