Question for general dark romance readers > Likes and Comments
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Two things that stand out about this character and redeeming him for me, as a reader with a LOT of dark books on my resume...feeding his enemies to his dog, and abusing his wife.I am not sure how you can redeem either of those two things without some background trama. I am not sure what books you are talking about, so I don't know if I have read them, doubt it because I would have remembered the dog feeding.
As for redeeming characters that were beyond redemption in general, that is a hard answer. I have read books where I was totally OK with an impossible to like MMC finally becoming a more likable character and one I could live with. But that hasn't happened often. Because, and this is a big one, that is a really hard thing to do and make it believable, relatable and emotional for the reader after they (me) have had so much dislike/hate for a character.
It is possible. I have an author who I think is going to try to do this. I am not sure if she is, but either way, about half of her readers are going to love it and half are going to hate it. It's been an on-going debate on her FB page for the last few years (yeah, that's another issue) while we have been waiting for the final book. But this is a five book series, and he has been the "villian" MMC the whole way through. So we will see.
It might be somewhat easier if it's a secondary character that is now being redeemed, but still an uphill battle I would think.
One of my characters has been a side character throughout my series. To date he has indulged in non con S&M, tortured rather a lot of people, fed his enemies to his dog and abused his wife. He's openly sadistic with no trauma in his background. However I'm thinking of attempting the impossible and redeeming this character in a later book.
My question is- would a character like this be too much for you to stomach in a redeemed villain character arc? Do some characters just go beyond the boundaries of what can be redeemed? Or do you think even the most evil figures in books deserve their HEA?