Do characters have to be likable for a book to be "good"? Lit Theory 101 tells us they don't—insert obligatory references to Confederacy of Dunces, Lolita, etc.—yet the most common criticism I read on Goodreads or other book review sites is that "the characters weren't likable." Whaddaya think, my bookish friends?

Definitely not! I mean, Heathcliff hanged a dog (which is about as unlikeable as you can get) and is still considered a romantic ideal. But I see that all the time on goodreads too...maybe the characters have to be likeable for a book to be popular, not necessarily good. (I'm sure there are examples that disprove this too, but oh well.)

One of my all time favorite books, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" has an especially unlikeable protagonist--blue-blood murderer, Jim Williams--and I have read that book more times than I care to admit. A protagonist with whom you can identify and empathize is always helpful, but I tend to enjoy the conflict and tension created by not liking your character, and kind of rooting against them. Does that make me a masochist?

I also like books with unlikable but fascinating characters. I wonder, though, as popularity and online reviews become more and more a determining factor in what gets published, whether authors will feel anxious about writing an unlikable character. In the era of Amazon reviews and likes, can you afford to write Heathcliff?

Ultimately we read to be entertained. So when a character shows signs of being the kind of person we'd be bored by in real life (usually because they're wet, annoying, bland, full of hot air or 2-dimensional, rather than because they're good/bad) then I tend to think that's when the 'not likeable' complaints will kick in.

So Ellen - I think you've landed on it with the word 'fascinating'... It's not about nice/nasty. Because if a character is awful but amazingly so, then they can become fascinating for that.

How else to explain the hugely successful Dexter novels by Jeff Lindsay - not to mention the Golden Globe-winning TV series? Because IMHO Dexter makes Heathcliff seem like a sweetheart...