First and foremost, allow us to apologize for bringing you our Top 10 Monday post a tad late (or almost late, depending on where you live). If there's anything we've learned from our beloved book characters, it's to take responsibility for our actions, so we'll refrain from blaming it on bad timing/weather/lighting/mood/conditions. We're at fault! Sorry, all!
You....
We all have those characters that we hate. We're reading a book and that name pops up, the name we don't want to see and when we do, we can't help but roll our eyes and groan. Them again... Sometimes they make the story exciting, dramatic... or just incredibly frustrating. It might be that they're a villain who are disrupting your favorite character's life or it might be that they just really annoy you, you just can't help but hate them.
We decided to make up a list of those characters that we love to hate and share them with you this Monday. We don't want to upset anyone who actually likes any of these (I'm sure some of you will strongly disagree with one or two) but this is all highly subjective. This isn't going to be anything against any author or the novel in its entirety, it's only the characters actions or thoughts that made us put them into our top 10.
Proceed with caution, however! We found it to be virtually impossible to create a list of this variety without heavily spoiling the book, the characters' journeys throughout it, and sometimes the entire series the character is from. So we suggest skimming the titles before deciding which of the characters from our list you'd like an explanation for. Once again, our list is a joint one rather than an individual. The top 1 choice is a mutually agreed-upon one, while the following were our individual picks, all meshed together.
And as always, we are sticking to our honest policy so there may be some bad language and possible bashing of beloved characters. Tread carefully...
Well it's obvious why I had to pick her. You've read the Harry Potter books right? This woman is awful. I think most people will agree with me on this one and she always comes out very high in my list of 'characters I dislike' so I decided to put her as number one. While most villains or near-villains have an intrinsic or extrinsic motivation for doing evil, a higher purpose or goal they believe their evil is achieving, Umbridge doesn't seem to have any. Her antics (for lack of a dirtier word, not appropriate for this type of blog) are derived from an ingrained love of causing suffering and misery. That's it. While most villains are evil for the sake of something, Umbridge is evil for the sake of being evil. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is worthy of a top spot on any disliked/hated list ever.
2. Gale Hawthorne (The Hunger Games)
This one's a personal hatred, I know he's not much of a villain, but I'm going to be honest here - I cannot stand this guy. I can see myself getting hatred from some of my choices! Gale is one of those characters that make my eyes roll when I see his jealous arse show up on the page. He's irritating and hot-headed, he doesn't think things through and he lets his own revenge take over and his anger gets a bit too much. So much so that it dangers some important people (obviously there's the debate on whether that was him... but it could have been him. We'll never know). As a Gale hater, I do blame him. And I don't hate him just because I'm a Peeta girl, but he didn't help. Cockblocker... he definitely got on my nerves with his annoying need to get Katniss all the time, she hasn't got time for a boyfriend, Gale, she's concentrating more on trying not to die
So for his unnecessary anger and his rash judgments, his persistent need for revenge and his ever-so annoying 'Katniss please go out with me' attitude instead of thinking about the important stuff, Mr Hawthorne is on my list as number two. Sorry, Gale lovers!
3. Travis Maddox (Beautiful Disaster)
I'M SORRY. I'm expecting some backlash for putting him in this list. I read Beautiful Disaster a year or so ago and as soon as I closed that book, I made a note to myself that if I ever met a man like him, I'd run a mile. Or 50. Travis is a rude, arrogant and violent man who, if I ever met, I would be terrified of. Let me just say that Abby, the female protagonist in the story, does leave him and he trashes the apartment. He sends off a psycho vibe to me..
Us girls do like a protective guy and that's sweet, he loves you and he wants you safe. This guy? He was too much. He didn't even let her live her own life. Also the name Pigeon? That would have got on my nerves, we didn't even find out why he called her that. Thanks for naming me after a flying rat with diseases that irritates the hell out of me. Love you too.
If you wish to read my review of Beautiful Disaster, go onto my GoodReads because I put together some points on why I'm not a fan of this book but Travis was the main reason for it. I really hope girls don't aspire to find a guy like him or I'll be worried for their safety.
4. Jude (Mara Dyer)
Is he alive? Is he dead? Who cares, no matter what, he's still a complete psycho. He's an attempted rapist and murderer who just shows up out of nowhere to cause so much trouble and mess with Mara's mind. Of course he's ranking fourth as he's creepy as hell and so hard to escape from, he's just always there. Although he's a complete prat, he's also a great character to read about but still..... I don't like him. How can you like a character that does things like this to the people you want alive, well and happy? Exactly. And if he lays one finger on Noah in book three, he's going higher on my list... *grumble*
So on the list you go, Jude! (By the way, if you haven't already, you really should read the Mara Dyer series. It's such an amazing read!)
