I recently read All the Ugly and Wonderful Things, by Bryn Greenwood and it kind of blew me away. It was uncomfortable, and challenging. It is really hard to say that I loved it, but I did.
I have not one thing in common with the characters, but I cared about them deeply. Their lives were completely foreign to me, but utterly real. There were moments so wrenching that I had to look away, but I found the book to be so compelling that I couldn’t put it down. That’s good writing.
For a character-driven story to succeed, you have to believe in the characters, whether you like them or not. I worried that some of the characters in The Truth About Parallel Lines might be judged as “bad” — bad people who had done bad things. I hoped that readers would like them, care about them, root for them. But it was more important to me that they be real, and that means they are sometimes selfish, or weak, or dishonest. Flawed, just like the rest of us. The truth is, I love them all. (Except Mara. I mostly wanted to smack her.)
Someone sent me a note yesterday, filled with all sorts of nice things about the book. They said that they found all of the characters to be “fascinating and engaging, except that bitch, Beth”.
Really? That’s funny, because Beth might actually be my favorite…
