NOT ONLY does everyone love a villain, but they also love to hate the villain. Some villains have over-the-top yet wonderfully malevolent personalities; other times, their evil persona is cold, controlled, and calculated. If a writer can make their villainous character, or characters, more than two dimensional, the reading audience will embrace their wickedness as it is pivotal to their enjoyment of the story. After all, heroes are only as good, only as interesting, as their nemeses.
But what happens when a novel’s protagonist is thought of as a villain by the reader? And why would they do that? Because they act villainously. They deride, manipulate, dismantle, and destroy. If the antagonist is made clear, does having the protagonist act terribly, even reprehensibly, towards others create a problem? Or does it make for a more complex, rewarding journey for the reader? Is understanding how a seemingly vile person is supposed to be the one to root for the very thing that creates the “wow factor” in the story? Do protagonists have to act virtuously? Is being an anti-hero valid?
In Vindictive, Jules Cartell is not the villain. Still, as they navigate the novel, readers have reached out to me, commenting on how much of a B-word she is. Some have even wished for her death due to her cruelty toward others, especially Phillip, her husband. (Everyone feels sorry for Phillip!) I always have to say, Keep reading! What is projected —visible—is not always indisputable truth.
Is Jules a terrible person? Sometimes. Okay, often, even admitting it to Phillip, the main target of her vengeful wrath—but there is a reason for everything. Maybe more than one.
Jules’s readiness and capability to humiliate and dominate anyone in her way, anyone who has wronged her, makes me love this character. I love her fortitude, intelligence, and desire to win no matter the effort, no matter the sacrifice. With only days remaining in a careful sequence of events that will ensure Jules’s sole dominance of Cartell Worldwide and gain her the revenge she seeks against her husband and his family, will her actions and revelations alter the reader’s perception of her?
In Vindictive, I hope I have been effective in my conscious attempt to shift the reader’s initial perceptions of Jules over the story’s arc. Is she cruel by nature, or is this a byproduct of crimes perpetrated against her? Is Jules genuinely unlikeable, or are we simply uncomfortable with the vicious intensity of her drive for success against any opposition?
As the story heads for its climax, I know the reader will want Jules to survive and conquer. You still may not like her, but you will root for her to win.
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