The Journey of Characters

A positive for me as a lifelong reader is that I'm ahead of my reading goal for the year. If you just read 'reading goal' with an eye roll, I thought it that way myself. This is my second year with some kind of arbitrary goal, brought up by the site Goodreads. My goal so far is to aim for a minimum of two to three new-to-me books a month and I'm already on book 26 for the year. 

Before I added my 26th book to my currently reading list, my attention caught on a review for a book I'd read several years ago - the first entry of an urban fantasy series. I am doing a quick reread of the series in preparation of reading the four most recently published books (which are new-to-me). The reviewer gave the book two stars and complained about how much she disliked the heroine. 

I wasn't bothered by the rating or review, but I was struck by the reason she disliked the character as a kind of vital reason that character existed, at least to my analysis. In a potentially gritty and action packed world, a pretty girl with low general life ambition maybe doesn't have the best life expectancy. And yet as the first book (and then series) progresses, you experience her evolution. A hero's journey. 

My second thought from this character-based dislike is that this kind of character, in my humble way of thinking, tends to act as the safe gateway for 'regular' people to find themselves suspending disbelief and more fully immersing themselves in the story. A flawed guide who makes stumbling into a strange world perfectly accessible. Why yes, I'd puke my last three lunches up if I saw a man's face get eaten in an alley, too.

I'm all for warrior queens (or any variation of strong female characters), and yeah aimless characters who just get by tend not to do it for me in general - except there is an entire drive to want to see how people, how characters, evolve into what they're capable of. If you're writing off the character who cries over cutting her perfect blonde hair (and believe me, if that's the extent of the emotional depth I'm out, too) then you're probably going to miss her disemboweling a creature and feasting on it's wriggling flesh to heal a mortal wound. Or...something. 

The reviewer's complaints were all totally valid. I didn't much like this character either. At first. If she lamented about her matching outfit and lip gloss one more time I was going to lose it. But it didn't last. Her life becomes a series of thresholds that change everything about herself. What a shame the reviewer didn't take the journey to see that girls with pretty pink nail polish and white capri pants and sandals can become more. That anyone can become more.