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Sorry, T.S. Eliot fans… this is not a blog post about his poem Ash Wednesday, but for Lit class nostalgia’s sake, I will link to a copy of the poem here. This line from Eliot’s poem came to mind while I was having a discussion with my BFF, a fellow English major and participant in one of my book clubs, about books that don’t make you care about any of the characters. I was recently reading one book and listening to audio of another when I realized that I didn’t have the least bit of emotional connection to any of the characters. That made for a kind of crummy week, honestly. That’s how much books can influence my mood. Here are the books that taught me not to care.

The Offenders

Sharp Objects

I don’t read much popular fiction, but sometimes I like to try it. I especially enjoy it when I am reading for book club and I will get to discuss the book with my friends. One of our recent books was Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects. I don’t like any of the characters in this book. Every one of them is despicable or insane or both. I don’t think that’s a spoiler. I hadn’t read anything else by Flynn, but I did see the movie of Gone Girl, so I expected this book to try to mess with my head. It tried, but since I had that expectation, I didn’t exactly fall for it.

I didn’t empathize with any of the characters in this book, so it must be terrible, right? Well… That’s not what I am saying. I quite enjoyed the book. I am a slow reader, but I got through this book in a little over a weekend. It wasn’t quite unputdownable, but I was interested to see what would happen next and how it would turn out. I was pretty sure I knew whodunit, but I felt compelled to keep reading anyway. I will admit that part of what drove me was wondering how crazy this book was going to get. Pretty crazy. This book did a good job of making me cringe. What it didn’t do was give me a single character that I was rooting for. Not even the protagonist. There were a few points that I almost felt sympathetic. I did grow up in a small town about 5 hours due East of the book’s setting. The house I grew up in still does not have air conditioning. I guess if there was any character I could connect to- it was the setting.

I am really looking forward to discussing this one with my book club!

Welcome to Night Vale

No, I have never listened to the podcast. Yes, I am open to the possibility that I am missing something here. The fact remains, this book didn’t make me care about the characters. After a while, it felt like this was just being weird for weirdness sake. And I think you can get away with a certain amount of that, see: Douglas Adams or Neil Gaiman. This just didn’t do it for me, and I found myself only halfway through the audiobook simultaneously asking “What is the plot?” and “Is this over yet?” When it was over I was still asking about the plot.

This one gave me the rarest sliver of something to care about. There’s a mom who can’t find her teenage son. Let’s just say that missing kids are sort of a trigger for me, so that did get to me for a second. There’s one scene where the mother talks to someone and tells them she is searching for her kid, and that scene gave me some feels. I happened to be listening to that scene while I was driving down the highway and saw a sign for the haunted hotel where I grew up. I lost track of the plot again quickly while I slipped into a reverie about the kids I knew as a teen who were homeless or not accepted at home. I might not have cared about any of the characters in this book, but I was grateful for the reminder of those real life kids.

Honorable Mention

Feed

This book gets honorable mention, because I think everyone should read it. I am tacking it onto this post, because one of my kids once said that all of the protagonists in YA lit were “OP” (over-powered) and “Mary-Sues.” They said there should be a book where you don’t even like the lead character. My reply: “You need to read M.T. Anderson’s FEED.” The main character gets to go to the MOON – and he thinks it sucks. He is not a likable kid, but he is also a product of his environment. This one just gets honorable mention, because there is at least one character in the book that I do like. Also, Feed gets my dander up and makes me care very much. I read the book and thought it was inspired by Facebook and the newsfeed. It wasn’t until after I finished the book that I realized it was published before Facebook was even a thing. Then my mind was officially blown – and I was officially terrified.

What do you think?

Have you read any of these books? Did you find more of a connection to the characters than I did? Are there other books that don’t have any sympathetic characters for you? Does a book have to have characters you can connect to in order to be a good book? I would love to hear your thoughts!