Top Ten Tuesday – Characters I Love to Hate

By Rachel
Top Ten Tuesday Characters I Love To Hate

Top Ten Characters I Love to Hate (Who Need A Good Slap)

Figuratively speaking, of course. I don’t advocate violence but I’m sure others have felt this way too – you can read a book and love it, but there will always be those annoying or horrible characters that we all love to hate, and who really need a good ole’ fashioned slap round the back of the head, you just itch to reach in between the pages and deliver them a head-smack.

Dolores Umbridge1. Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter: I hate Dolores Umbridge. I’m not alone in this, right? I hate her more than He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, more than Bellatrix Lestrange (just about, I mean Lestrange did kill Sirius after all) and I hate her more than Severus Snape (before “always”, back when we thought he was a slimy, mean coward). It was very clever of J K Rowling to create a character who could be hated more than the actual villain. I’m pretty sure I let out a scream for joy when this cat-loving fiend finally got her comeuppance.

2. Jude McGregor from Noughts and Crosses: A recent reread of this series has refreshed my hatred for Jude McGregor; the terrorist brother of Callum McGregor, and the leader of the Liberation Militia in the Noughts and Crosses world. This evil and messed up man is responsible for so much loss, misery, and tragedy in this series and you can’t help but dislike him.

Peter Divergent3/4. Peter and Caleb from Divergent: I still haven’t seen the movie yet (so aside from the fact that this is not the Peter I had in my head at all) I think Peter is one of my most hated characters in this series. He’s just such a cowardly turn-coat and you never know which side he is on, you can never tell what his ulterior motives are and he’s just a horrible person. As for Caleb, I didn’t connect with his character in the books and don’t think I’m going to care much for him in the movie adaptation either. Divergent had quite a few characters that needed a good slap come to think of it…

5/6. President Snow and President Coin from The Hunger Games: I doubt these characters need much of an introduction. I think I actually dislike President Coin more than Snow. Snow was evil and power-hungry and he didn’t try to hide it, but Coin manipulated those involved in the rebellion so she could rise to power herself, and she was responsible for the demise of Primrose Everdeen. Enough said.

Amy Dunne Gone Girl7. Amy Dunne from Gone Girl: I just can’t fathom this character, I mean WHAT?! By the middle of Gone Girl I hated this woman, she was psychotic, she was evil and twisted, and was in dire need of a really good slap! So much evil plotting, and confusion and in some cases just downright crazy emanated from this character. She gives bunny boilers a bad name.

8. Margo Roth Spiegelman from Paper Towns: I’m preparing for the backlash, it’s OK, I’m ready for it… I didn’t rate Paper Towns that highly (you can read my review here), it wasn’t what I was expecting and I think it’s over-rated. There, I said it. But I think a lot of my frustrations about this book are directly related to my dislike of Margo Roth Spiegelman. She seems selfish, needy and melo-dramatic. She causes scenes, she gets on my nerves and at the end of it ALL she has no proper, legit explanations for anything. Just no.

9/10. Valentine and Sebastian from The Mortal Instruments: Again, this is a series with quite a few characters I love to hate, but obviously the main ones are the deadly duo Valentine and Sebastian. Of course, they have to be evil and do all of the horrible things they do or The Mortal Instruments would be a pretty dull story, which is why I love to hate them, but they keep messing with Clary and Jace’s love affair!

11. Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire: While I also had numerous problems with Stanley, for some reason I really disliked Blanche right from the start, her false sense of proprietary and snobbery, and her using of Mitch, made her a difficult character to like, though I did feel sympathy for her and her downfall by the end of the play.

This list was supposed to be ten until I remembered Blanche and had to include her. Tell me which characters you love to hate? Are they ever redeemable?

About Rachel

Avid reader & #bookblogger. Lover of all things business. A fan of drinks & dancing. Ever optimistic. Feminist.

18 Responses

    1. Rachel

      Umbridge has to be the ultimate love to hate character ever! It’s strange to have different topics for a TTT, usually I like to see what others have written based on the same topic! Thanks for commenting, will go check out your list!

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    2. Rachel

      Ahh I just watched Misery for the first time last night!! (Have never read the book) She definitely would make my list, how crazy! Funny at times, but crazy!

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      1. Selah at A Bibliophile's Style

        It is a little strange to have different topics, but it’s fun to see what everyone comes up with.
        The movie Misery was really well done and stuck pretty close to the book. The film toned the hobbling scene down, if you can believe it!

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      2. Rachel

        I had a discussion with someone yesterday about movie adaptations and if they are ever as good as, or better than, the book. I’ve never seen one that is better but I’ve seen some that are very well done, and I wondered how a horror/gruesome scene like that would translate – I think in that case seeing it visually is much more effective, I was watching through my fingers by that point! I have never read the books for movies like Forrest Gump, The Green Mile and Breakfast at Tiffany’s – those are the ones I imagine have done a pretty stellar job.

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      4. Rachel

        Oh dear, I’ve never read any Stephen King, that is a genre I haven’t really touched but I’m beginning to see why he is so renowned if he can write scenes like that! I definitely warmed to Holly in the movie, rough quote – “It should take four seconds to cross from here to the door, I’ll give you two.” I loved that line, it’s been a while since I’ve seen it so that may not be completely accurate, but she did frustrate me a little towards the end. I can imagine an original written version of her would be whiny and unlikable though! I might actually try the book, I also wasn’t aware it was by Capote until recently.

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      5. Selah at A Bibliophile's Style

        Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a novella, so it’s a very quick read. The copy I read included another Capote story, A Christmas Memory. I remember my mother reading me that story when I was little. I was shocked that Capote wrote it!

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    1. Rachel

      I left a comment on another blog that I was actually going to title this Characters Who Need A Slap, but that it became more of a love-to-hate, because I want to slap whiny characters, and idiots who don’t realise someone is into them until the end of the book when it is completely obvious. That’s a separate post right there!

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  3. caitlinstern

    I didn’t much like Margo, either. But I don’t think we were supposed to. She’s that perfect, popular, quirky girl stereotype turned on its head. I also wanted to smack her.

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  6. Seven Deadly Sins Tag |

    […] I don’t really have a love/hate relationship with authors as much as I do books and characters. The book that stands out to me as a love-to-hate-read at the minute is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. You can also check out the Top Ten Characters I Love to Hate here. […]

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