The Likeability of Unlikeable Characters: a Current Craze in Fiction

From Gone Girl to Girl on a Train, millions of readers evince a fascination with unlikable heroines and heroes. Is this a demonstration of the human need to watch a train wreck? Or is there something deeper going on--a dynamic that says we are all flawed and want to see such nuances and shades of gray reflected in our fiction?

Holly Brown is a practicing marriage and family therapist as well as a novelist. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and daughter.

LS Hawker grew up in suburban Denver, indulging her worrisome obsession with true-crime books, and writing stories about anthropomorphic fruit and juvenile delinquents. She's got a hilarious, supportive husband, two brilliant daughters, and a massive music collection

Amy Stuart completed her first novel, Still Mine, as the thesis project for her MFA in Creative Writing. It was an instant bestseller in Canada and will be released in the US in July. She lives in Toronto with her husband and three children.

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