5. Leah Smith (The Opportunist)
I absolutely love this series! I love to hate Leah as she's the obvious villain in this series, she has her own POV book, Dirty Red, and it's so interesting. The way she thinks and plans out what she does fascinates me, Tarryn Fisher is a great writer and can write a villain so well. Leah is cunning, rude and just plain evil. The things she does just to stop Caleb from living the life he truly wants with another girl - the blackmailing, the lying - she won't stop at anything. She's a great character to read about but you can't help but want to smack her around the face everytime she enters the room. Oh Leah..
6. Blake (Lux)
Never in my life have I made more "Just die
already!" notes in my Kindle than I did during the Blake scenes in the Lux
series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. (Blake, of course, would have come in second
behind Umbridge where those are concerned, except I never read the Harry Potter
series on my Kindle.) Initially I will admit to having been ready to give him the
benefit of the doubt, even when more sensible readers were siding with Daemon
and internally screaming at Katy for allowing Blake to push the limits as far
as he had, and live to tell the tale. Once he gets aggressive during training
in "Onyx" the potential-for-likability of the character takes such a
rapid nosedive that I was wishing him a slow, painful death before long. After
the pivotal scene in "Onyx"? Forget it. I wanted to demand that his
head be brought to me once severed, for inspection and possible gloating.
He isn't even the main villain! And
yet his death couldn't come soon enough.
7. Peter (Divergent)
Admittedly, Jeanine Matthews would have made a more sensible
choice for this list. And we agree - except we're saving the likes of Jeanine
for one of the future Top 10 Mondays which will be devoted to Top 10 Villains.
This week's list largely consists of the characters we have a personal vendetta
against. And my personal vendetta against Lord Butterknife is a particularly
vicious one. No amount of attempted-redemption could or would ever save Peter
from my wrath, on behalf of Edward, on behalf of Tris, and on behalf of
humanity in general. Attempted murderers and attempted rapists (all for the sake of ranking higher on a
list!) get no redemption where I am concerned. Vicious? Possibly. I'm okay
with that, though. Peter is worse.
8. Jack (Avoiding)
Disclaimer first: Avoiding Commitment was the first book I
have ever rated 1-star in my entire life, and I seesaw between guilt and
vindictive pleasure over it to this day. In this case, the 1-star was due to
everything about this book being infuriating and repetitive, including
absolutely every single character. I disliked them all. Even the occasional,
sporadic side characters gave me the urge to scream in fury. But Jack I have a
personal bone to pick with. Most of the characters we've mentioned in this list
have one thing in common: they are openly and blatantly manipulative, or in
some cases even openly malevolent. Jack, though... Jack is an angel in Jack's
own eyes (and unfortunately most everyone else's). Jack can do no wrong. Except
everything he does is wrong. Jack would never manipulate. Except all he does is
manipulate. Jack would never subordinate everyone else to his own juvenile
demands. Except he does.
9. Bella Swan (Twilight)
While on the topic of manipulative male love interests, this
list also warranted a gullible female lead. And don't get me wrong - I don't hate Twilight. I won't be jumping on any
Twilight-bashing wagons at any point in the future. It's not the worst book
ever written. It's not without its moments, even. But Bella Swan read more like
a cautionary tale to me than a female character anyone should aspire to become.
It seemed to me as though Bella was written as a female lead everyone should
relate to. I just hope few ever do. There's only so much slack I can cut an
eternal damsel in distress who spends months virtually fetal upon being left by
her boyfriend, and who then goes on a never-ending chase of near-death
experiences in order to get to hallucinate said boyfriend again in moments just
before she's about to put herself in mortal peril. But it's not only the
boyfriend thing that got me to second guess Bella's entire personality. There's
the fact that she just isn't a good friend to anyone! When yanked out of her
apathy long enough to spare her friends a thought, more often than not that
thought will be condescending (at best) and downright degrading (at worst). And
don't expect her to ever put anyone before Edward. (Spoiler alert: she won't.)
10. Thiago (Daughter of Smoke and Bone)
Now, it's not that I'm saying that there weren't more cowardly, sleazy and downright evil leaders in the history of the world as we (the mere-humans) know it. I'm just saying that those that were would likely mate up with Thiago to create the ultimate evil club where they'd roast their enemies' children in the fire of their burned villages while cackling about the sneaky way they managed to attack yet another soldierless community incapable of defending itself. And to add insult to injury, Thiago towards the end of "Days of Blood and Starlight" became something so vicious and evil, this time with no real purpose (downright Umbridge-like), that it's earned him a permanent spot on my list.
As suggested earlier, this list was entirely subjective and no offense is meant by it. We have actually loved most of the books we've cited above. We recognize that it takes a special kind of author to write a character we'd feel so passionately about, and for that these authors have our respect. Our dislike of these particular characters are heavily biased by our own tastes and opinions. However, we stand by them. If you wish to flame us for our choices to vent your frustration, we're okay with that. If you'd rather respectfully disagree, we're okay with that, too. If you agree with some of them, hey, we're more than okay with that!
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