There’s a maxim in writing, that readers like to read about characters who are as good as they are, or a little better. ‘Good’ can be defined in a few different ways- no one expects a villain to be morally good, but if they’re competent, that’ll do the trick. And some people like to read about genuinely good characters, hence the popularity of Superman and Captain America.

Unfortunately, it’s not always true. Or possibly, there’s a group of people in the publishing industry who are trying to make it not-true. Because there’s a genre out there that seems designed for people who want to read about characters that are pretty darned horrible. ‘Dark pseudo-biography’ is the best descriptor I can come up with- sing out in the comments if you’ve come across a better one. These are stories that follow a person through her life- usually it’s a female- through a bunch of really dark and depressing stuff, usually involving addiction, violence, sexual violence, problems with family and/or children; until eventually, she wakes up through the miracle of plot and leaves it all behind to have a peaceful existence on a beach somewhere, having left a bunch of wreckage behind but saved herself.

I’ve only read a couple of this type of book; each time, I picked them up by accident, then it was like a train wreck- really hard to look away even though it’s awful to see. But apparently they’re incredibly popular- or, again, someone’s putting a lot of effort into making them appear popular. And each time I finish one of these atrocities, I ask myself, ‘who wants to write this, and who actually pays money to read about this?’

Assuming that people like to read about characters who are as good or a little better than themselves, there’s a lot of really horrible people in the world. Hopefully-?- there’s a cohort of people who don’t fall into that category, and would prefer to read about not-good people in worse circumstances than themselves.

I can see some appeal- if you’re feeling down, reading about someone who’s even worse off, but manages to have a happy ending, no matter how contrived, could feel like a relief. I usually start rooting for all the characters to die, but not everyone’s like me.

My latest excursion into this genre was a doorstopper- someone gave it to me; I wouldn’t pay money for this- about a woman who married a small-time thug that became a big-time thug in the Anglo-Irish mob. The whole thing was a multi-generational mess of abuse, violence, and addiction, and judging from the blurbs for some of the author’s other books, she has mommy issues. The male characters aren’t good people by any means, but the women are an insidious mess of ickiness who screw up their lives, make bad decisions, and sometimes come out on top, because the plot says they have to.

These literary train-wrecks hit a little harder than I expected, because one of my WIPs is about a female character who goes through some pretty gnarly stuff and eventually gets a happy ending. With any luck, no one will ever read it and compare it to anything in these ‘dark pseudo-biographies’ I find so cringe-inducing.

For heaven’s sake, people, I’m begging you: don’t do it. A story can pack an emotional punch without being slimy. Write about characters that don’t make you or your readers want shower after every chapter. Not every character has to be Captain America, and it takes real skill to make a character like that interesting, but let them be about as good, or a little better, than a normal person.