It's not that the characters were unlikable. Unlikable characters can be great. My hate for Gatsby was more about the paper thin plot, the shallow characters,

It's not that the characters were unlikable. Unlikable characters can be great. My hate for Gatsby was more about the paper thin plot, the shallow characters, and the purple prose. Why should I spend any time thinking about what these characters do or say when, as far as I can tell, they basically have no internal life. They are simple, one dimensional beings who just do things with about as much spirit as a typical video game NPC. Most of the books I was assigned in high school I actually enjoyed or at least didn't hate.