Why Do We Like, or Dislike, Characters?

• What does the author think about the characters? Are there any that are completely unlikable? How does the author show that? What is it that the author does not like about some people?
• Who (what type of people) does the author feel are treated unfairly?
• Does the main character have any flaws? Why does the author create those flaws? What does the character need to learn about herself? About life? About friendship?
• How does your author feel about the society presented in the book? Are there people/situations that are presented in an unfavorable light? How do those things realate to our society? Is the author being critical of our society in some way?



What Happened to Cass McBride was a difficult book to read. Cass McBride is the most popular girl in school. She's been a trend setter since the day she walked onto the campus, and everyone copies her style-even when her style isn't deliberate. Cass clings to her popularity, and her father grooms her for her expected success in life.

David is the ultimate outsider. He's as low on the high school food chain as a boy can be. But one day he decides to just go for it-he reaches for the gold ring. He asks Cass McBride out on a date. Cass rejects him diplomatically (she needs his vote for homecoming queen), but leaves a nasty note about him for a friend in the next class. David sees her leave the note, takes and reads it, and later that night, he hangs himself. David's brother Kyle finds the body. And he finds the note that Cass wrote. He decides to make her pay.

There is very little that is likable about Cass, even though the reader begins to understand her better when her dysfunctional family is revealed. She is calculating and manipulative. Everything, from the clubs she joins to the people she has as friends, is designed to further her personal agenda.

There is also not much to like about Kyle. Both teens come from families with parents who withhold love from the children; Cass's father with his incessant push for Cass to live the perfect life so she can get into the perfect school and be a reflection of his own perfection, and David and Kyle's mother with her vitriolic verbal abuse, all combine in a perfect storm that shatters lives. Beyond the mystery of whether or not Cass will be found in time to save her life, this book explores what causes human personalities to develop. This is a book that raises questions: what motivates parents to scar their children, what are the base causes of suicide, but it does not provide any easy answers. The reader feels Cass's claustrophobia as she lies buried and attempts to connect with Kyle and get him to release her. Even though I came to have empathy for both Cass and Kyle, I never really connected to either of them. The only truly sympathetic character is the suicide victim David. His chilling last words, pinned to the skin of his chest, "Words are teeth. And they Eat me alive. Feed on my corpse instead" will haunt me for some time to come.