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Annoying Characters

Eve Duncan in the Iris Johansen books, at first it was kinda cool that she's this suffering mother who's trying to find her child's killer and the kid's remains. Then it was ok that she's trying to get over it and hooking up with her cop friend who got married just so she can have a friend bc he's so spineless that he can't tell her how he feels. But by the 4th book I'm fully annoyed that she's STILL hung up on her dead kid and not moving on, and making things miserable in her life. By the 6th book (and I lost count after that) I just want to pluck her eyes out and scream "your kid is dead, get over it, move on. Develop some interesting characters in your life!" After that I refuse to read another Johansen book. My problem with her books is that the heroine is always this "strongwilled independent woman" who does everything wrong in terms of self preservation and the men are these "hot, wealthy cop/mercenaries/former Special Forces hunk" who loves the women and puts up with their bs but has trouble showing the gals how they really feel. I entertained the idea for a couple of books, then just tolerated it a couple more. After that I just want to write to Johansen to point out the fact that her heroines have massive depression problems and would not have gotten the men they are with in real life and would most likely be killed by the villains already. Also her heros can't possibly be that well off bc 1) cops don't make that much 2) neither do mercenaries 3) men with characteristics she writes about never waits for the whiny heroine to come to their senses, they tend to put everything on the table and take charge, they will by no means be lead around by a bunch of women who have no common sense.

Sorry, I get into rants when I write about annoying characters.
 
Annoying sidekicks are ok, but when the protagonist is annoying the book has a problem. I hate that whiny, selfcentered Holden Caulfield. I know a lot of people love him and identify with him...I can't see why anyone would want to be like him.
 
Violanthe said:
I find the characters in most romance novels annoying because they are pretty much the same in every book.
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I don't find the characters as annoying as the books themselves. I figured romance novels must be good since so many people read them, so I tried reading a few. I hated them. Poor characterization, predictable plots, unoriginal/uninteresting dialogues...every story had a virgin female character who ends up with a playboy male lead...

Then I realized the only reason people buy them is for the sex scenes. That's all well and good, but would it KILL one of them to come up with a vaguely interesting plot? I have read only one romance novel from one of the big chains of them that I would consider reccommending to another reader, and it was called Phantom Lover. It was more okay than great, though.
 
ValkyrieRaven88 said:
I don't find the characters as annoying as the books themselves. I figured romance novels must be good since so many people read them, so I tried reading a few. I hated them. Poor characterization, predictable plots, unoriginal/uninteresting dialogues...every story had a virgin female character who ends up with a playboy male lead...
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I'm on a quest to find non-virgin female leads because I found the cliche of the virgin characters annoying. So far the only one that I've found is The Care and Feeding of Pirates, but I tend to read historical romances so perhaps I'm looking in the wrong era.
 
Here's my question, most romance novel readers tend to be women, so you would think that the writers would create characters that appeals to the audience and one that they can relate to. So where do the virgin heroine come from? I know back in the days (like 60 years ago) virginity is seen as virtue and all that, but this is 2006, I really doubt there are that many virgins walking around anymore. So how come the readers don't demand the writers to change the formula? Nothing makes them see the light as lowered book sales.
 
I take it when you guys talk about 'romance' here you mean formula romance, like Mills & Boon (or whatever the modern equivalent is)? How about some literary fiction that has a love story at its core instead? Love in the Time of Cholera? Captain Corelli's Mandolin? Written on the Body? You might get more satisfaction out of that sort of thing.
 
Jennifer Crusie writes some really good ones with non-virgin female leads, set in contemporary times. Try Welcome to Temptation - you'll love it. It made me laugh so hard, and the story really held my interest too.:D
 
Shade said:
I take it when you guys talk about 'romance' here you mean formula romance, like Mills & Boon (or whatever the modern equivalent is)? How about some literary fiction that has a love story at its core instead? Love in the Time of Cholera? Captain Corelli's Mandolin? Written on the Body? You might get more satisfaction out of that sort of thing.
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That's what I normally end up reading. I prefer complex love stories. I don't like it when it's too easy for them to fall in love...and I absolutely hate it when they're like, "we can't be together" when there's no evidence that they can't.

But I love difficult romances. Like Wuthering Heights. That book is so messed up. I love it. I mean, Heathcliff's in love with Catherine, who's a spoiled brat, and he is completely out of his mind because she's so spoiled. Then she gets married. Then he gets married. And they still love each other, and they're playing mind games the entire time. Love it to death. We need more romances like that.
 
I went through a romance phase. Thankfully, it was very short. Jennifer Crusie was part of that phase..her books were slightly better than the cut and dry romance because of the humor. Most romance novels are just very formulaic, with the instant physical attraction and a whole series of events contrived so that there can be a sex scene. They say stupid things like "she could see the lust in his eyes" or something equally ridiculous. Compared to the amount of edification you get in reading one of those books, you'd be better off flushing your head in the toilet.

Spikeyli: As for whether a female lead should be virginal or not, I can't see how it would make a difference to the reader so far as identifying with the character goes. How can you identify with a romance heroine whose depth of character is zero? The only romances I read with decent character development were books in other genres that happened to have romance in them. As for there not being very many virgins left...there are more than you think.
 
But the virgin heroine never stays virgin for long, it was like her life didn't exist until she met and be deflowered by the hero. It wasn't like she was a virgin and made a choice to be virgin and will stay with her choice, it's usually she was a sexually frustrated virgin and so ready to give it up to the first guy that came sashaying into her life with a grand entrance.

I wasn't saying there's no virgins left, I'm just saying the majority of the readers are probably not (most are probably bored housewives if I had to guess). So why not just make the heroine a woman, any woman, and not specifically virgin?

I don't read many romance novels either. I will read the ones with a romance in it but the romance is not the plot of the book.
 
I guess I should be reading more difficult romances then.

It's just that it seems like the virginal heroines are all distressed in the beginning, but once they get some action they're all I-can-take-anyone on. Ok, so maybe that's not the best way to phrase it, but it's like once there's a man who has sex with them they feel more empowered or something.
 
Britni said:
I think the most annoying character of any book is by far Mrs. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. She wants her daughters to be married so bad that she completely annoys the reader. But with that being said I don't think the book would have been the same without her.
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hmm . . . maybe in the top 10, but i don't think the worst. i have to agree with stewart - bombadil by far!
 
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