Books You Don't Like Because of the Main Character

[Draginon he/him]

Have you ever had a book, movie or game where you didn't like it because the main character was annoying, horrid or just plain sucked? This can also include just one character in a multi-POV story as well.

My list includes the following:

Eragon: Eragon himself got extremely annoying to read by the time I got to the third book and since 90% of the chapters that point onward were his didn't make it easy to read.

Miles: Out of all the POVs in AOL Miles was very boring to read since he wasn't all that interesting to be in his head.

Kelsier: I know, I know but there were times during TFE and SH where he became a little much for me to really care about his issues.

Dusk: Out of all of Brandon's main characters Dusk has to be my least favorite to have read from. I can easily get into the mindset of a character, even on ones I don't like, but Dusk is one person I just couldn't get into to understand what he's feeling and going through. Even when other people show up he still was a foreigner to my mind.

Watch Dogs: The main character of that game was pretty unsympathetic to me for some reason and I just couldn't bring myself to finish that game.

[Jaywalk he/him]

That was why I hated The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Quentin, the main character, was such a chull and I hated reading him. The problem also extended to all of the other characters, ruining an otherwise awesome concept for me.

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

Divergent and Hunger Games both suffers from boring protagonists. The latter is still good though. Garion in the Eddings books is boring and overpowered as well. But I am generally not as interested in the protagonists compared to the side-characters, so a bad main won’t bother me much.

[Dunkum he/him]

On 2/21/2019 at 10:16 PM, Jaywalk said:

That was why I hated The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Quentin, the main character, was such a chull and I hated reading him. The problem also extended to all of the other characters, ruining an otherwise awesome concept for me.

Quentin is terrible, but later books have Julia and Janet PoVs and they are both great.

 

There are huge swaths of Wheel of Time that I have trouble reading because of Rand.  If not for Mat, and to a lesser extent Perrin, I don't think I'd have been able to get through those books.  which would have ben a pity since it likely means I wouldn't have read any Sanderson.

[Jaywalk he/him]

38 minutes ago, Dunkum said:

There are huge swaths of Wheel of Time that I have trouble reading because of Rand.  If not for Mat, and to a lesser extent Perrin, I don't think I'd have been able to get through those books.  which would have ben a pity since it likely means I wouldn't have read any Sanderson.

I enjoyed Rand once he started going downhill. He was awesome in the last three books.

[Dunkum he/him]

Just now, Jaywalk said:

I enjoyed Rand once he started going downhill. He was awesome in the last three books.

For me he varied a lot.  its been a while since I read it, so it is hard to place the feeling exactly, but I think the issue I had is that his temper seemed to be out of control, and there were times when its targets were way off.  I understand that he isnt exactly supposed to be fully in control of himself at that point, but it is still hard to sympathize sometimes.

[Jaywalk he/him]

12 minutes ago, Dunkum said:

For me he varied a lot.  its been a while since I read it, so it is hard to place the feeling exactly, but I think the issue I had is that his temper seemed to be out of control, and there were times when its targets were way off.  I understand that he isnt exactly supposed to be fully in control of himself at that point, but it is still hard to sympathize sometimes.

I related to him in the early books. Later on, I didn’t relate as much, but I understood him. He’s one of my favorite characters—he’s very complex.

[+Sorana she/her]

That really fits the book I am reading right now:

High Summons by Eli Celata.

It looked promising on Goodreads, and although I don't read that much urban fantasy, there are some series in that genre I enjoy a lot (e.g. Jim butcher's Dresden Files), and I decided to give it a try.

But the main character, I have this contant urge to throttle him, or maybe punch his face, or something like this. He feels flat to me and I have a hard time to understand his emotions, or his reasons. He simply acts, and I find myself wishing he'll die soon. It feels staged, artificial, and I simply can't realte to him at all. Thankfully it's a thin book, and I plan to finish it, and then I'll hand it over to my local library. If there isn't some kind of central turn around, I definitely won't read the other two books of this triology.

[Iarwainiel I she/her]

Gotta agree re: Rand al'Thor in WoT ... actually, the only WoT character I didn't find irritating was the wolf Hopper ("To soar!")

I didn't like either Siri or Vivenna in Warbreaker on my first read-through, nor Sarene in Elantris; after loving Vin so much in Mistborn, I guess they just paled in comparison. But on my 2nd/3rd read-throughs I do like those 3 female characters better (still not as much as Vin though).

Huh ... I can't think of any other ones. I have successfully purged whoever it was from my memory!

[Jaywalk he/him]

20 hours ago, Lump-wing said:

the only WoT character I didn't find irritating was the wolf Hopper ("To soar!")

Hopper is the best.

[Queen’sWit she/her]

In english, we had to read The Compound by S.A. Bodeen, and I had a huge problem with the main character, Eli. The whole time I just wanted to punch him right in the... well... I really didn't like him from the start!

 

[Stampede he/him]

As some others have said Rand was a little tough but I don't dislike the books because of him.

I initially didn't like The Legend of Drizzt partially because of how pseudo-philosophical I thought Drizzt was in the intermission chapters.

The Grisha Trilogy, whoever the main character was - I can't remember her name, was torturous because of her. Really any love triangle in YA that makes no sense!

[Wander89 he/him]

I reaaaaaally want people to change my mind of this but I read half of Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice and could not get into Fitz as a character however I feel I would like the series. I just did not like the depressing views and the story itself but I did try Way of Kings once, got to the 10th chapter and put it down and now it's my favourite series.

[Stampede he/him]

9 hours ago, Wander89 said:

I reaaaaaally want people to change my mind of this but I read half of Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice and could not get into Fitz as a character however I feel I would like the series. I just did not like the depressing views and the story itself but I did try Way of Kings once, got to the 10th chapter and put it down and now it's my favourite series.

I had the same problem with Fitz and I think it's mostly Hobb's writing style. I finished the book but couldn't be bothered to read the second.

[+Invocation]

I agree with Eragon. Too pretentious and "I use big words, so me smart" for me. That's the only really big one for me, though admittedly some of the other books I've read have suffered from something similar at times.

[Wander89 he/him]

6 hours ago, Stampede said:

I had the same problem with Fitz and I think it's mostly Hobb's writing style. I finished the book but couldn't be bothered to read the second.

That's exactly what has happened. I see people greatly recommending this series as one of the best but I just could not get into the first book at all! Maybe I'll try it again and it will click with me and i'll be on another long journey but I can't even bring myself to pick it up. Is that bad??