Top Ten Tuesday: top ten characters with to little common sense

Top Ten characters I wish had better decision making skills

Not all characters are created equal guys. That’s perfectly fine! Flawless characters would be more boring than the average Monday morning. But . . . some characters clearly got more stats put into their charisma than their common sense.

Rory Deveaux from the Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

                A genius this girl ain’t. Sorry Rory I think you’re alright but gosh you’re a bit slow. ‘Oh Mr. Policeman you’d like me to not tell anybody about a potentially case-cracking detail I saw. Excuse me while I go and spill my guts to the nearest pushy reporter’. 

Come on lady, The police could get ahead of the murder if you’d just kept your mouth shut! Except no harm done this time around because the serial killer was an invisible ghost.

Lex from Croak by Gina Damico

                I know that she had some freaky/possibly-magical anger management issue but I have to wonder what, if anything, was going through this chick’s head during this book. All her decisions seemed to be made purely out of spite or pure rage or sometimes no reason whatsoever. 

I just . . . don’t get her.

Marshall Seaver from The Light by D. J. MacHale

                Darling, here’s a tip. If you’re being stalked by a freakish nightmare ghost/monster/thing who can scare the pants off you but otherwise . . . do absolutely nothing maybe you should try not freaking out every single time.

 He literally can’t do anything to you man! All the damage and hurt you have experienced have been your own fault! Quit jumping out windows to avoid the vaguely creepy illusion maker!

Everybody in Starflight by Melissa Landers

                I was never a big a fan of this book. But even if I’d had been I don’t think the crew of this ship would have gotten many points for their cleverness. One of the main characters spends half the narrative with almost comical memory loss. 

The other is an otherwise brilliant mechanic who can’t problem solve for crap when the pressure is on. I’m not even going to get into their collective decision making because It goes downhill exponentially.

Dan Crawford from Asylum by Madeleine Roux

                Dan . . . look at your life choices. Please. I could literally list this child’s stupid decisions. Yes these strange people are now my best friends. You know where I should go in this weird re-modeled insane asylum? The creepy murder basement. And not tell anybody. 

Genius.

Tate from The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

                Tate isn’t the main character of The Replacement but I think I’m perfectly justified in my annoyance with her thought process. Or lack thereof.  The whole book Tate’s character was defined by her drive to find her kidnapped little sister and rescue her. In fact, she spends at least sixty percent of the narrative being annoyed with the protagonist for not helping her track down the fey who took her sister, a sentiment I agreed with in all honesty. Yet when Mackie (the protagonist) admits that he knows exactly where her sister is he’s just kept it from her she doesn’t fly of the handle. Instead she dies that it would be perfectly logical to have sex with him right then and there. 

Lady? Did you get a brain transplant in the last few minutes? That would make little sense for most characters much less someone who was so antagonistic towards Mackie for more than half the book.

Allanah from the Sun Dragon by Annabelle Jay

                Gosh I feel like I’m picking on this book a lot. But seriously Allanah, lets focus a little bit more on saving the world instead of which poorly written love interest you should pick.

Colette Iselin from Marie Antoinette Serial Killer by Katie Alender

                I don’t know about you guys but if I was being stalked by a vengeful ghost with a penchant for head chopping I’d stay away from the place where she lived. 

You don’t have to leave Paris entirely darling you just have to, I don’t know, maybe not go into

James Watson from a Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

                In Jamie’s defense, I believe his inherent slowness was accentuated by Charlotte Holmes massive intellect. But that doesn’t excuse him from stupidly picking fights with everything that breathed. 

Not to mention being completely oblivious to Charlotte’s drug addiction. Jamie, you had one job man.

Clary Fray from Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

                Ah yes the person who is singlehandedly responsible for me giving up on the Mortal instruments series two books in. I honestly have no idea why people like Clary. She’s selfish, petty, and utterly oblivious to other people’s needs (except for Jace sometimes because, you know he’s hot or something).  Maybe there was some awesome character development going on I don’t know but I do know that her role in the first book was mostly screaming and mooning over a guy who turned out to be her brother. 

Anyways thanks have to go to the ladies at the Broke and Bookish for starting and opening up Top Ten Tuesdays. If you like lists or just like reading book reviews all day go check them out here.