Repeat after me: Not because you don’t like it, it’s bad.
They’re not written for you.
I’ve read Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and the unnamed narrator (who is the antihero of her own story), a WASP who’s both striking and deeply flawed, is a fascinating character. Her insomnia, toxic relationship with Trevor, and entanglement with her garish friend Reva make her irresistibly complex. Her bad attitude and dark humor are what I love about her.
However, when I checked Goodreads, I was shocked to see so many readers turn against the book because they didn’t like the protagonist. It’s clear that many readers gravitate towards characters with the classic hero archetype — self-sacrificing and noble. But why base your entire opinion of a book on a character who’s deliberately crafted to be unlikable? The concept of the anti-hero or morally ambiguous protagonist isn’t new.
Take Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho. The novel doesn’t idolize Patrick Bateman; it critiques his grotesque behavior and the hollow society that produces him. Or consider Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. Tyler Durden is not meant to be a role model but a critique of consumerism and masculinity. Similarly, in Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Amy Dunne is a morally ambiguous character whose actions and motivations drive the story’s dark exploration of media and marriage. And then there’s Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov — Lolita’s complex relationship with Humbert Humbert is portrayed with uncomfortable nuance, challenging readers rather than seeking their admiration.
I dislike Colleen Hoover with all my intestines, but I think people did not get it about her magnum opus It Ends With Us. Other BookTok girlies don’t like it because of the domestic violence. Point is, when I read it, it is nowhere near glorifying or romanticizing violence, unlike in other unhinged dark romances. It vividly portrays a victim of domestic abuse and the cycle and ending of that cycle.
Art is meant to provoke and challenge us, to shake up the status quo and offer new perspectives. As the saying goes, “Art is supposed to disturb the calm and calm the disturbed.”
Have we forgotten this?
…But yeah, It Ends With Us has cringe writing. Crucify me.
