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I'm curious to know if anyone else had as strong an immediate and visceral reaction to Debbie as I did.
On the very first page, when she muses "She was blessed, and she recognized it. At 26 years of age she couldn't have asked for a better life other than losing her mother at the age of 13" my gut was reaction was that I would not be able to relate to this girl at all. The way the author writes this makes it seem as though Debbie is nonchalantly dismissing the death of her mother as a casualty of her own good fortune. Like "Well, my mom died but it's all good cause I live a pampered lifestyle! Fair trade right?"
Regardless of what the author might have done differently, I started thinking that this powerful reaction to their character was a good thing, and that it might actually compel me to continue reading because I dislike the character so much that I want to know if anything bad happens to her (Yes, I'm that person lol).
Debbie in The Face of Fear by RJ Torbert may well become a character I love to hate, which can be as enjoyable as those I just plain love.
What are your impressions of this character?

What I can say is, a character is a character. I do not usually get into their shoes and try to imagine the situation. By being a total outsider, how can we say anything about anyone's character

Yes, these two sentences confused me too, on the one side author was saying that Debbie was a most blessed girl and on the other side the author is saying that Debbie is not that so much blessed as she has lost her mother at the age of 13, and when I read Debbie's opinion about her mother, I got totally shocked.

The character grew into who she needed to be for the story. Her personality and life are things i can never jugde unless I were to be in the EXACT same life.

Which begs the question, did Debbie initiate the death of her mother to get blessed? This keeps coming to my mind.

I think it's just fine that Debbie doesn't dwell on her loss. She had a long time to mourn and she should be able to see her life as blessed even though she had a tragedy at 13 years old. It may seem like she brushes it off, but I feel like it's less a brush off and more of an acceptance about what happened. But, as we are not in her shoes, we can't fully understand her thought processes and development.

Well, we cannot judge a character from the very beginning of the book. A character needs to grow. I guess the same goes for Debbie.

I didn't find anything off-putting about Debbie. Throughout the book we learn a lot about her, and I think that the vast majority of it is positive. The one small error in judgement she made was trusting her friend to "take care" of certain things (which ultimately led to the kidnapping). She is warm, loyal to her friends, father and boyfriend, and doesn't seem to have trouble making personal connections despite growing up very wealthy. In other words, she doesn't seem like a snob. On the contrary, she seems quite well-rounded and genuine.

I feel like she went through a lot at age 26...I mean, to begin with, she did not ask to be birthed into a rich family, and eventually get kidnapped!

Regardless of what the author might have done differently, I started thinking that this powerful reaction to their character was a good thing, and that it might actually compel me to continue reading because I dislike the character so much that I want to know if anything bad happens to her (Yes, I'm that person lol).

Me, too! I'm always intrigued by really intense characters. Even if I don't like him/her, that feeling of needing to know what happens next is a powerful motivator. I always want to know whether evildoers get their punishment!

I didn't relate to Debbie. Therefore, I neither hate nor love the character.

Those two sentences also confused me. I did not expect a positive statement after the revelation that her mom had passed on but in the introductory part, she is still a nice character. This is my opinion.

Kajori50 wrote: ↑04 Dec 2018, 09:03 Well, we cannot judge a character from the very beginning of the book. A character needs to grow. I guess the same goes for Debbie.

This is true. I think and do support that the overall opinion should come from the character analysis in the entire book. This will give room for a fair opinion.

I had no issues with Debbie and even her statement. To me, it sounded a lot like she's moved on with her life, after all, staying stuck in the pain of the past helps no one. Her mother's death being the only dent in her perfect life does prove that no one's life is that perfect actually, in the real sense of the word. She was merely counting her blessings and maintaining positivity despite her childhood loss.

This is a nice way to look at it too. I also think that she decided to inform the reader of what had happened in the past but the approach was a bit awkward. However, her main focus seems to be the way her father has been treating her.