Monday, March 31, 2014

A to Z - A (2014)

I'm doing the A to Z Blogging Challenge this year. The basic idea is to blog nearly daily with each day representing a different letter of the alphabet. My entries will be short and book-related.  


A is for...
Antagonist!

If you've read my reviews, you know how important it is to me that I'm able to connect with one or more of the main characters. I need to understand them, care about them, preferably find some way to relate to them so I can empathize and invest in their situation.

So what about the antagonist? 

Well, lately, a lot of the books I've read have been more about personal struggle than a clear villain. And those that have had them - I'm thinking of you Full-Blood Half-Breed - have had antagonists that I want to root for, to some degree. When I'm able to empathize with the villain, I know I'm guaranteed an emotional and exciting story.

Antagonists have to be motivated by something that I can comprehend, that seems logical even if I don't agree with it on a moral/ethical level. If I can at least see their point-of-view while disagreeing with their methods, then there's so much more tension in the book.

Who are your favourite literary antagonists? 


2 comments:

  1. Ooo, Antagonist! Good "A" choice. I've never thought about who my favorite antagonist would be. I can't think of a book related one, but a favorite from the TV series Alias was a character named Sark. We loved it when he came on! It's been awhile, but I think we liked him so much was because sometimes he was "good" (less bad?) and you never knew which side of him you'd get.

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  2. I don't think I've ever thought about my favorite antagonist. Of course, lately all of the books I've read have been for the 10 and under crowd, so there's not a lot to choose from. LOL

    BTW, you might want to disable CAPTCHA for comments, especially for the AtoZ challenge.

    TaMara
    AJ's AtoZ wHooligan
    Tales of a Pee Dee Mama

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