Thanks 🙂 You’re right about compelling characters. If a story is only about nice people, are they likeable and compelling?! Also I do like morally grey characters as they are more realistic.

Thanks! Yes you do make sense 😀 There are some things that are maybe not traditional ‘likeable’ qualities but which make the character interesting and you’re invested in what’s going to happen to them.

Interesting insights, thank you! I know what you mean about caring for the characters. I think it’s very skillful when writers can make you care about characters that you don’t actually like. Moreover, I prefer some realism in characters and pretty much everyone in real life has unlikeable qualities!

Agreed, reads should be memorable.

Interesting points, thank you. I prefer to think of hanging out with writing styles I like, rather than the characters. Memorable characters are not necessarily likeable, of course… and I like my reads to be memorable.

You’re right, sympathetic and likeable are not really the same thing. Thanks for reading 🙂

Great points! It’s interesting that you mentioned sense of distrust – I think if the author intends you to trust a character they are going to make them more likeable and vice versa.