Playing the sympathy card. How's that working for you?

[Lisarenee]

Has anyone else noticed the trend of authors to use characters that were once deemed evil/irredeemable and getting readers to love them? For example, Richelle Mead does it with a Succubus in her Georgina Kincaid series, Jenna Black does it with demons in her Morgan Kingsley series, and I'm sure there are many more out there I haven't mentioned. The authors try to get you to see the "person" behind/inside the "monster", so to speak, and in a way lure you into sympathizing with them. So the question I pose to all of you is what do you think of this new trend? Do you love it, hate it, or are you wavering somewhere in between? Plus, is it really a new at all or are we just seeing an old trend coming back from the dead?

[Sans]

I can't speak on specifics since I haven't read many of these paranormal stories, but I do like the idea. I don't think it's new though. I see it as basically a "redeeming the bad boy" storyline. Here's a character who everyone should dislike/fear/hate but it usually just takes the right person to either make him turn his game around or show the world (and usually the bad boy) just what an amazing person he really is.

[Stacy]

I think Charlaine Harris did that with Eric in her Sookie books. He started out as a "monster" but now he has a huge following of people who want him and Sookie to be together (on TV in addition to being together in the books).

[Sans]

I agree, Stacy. I can only relate as far as the first five books (stopped reading after that and haven't watched more than five or six episodes of True Blood), but Eric never made any pretensions about what he wanted and he was perfectly happy to be as devious as necessary to reach his goals, no apologies along the way. She also turned Bill into a d-bag (in my opinion anyway), so that helped build Team Eric up a lot I think. It's easier to like a character who's "bad" and is up front about it than a "nice guy" that lies to your face. Again, things may have changed in the recent books that I don't know about.

[Stacy]

His character definately evolves more in the later books. He sort of makes a transition from bad guy to good guy along the way.

[Heather]

Bill was always up to something but I think at some point, he really did fall in love with Sookie. As for Eric, Eric is always out for himself, granted he will help out those who can help him out. Sookie is always into men she can't read, that helps her try to live a normal life. Granted, this is just my take. The show is nothing like the books, let's get that clear cause even though I love the show, I hate Alan Ball who is f****** everything up!

I am Team Eric cause well, he's Eric. And yes, hopefully if Ball does his job right (see words above) Eric and Sookie will hook up as they did in book 4.

[Sashana]

For the most part, I like the sympathy card; I'm all about redemption. Yes, at times it can become annoying because nobody wants to sit there and listen to someone complain about their lives-fictional or not. But I think playing on a reader's sympathy allows us to connect with characters more because who wants to sit and read about a perfect character in a perfect world?

[Lauren]

Sashana wrote: "For the most part, I like the sympathy card; I'm all about redemption. Yes, at times it can become annoying because nobody wants to sit there and listen to someone complain about their lives-fictio..."

I agree Sashana. Sometimes it is a bit annoying because it's sort of like, "Ok, I have enough of this everyday. Do I really need it now?" I like the realisitc fiction genre because you tend to read about a lot of people who are in difficult situation. From reading a book you can learn how to deal with these situations and also to make the best of it. I got into a long dicussion with a teacher about this last year, via email, and it is very interesting to hear others' feedback. Feel free to share your feelings on this. I am very curious.

[Danielle The Book Huntress]

The redemption storyline is a favorite of mine. We are all humans and flawed. It's nice to know that we can get second chances and that people can change. That's why I like the theme so much.