“Sometimes I think I don’t like him very much.” Lara shrugged. “Hate away. I’ve hated Renee for over a year now, I think. Doesn’t mean I don’t love her.” “Isn’t that a contradiction?” “Nope. Apathy is incompatible with hate. Love works okay.”
When I signed with my first agent, it was with a manuscript that ultimately didn’t sell. One thing that stood out to me, though, was one day she called me to discuss a new ending scene I’d written, and she said she found it really powerful that the villain’s comeuppance was that the hero turned apathetic towards them, a person they’d once called their close friend. My agent said she believed apathy was a lot more gutting than hate, because hate is passionate, and it takes energy. If you hate someone, you’re invested in them. There’s still power there. You can hate someone and also love them, at different moments, or even simultaneously, but you can’t hate someone while also feeling nonchalance. I really loved that observation, and I included this line as a nod to that original theme, a sort of in-joke between my agent and me. I think there’s a lot of truth in the take.
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