Name some protagonists in books that frustrated you the most
Posted on 11th of November, 2019

Answers

Christopher Johnson McCandless. He is the protagonist of Into the Wild from Jon Krakauer and I've honestly never been more frustrated with any character ever. I get that McCandless was a real person who really young due to no doubt the stupid decisions that he made, but reading how it all happened is jsut so frustrating. He appears to have been one of those people who just was not capable of making good decisions even when given sound advice and that is endlessly frustrating to someone like me. It's really tragic how it all played out, but I can honestly say I was not surprised that "Supertramp" didn't make it.
I'm still not sure if I'm more frustrated by Katniss Everdeen or Suzanne Collins for how the character was portrayed in Mockinjay. The entire book just depressed me as I watched Katniss slide further into madness and despair.

Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange isn't very likeable either, but I suppose that was the point of the book.

Nick Caraway is a pretty frustrating character too. I enjoyed The Great Gatsby as a whole, but just never really liked Nick as a narrator.

And finally, my most controversial choice, Daenerys Targaryen from A Song of Ice and Fire. The way she becomes more pompous the more power she gains just rubs me the wrong way.
Not so much frustrated, but rather disappointed by Shadow Moon from American Gods. He was just the blandest person ever, which is even more frustrating because every single other character in the book is so interesting. I've read interviews with Neil Gaiman where he says that this is intentional so that readers could picture themselves in the role, but it just didnt' work for me.
Quentin Coldwater from The magicians by Lev Grossman. Quentin is such a miserable character that I actually had trouble even finishing this book. There is a reason for him being so insufferable, but it makes the story very hard to read. I can appreciate the fact that Grossman wanted to make the protagonist someone who you initially hate, but can actually relate to, but still. He is just one of those characters who became more annoying to me the further I got in the book.

Another one is Beatrice Prior from the Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth. I suppose I should not have watched the movies before I read the books, but I thought that reading the stories might make Tris more likeable. Instead, she just ended up annoying me even more than the characters in the movies.

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