When I was going through my early-teens horror movie phase, I would constantly ask, “Why don’t the characters do xyz?”  My dad would always respond, “Because if they did, there wouldn’t be a movie.”

That’s how I’m starting to view flawed characters. Their flaws create drama, tension, and even plot points in the stories they star in. Even so, up until recently, I still expected some type of redemption or growth from a flawed character. That kind of expectation from a main character? Absolutely! But I also placed that same expectation on side characters, and it was affecting my ability to enjoy some great stories. 

My biggest struggle with this was the Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. There are several characters whose flaws cause problems, and there’s no redemption or growth. The characters double down on their reasons for how they act, and Ethan and Lena are forced to accept it because they are young and have to obey the adults in their life. 

Years later, I read Spirit in Tow by Terry Segan, and her character named Gus drove me absolutely crazy. He caused a lot of problems, he was incredibly selfish, and he rarely apologized. Ms. Segan agreed to an interview when I was reviewing that book, and one of my questions was specifically about how she created Gus with all of his flaws and issues. One thing she said that stuck out to me was, “I… wanted Marni to see his occasional soft side, that we know almost every tough guy has, despite trying to hide it. It’s those cracks in his armor that kept Marni wanting to solve his murder and free his soul.” 

Occasional soft side. Cracks in his armor.

Characters need to have enough likable aspects, that their flaws can be, at the very least, tolerated.

And with this budding new view on flaws in fictional characters (and I do think it’s important to emphasize fictional – there are things that are okay in fiction that are not in real life, and that’s okay), I picked up Terry’s newest book: Five Steps to Celestia.

Joy lost her memory in a motorcycle accident 22 years ago. After her doctor is unable to find anything to identify her, he courts her, and they get married. Now she’s a widow, and comes across some mysterious seeds on a road trip with her bestie. Planting the seeds coincides with the arrival of some suspicious characters, and Joy’s memories start to crack open. As Joy learns about her past, she realizes that she was a different person than she is now, and she has a lot to answer for. And the big question: Which version of herself will Joy keep, or is it possible to blend her two lives?

Terry Segan does an excellent job of weaving an engaging story with enough mystery to keep the reader wanting more. And like her previous book, these characters are full of flaws.

Suzi is Joy’s best friend, and she starts out as your typical comedic elderly character. Suzi is on her 5th divorce when the story starts. She’s a terrible driver, a shopaholic, and a giant flirt with men young enough to be her grandsons (and they rarely want to flirt back). She’s loud, speaks her mind at inappropriate times, and won’t take no for an answer. Her flaws are going to cause a life-threatening climax that my younger self would have not been able to forgive had this book existed five years ago. But Suzi is also fiercely loyal. She will protect her loved ones with every fiber of her being. She has good internal radar when it comes to discerning who is and isn’t trustworthy. I honestly did not like her the majority of the book, but everything ended up coming together nicely in the end. 

Grace is Joy’s adopted daughter. Joy became Grace’s mother by marrying her father, the doctor who saved Grace’s life. Grace is married to a man who doesn’t deserve her, and her inability to kick him to the curb frustrates both the reader and Joy. But Joy has more patience than I do, and she allows her daughter to make her own choices – even if she disagrees with them. Grace’s decisions don’t put anyone else in danger the way that Suzi’s do, but it definitely caused some extra drama, that added to the tensions in the plot. 

Owen is Grace’s husband. He hurts Grace terribly and has a greedy and malicious plan that Suzi learns about from spying on him. He receives a couple of natural consequences from his actions, but none of those consequences come from Grace or Joy; and I really wanted those two women to deal out justice. *Sigh* But whether he gets the comeuppance I thought he deserved or not, doesn’t change the main plot. And because of that, I had to (begrudgingly) accept Joy’s realization: Grace is a grown woman who needs to make her own choices, and also needs her family for love and support. 

Silas is going to remain a bit more mysterious for this post. But what I will say is he likes to be in control, even if that means taking away others’ agency. Like with Owen, Silas has one consequence, but that consequence doesn’t make things better for Joy, our main character. And he doesn’t seem truly penitent. But his choices are important for the overall plot. His growth can’t happen until the end, if he was going to have growth. Joy chose to focus on other things, and doesn’t force him to change. Once again, I had to accept that this was Joy’s choice. 

When I finished reading Five Steps to Celestia, and I sat down to review it, I had to pause. I really was not happy with any of the four characters I just introduced you to. But did they make my reading experience unenjoyable? No. Did they cause an unsatisfactory ending? Again, no. So did the story deserve to lose a star or two because the characters are human? For the third time, no. And it’s with this realization that moving forward, I’ll be looking at books with imperfect characters differently and with more grace (pun intended).

Five Steps to Celestia released yesterday. Were you a lucky ARC reader like myself? What were your thoughts on the book?

Have you read any of Terry’s other books? What are your thoughts on those?

What books have you read that have helped you grow as a reader?

Let me know in the comments!