Love to Hate Them: Books with Unlikable Main CharactersLike this list

16 items

• Gone Girl

  a Novel

  Flynn, Gillian, 1971-

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  A marriage implodes into a media frenzy and a psychological cage match. Twisty, toxic, and impossible to stop.

• My Year of Rest and Relaxation

  Moshfegh, Ottessa,

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  A privileged, depressed narrator tries to “opt out” of life via an extreme sleep experiment. Darkly funny, brutally detached, oddly compelling.

• You

  a Novel

  Kepnes, Caroline, 1976-

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  A charming narrator who is absolutely not charming once you realize what he’s doing. A creepy, addictive ride inside obsession.

• American Psycho

  Ellis, Bret Easton,

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  A slick satire of status, consumerism, and emptiness… starring a narrator you should not invite anywhere. Very explicit and not for the faint of stomach.

• The Secret History

  a Novel

  Tartt, Donna,

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  Elite students, dark academia vibes, and a slow moral collapse that feels elegant right up until it doesn’t. Beautifully written bad decisions.

• Notes on An Execution

  a Novel

  Kukafka, Danya,

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  A man on death row, and the women connected to his life. Tense, unsettling, and more psychologically sharp than “likable.”

• Tampa

  Nutting, Alissa

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  A narrator doing unforgivable things while insisting she’s the victim. Heavy content (sexual abuse) and meant to horrify, not romanticize.

• The Girl on the Train

  Hawkins, Paula,

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  Unreliable narrator meets obsession meets a mystery you can’t solve because nobody is telling the truth (including themselves).

• A Certain Hunger

  a Novel

  Summers, Chelsea G., 1962-

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  A cultured food critic with appetites that go way beyond dinner. Dark, outrageous, and very not-for-everyone.

• Eileen

  Moshfegh, Ottessa,

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  A bleak, simmering character study that slides into a “what is happening” crime spiral. Grim, tense, and weirdly hypnotic.

• The Catcher in the Rye

  Salinger, J. D. (Jerome David), 1919-2010,

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  Holden Caulfield is the original “I hate everything” narrator—raw, funny, and still divisive for a reason.

• The Bell Jar

  Plath, Sylvia,

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  A brilliant, biting voice spiraling through depression and disconnection. Classic, sharp, and emotionally heavy.

• The Plot

  Korelitz, Jean Hanff, 1961-

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  A jealous writer steals a story idea… and then reality starts acting like it read the book first. Meta, twisty, satisfyingly smug.

• Luster

  a Novel

  Leilani, Raven,

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  A young woman makes messy choices in a messy life, and the honesty is the point. Sharp, funny, and painfully real.

• Nightbitch

  Yoder, Rachel, 1978-

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  Motherhood as body-horror comedy: a woman suspects she’s turning into a dog, and honestly? relatable. Wild, bold, and cathartic.

• The Paper Palace

  Cowley Heller, Miranda,

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  A summer weekend detonates secrets, desire, and long-buried damage. Emotionally tense, morally complicated, and very “you’re yelling at the page.”