Top Ten Tuesday: Characters We Liked From Books We Didn't

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl
This week we're discussing characters we enjoyed that were in books we did not like

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Alexia's Picks

I struggled a lot with this category because I am very character driven and it's hard for me to find books where I liked a character in the book, but disliked the actual book itself. So my list is tiny. Like insanely tiny.

1. Liv from After the Woods.
Okay, so I'm borderline obsessed with this girl. She had a lot more to do with what happened to Julia than anyone ever realized. I'm a sucker for the manipulative girl and she had her manipulation game down pat. She manipulated everyone around her and that made her far more complex than she seemed initially.


2. The Stranger Game

Okay, so I actually liked both siblings in this book, so that's a rare thing right there. Love how complex they were. There was a lot I didn't like about the book, but the sisters were not part of that. My dislike of the book came from leaving a lot of unanswered questions and despite me liking the sisters, there wasn't a whole lot of character development with them.

Bekka's Picks

I struggled a lot with this category because if I don't like a book it's almost always because I dislike the characters. But I did mange to find a small handful, so let's talk about it.

1. Sasha from This Darkness MineI don't even know how I actually feel about This Darkness Mine. This book was kind of insane and I can't pin down my thoughts on it at all. Did I like it? I don't know. Did I hate it? I also don't know. So. One thing I DO know, though, is I loved Sasha. She's a hot mess of a girl and I live for characters like her. She's "perfect" but also very, very bad. I think I may have to reread just to try to understand.

2. Wes from Us
This whole book annoyed me because the entire plot was built upon miscommunications and Jamie acting out of character. But at least Wes was acting like his normal adorable, charming self.

3. Aedion from Empire of StormsAedion is the ONLY one in this whole pile of flaming dog shit that was acting like himself. Everyone else was disgusting and the total opposite of how SJM had characterized them in previous books. Aedion was the only one with a head on his shoulders, the only one with clear goals and solutions, the only one to question Aelin when she was acting like an entire bag of dicks. I love him and would kill for him.

4. Dee from Open Road SummerI don't particularly remember LOVING Dee, but I remember HATING Reagan and that's enough to add Dee to the list. She's a country megastar and Reagan's best friend. I loved the friendship. But the rest of the book was a steaming bag of slut shaming, girl hating trash.

5. The Darkling from Shadow and Bone
I never thought of him as a viable love interest; it seemed clear from the beginning who Alina would end up with. (And tbh they deserve each other ugh.) But the Darkling was the most interesting character in this entire series. (I'd have Nikolai on here, but I actually liked S&S. Probably because of him.) Alina is honestly soooo boring, SO BORING. But at least the Darkling had some depth and some suprises up his sleeves. And some actual motivation other than being thrust into this conflict without warning. 

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Are there any characters you liked despite disliking the book they were in? Let us know in the comments!