Friday, November 11, 2011

TGIF #16 - Love-Hate Relationships

Friday, November 11, 2011 with 7 comments


TGIF is hosted by Ginger at GReads!  In this weekly feature, Ginger poses a question to her followers and then asks everyone to link up at the end of the post, sharing their responses.




This Friday's Question:

Love-Hate Relationship: Which characters from a book do you love to hate?


So, I debated which way to run with this.  I could go with the baddies I despise but am supposed to hate, or I could mention the protagonists that I'm supposed to like but end up hating.  Since the latter is way more fun, let's talk about those.  :)

First, we have Bella Swan from The Twilight Saga.  I know I'm not alone on this one.  My biggest gripe with this character is how she just gives up when the "love of her life" walks out on her.  She literally curls up in a ball on the forest floor and lays there unconscious until a search party is sent out to find her because she's been missing for so long.  Bella's whole life, even when he returns to her, is hinged on Edward.  She even wants to become a vampire so she can be with him.  I'm not Team-Anybody, at least when it comes to Twilight -- I am sooooooo #TeamTod of the Soul Screamers series -- but Jacob had a point when he told Bella, "You wouldn't have to change for me."  I could continue with this rant, but I would rather move on to the other MC I love to hate.

Crescendo (Hush, Hush, #2)Enter Nora Grey.  Throughout the first Hush, Hush novel, she has this sense that Patch is bad news, yet she feels this undeniable pull toward him.  Wake up, Nora...he's a STALKER!  Yes, I love Patch, but as a reader, I know things that Nora can't possibly know.  And yet she falls for him, anyway.  But that's not really the reason I don't like her character.  She's just frustratingly annoying.  Every word that comes out of her mouth, every move she makes, every petty thought she has in her tiny little brain...those things annoy me to no end.  Nora is exactly the opposite of what I'm looking for in a good heroine.  Honestly, I would probably never refer to her as a heroine, though.  She's the girl who constantly needs saving, who can't make a decision on her own to save her life.  Nora's character was a little less maddening in Silence, but I'll never truly like her.  However, I will keep reading for Patch, though I realize he is the fallen angel equivalent to Edward "the glittery vampire" Cullen.  If there was a list of characters I hate to love, they'd probably both be on it.

What about you?  Which characters do you feel good about despising?


7 comments:

  1. I love that you didn't take the obvious route and list a villain! Completely agree about Bella - she is spineless and completely dependent on someone else for her reason for living; just not healthy.

    And Nora. Ugh, she's just terrible. With no reason to trust Patch, she just lets him stay in her life, even though he admits he was planning on killing her? Idiot.

    My TGIF

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  2. Yay for the Bella hate and the props to Jake. Love it!

    I've only read Hush, Hush, so I can't weigh in on Nora...yet. However, Patch can stalk me any day! :D

    Great post!

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  3. Hahaha, yes. I think I would love to slam Bella's and Nora's heads in a door.

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  4. But have you read The Fallen series? Luce can go right there on that list.

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  5. @LisaILJ - Ha, funny you should mention Luce 'cause I saw someone else list her on their TGIF post, and my first thought was, "DAMMIT, how'd I forget that one?!?"

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  6. I agree with you about Bella. Another character that comes to mind right away is Ever from the Immortals series. She makes so many stupid mistakes...I wanted to smack her at times

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  7. Super slow response, but:

    thank you Thank You THANK YOU!
    How Nora Grey has managed to survive to the age of 16 I cannot possibly start to even imagine comprehending! As much as I love Patch, the guy was deliberately cosying up to her TO MURDER HER AND EAT HER SOUL (not exactly, but you get my point). She senses this, but keeps getting closer. Then she finds out, and she's cool with that.

    Oh my goodness, then Crescendo comes round... She dumps the guy she loves because, after pushing him into saying something he's clearly not comfortable with, for whatever reason, after being in a relationship with her for only a couple of months, he acts a little strange. Then, role reversal, starts stalking him, breaking and entering, and getting herself into every possible life-threatening situation imaginable?

    She is one of the most juvenile teenagers I've ever read about. Despite her having a classic case of too-dumb-to-live, an immortal being who's lived hundreds, if not thousands, of years finds her inexplicably appealing. I don't get it. Despite all this, I still love these books, and LOVE Patch XD

    *head-desk*

    And here I end my rant. Thank you so much for posting this.
    Sorry, couldn't help myself :D I love your TGIF :D

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