You ever just hate characters so much that you are glad when they die?

This is the 14th book in a series so I can’t really review it without explaining everything but here’s what’s pertinent for this discussion.

  • Mary is a caretaker ghost for many generations of a family
  • That family is mostly made up of people who work with supernatural creatures
  • The last book in the series was the first from Mary’s POV. This is the second.

There was a character, Jane, in the story who was a secondary character at best. By her own choice she didn’t do field work. She mostly sat at home and was angry at life. She was mad that her mother went off to do a very complicated manhunt for most of her life – leaving her to be raised by an aunt. She grew into a very hateful and bitter woman. She wasn’t a big part of the story until book 13 when she decided to go out on a mission. She was promptly shot and killed. I was thrilled. She was so whiny and entitled and complaining all the time that I couldn’t handle her. She was mad that her mother left and then was mad that her mother accomplished her life long goal and was back home. She was literally mad at everything. I hated her. I was so glad to see the back of her.

The problem was that she had two kids. Her daughter, Elsie, had also been a secondary character in this sprawling family saga. Now, in book 14, Installment Immortality, we are dealing with Elsie’s grief after her mother’s death and let me say, she’s her mother’s daughter. She’s insufferable.

At the end of book 13, Mary was in an explosion that basically disintegrated her. The spirit of the world put her back together but it took 6 months. When she got back home did everyone jump up and down and yell excitedly that she was back? Nope, no one under 30 at least. They were all furious that she had left them alone for 6 months. I’d’ve walked out on those ungrateful, spoiled little brats at that point. They didn’t ask how she was, what had happened, or how she was feeling. They just started yelling at her about being gone.

Then this horrible Elsie girl starts in on her about being mad at Mary because Mary didn’t force her mother to remain as a ghost in the house. Elsie said that if her mother truly loved her she would never have passed on after she died. She would have stayed as a ghost so her daughter wouldn’t have been left alone. This is not the ravings of a 7 year old. This is a grown woman in her 20s who needs a good slap across her face and to be told to get over herself. Talk about someone who literally believes that the lives and deaths of everyone revolves around them.

I was hoping she got killed for the entire book. I really like Mary as a character but since she basically raised this brat I’m starting to doubt her competency as a caretaker. I’d like to get back to characters who are tough and good at their jobs and aren’t whiny now please.