To Everything, Turn, Turn, Turn...(Brian Katcher)

 

Today, I was rereading Everyone Dies in the End. It was my third book and the publisher is re-releasing it. They asked that I go through and eliminated some typos that got through the first time. I hadn't picked up this book in years. But one thing that struck me was how unlikable my protagonist, Sherman Andrews was.

He was prissy, vain, arrogant, and fat phobic. And yet, he's the guy we root for, the man who has to go in and save the day against the 1930s death cult and its undead leader.

I remember wanting to write an unlikable main character, and have him redeem himself through selfless actions. But Sherman looks down on his working class father, his classmates, and Charlie, the overweight girl who blatantly flirts with him. So at what point does he become someone we like? What's the turning point?

I think it comes when the cult's hitmen corner Sherman in an ally and beat the crap out of him. That's when he realizes his intellect won't get him out of every situation, that he needs friends to back him up, and that Charlie is actually pretty hot. We have a lot of revelations when our life is in danger.

Of course, this was my one horror book. But my other protagonists go through similar turning points in the book, and it usually involves letting go of toxic parts of their personality. 

But that's all eighth grade English class. Man vs. Himself. Man vs. Society. Man vs. Vampire.

And on that note, please enjoy the feast of the carpenter who would not be killed, and whose blood we drink.