When I read a book, one of the biggest draws for me is the characters. I prefer great characters over great plot (though I’ll take both when I can get it). My favorite characters are those that I truly connect with in some way. We may be nothing alike in appearance or experience, but if there is something at the core of a character that I recognize in myself, I am a happy reader. So what happens when I rub up against an intentionally unlikeable character? Especially when it’s the main character?

I’ll be honest, my initial reaction to unlikeable main characters is usually not positive. They make me uncomfortable and I have considered marking more than one book DNF for this reason. But I have found that if I push through, most of the time there is a good reason the character is the way they are. More often than not, an unlikeable lead character is redeemed during the story and is no longer problematic by the end.

But there are the rare occasions where the unlikeable lead is not redeemed. This is usually for the plot, maybe it’s a villain origin story, such as The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. At no point was Snow redeemed or made truly likeable, he had some tragic circumstances that contributed to who he was, but his selfishness and pride were always there. We aren’t meant to like him, and we knew that going in.

And then there are those that are complicated people who are unlikeable, but never redeemed, who are not necessarily villains either. Characters like June in Yellowface, her actions and ideas make her unlikeable. She’s not necessarily an evil person, just someone responding to a situation in the worst possible way, over and over again. I struggled with her for a while, but ultimately accepted that I wasn’t going to like her, so I put it aside and focused on the rest of the book.

Of course, there are some unlikeable characters that are just unlikeable with no redeeming qualities or reasoning to further the plot of the story. These characters are sometimes flat or poorly written. In these cases, if it’s a side character, I’ll ignore it if the main characters and plots are good. But if it’s the main character, I will probably add the book to my DNF pile.