Why Side Characters Matter

  Have you ever had a book where you wanted to stab the main character to death or push them off the cliff, yet you love one of the secondary characters? Maybe you wished and pleaded for the side character to be the main character of the book. If you have ever felt that way,  you understand the importance of side or secondary characters. There have been a few books where I either disliked or hated the main character , but a side character keep me reading and keep me from chucking the book across the room in a fit of rage. For example, I happen to dislike Harry Potter, yes you read that right. There are are a lot of reasons  why he gets on my nerves, which I won't go into now since that could be its own rant. The fact of the matter is, if Harry was the only character of the book I probably wouldn't read or enjoy the series as much as I do. While  he isn't a character that I want to chuck off a cliff or stab , he is one that drives me up a wall sometimes. The Hunger Games was yet another book where the main character annoyed me. I really don't like Katniss for some reason that I really can't pinpoint, but I love the books.I happen to like Cinna the best and Gale brought up a close second. I just fell in love with their characters.
     Finally, another main character I hate is Bella Swan from the Twilight novels. Unlike Harry I really want to push Bella off a cliff. Her inner monologues, constant whining and idealizing Edward drove me crazy. If Bella and Edward were the only characters of the books, I never would have finished any of them. Lucky for me, Meyer created one character that I liked:Jasper. I happen to really like his character for whatever reason. I actually liked the parts he was in and enjoyed reading his back story. I still only gave the novel 2 stars on goodreads, but his parts were what saved it from being a zero for me.The main point of this is that I have come to realize and accept that  I am not meant to like every main character in a book and I like it that way. Even if I don't relate to the main character and even if I hate them, if the author did their job by least trying to create somewhat interesting side characters, I will probably still like or even love  the book.