Top Ten Tuesday: Most Frustrating Characters Ever

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

Each week they will post a new Top Ten list that one of their bloggers over at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join.

This week’s topic is:  Top Ten Most Frustrating Characters Ever

I’ve come across some awfully frustrating characters in books over the years. And for the most part they are the books that I tend/try to forget that I’ve ever read. But here are ten that first come to mind for this week’s top ten.

Bella Swan (The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer) – I think the reason that I didn’t enjoy this series is because of Bella. She frustrated me to no end. I could never understand her motivation behind her actions and it annoyed me like crazy. She was always the victim – always waiting on someone else to save her from herself and she only had one interest – Edward. Had she been a little more well-rounded, had more going on for her except how obsessed she is with her boyfriend and actually done something I may have liked her more. If she really hated Forks so much she could have gotten a scholarship somewhere and gone anywhere else. She could have gotten some interests and make a life for herself instead of being so down on everyone else for their life choices.

Ana Steele (Fifty Shades series by E.L. James) – because she was essentially Bella. Just slightly less annoying.

Harry Potter (circa. The Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowing) – He was just. So. ANGRY! For most of that book I wanted to sit him down and tell him to grow up and realize that the whole world is at war. He might be the saviour but being emo and egocentric is not the way to beat Death Eaters. {Also from this book – Dolores Umbridge. That witch is just cruel!}

Hannah (Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher) – I felt like Hannah was very selfish by sending out those tapes. I found myself getting frustrated with her for blaming people for her decision and at the same time potentially ruining their lives in the process.

Abby – and to a lesser extent, Travis – (Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire) – One definition of stupidity is to do the same thing over and over, changing nothing, but expecting different results. That is what these characters kept doing! They kept going in circles with nothing different but wanting things to end up happily ever after. And somehow things did… but I’m still wondering how that all worked out…
Side note: I’m still trying to work out if Pigeon Pidge is a sexy/cute nickname or if he’s implying she’s a disease ridden rodent….

Katniss (The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins) – Sometimes she seemed intelligent and awesome but other times she was just so incredibly frustrating and dense. {Could also include Tris from Divergent by Veronica Roth in this category).

Romeo and Juliet (from the Shakespeare play) – I hated this play when I had to read it in high school because I didn’t like the main characters. I thought they were frustratingly impulsive and stupid. I still think that although my love of the minor characters has removed this play from my hated book list.

Becky (Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella) – One of my favourite chicklit series but one of my most frustrating characters. I’m generally rather thrifty. I’d rather go without than go into debt. I think this is why Becky irritated me so much. She’d spend spend spent and then when she got into mountains of debt and got depressed she’d spend some more. I love reading her adventures despite knowing she’ll never change but she’s another one of those characters who don’t change their behaviour but expect things to be different in the future.

Anyone who appeared in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte – Secret confession? This is one of those books I LOVE to hate. The characters are so vile! For the longest time I couldn’t work out why anyone could like this book but I’ve grown to love how fantastically detestable Catherine and Heathcliff are. They’re selfish and willing to ruin others for their own gain… They’re frustrating. And yet I can’t help but admire their commitment to their own personal agendas.

Luce (from the Fallen series by Lauren Kate) – Characters who personally do stupid things frustrate me. I don’t care if they’re blinded by love or whatever other reason you can give. If they jump into situations blindly when they’re the only person who can save the world – that’s absolutely ridiculous. Her and her team of fallen angels put her in danger all the time because no one was thinking. One of those series where in between the over the top romance and the unintentionally almost sacrificing the saviour every few chapters I just wanted to throw the book across the room.

14 Comments

  1. I hated Umbridge too. She made my list. I’m seeing a lot of Romeo and Juliet and that surprises me. While neither are particularly strong or admirable, it’s important to remember that–despite our contemporary Hollywood renditions–in the original play Juliet was thirteen years old, and Romeo just a year or two older. The reason they don’t deal very well is the same reason thirteen year olds shouldn’t marry–they can’t handle it! I didn’t mind the characters in the least because I saw it as a realistic depiction of what would happen in that situation with kids that age. Great list!
    My TTT. Happy Tuesday! 😀

  2. i think what annoyed me most about Becky is no matter how deep a hole she managed to dig herself into financially, somehow, someone would swoop in and SAVE HER FROM IT. She never really learned any lesson about money, because…well, something happened to fix the problem for her.

    • Agreed. She never really had to face any long term consequences as there was always someone to bail her out when things got too bad. Thanks for visiting 🙂

    • The thing is – in some ways they were kind of like a car crash. Awful but somehow I just couldn’t stop myself from reading more just to see if there would be any survivors of if everything would go up in flames…

Leave a Reply to Angelica @ Paperback Princess Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.