10 Antiheroes in Literature That We Love to Hate
“I think you should know: I’ve killed a lot of people.”
Patrick Bateman; American Psycho, Brett Easton Ellis
If this list wasn’t just fictional characters, I was going to have one entry detailing what might be the greatest case of an antihero ever—America in Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. Because, man! America has done some dark, dark stuff. And yet it’s hard not to still love it a little? But so anyway, this isn’t a non-fiction list, and so I’m choosing one of the most American (and certainly one of the most New York-y) characters ever, Patrick Bateman. Bateman is a serial killer. So that’s terrible. And yet he’s still so incredibly relatable and likable, even, because he knows how important the right kind of business card is, that it’s just about the easiest thing in the world to empathize with him at times. But only at times. Because he’s also a psychopath. And so he definitely falls in the “love to hate” category rather than the “love to love.” Because, ohmygod, the thing with the rat? No no no no. No. No!