Killing Characters

I recently read a book in which one of the main characters had what doctors suspected was an inoperable brain tumor. Treatment methods were failing, and the character was physically and mentally deteriorating. Death seemed near.

I don’t normally read books where a main character is going to die. At least not knowingly. I also don’t read books where a main character commits adultery, but that’s a story for another day.

The only reason I kept reading this book despite knowing the hero would likely die is that I’d become invested in the character. This book was one in a long series I was reading, and the character had been in each of the other books. Throughout the course of the other books, he was aloof and secretive while also taking dangerous risks, and we never knew why. When he gets his own book, his diagnosis is revealed and now we understand him better. We’ve also become invested in him and have to see this through to the end.

Since I’m not going to reveal the name of the book or the series or even the author, I feel safe in telling you our hero doesn’t die. A groundbreaking treatment abroad becomes available and our hero spends six grueling months participating in a clinical trial that ultimately saves his life.

I know it probably sounds cheesy or like the author took the easy way out. In her defense, the trial wasn’t easy for him and even after it ended, it took even longer for him to regain his physical and mental capacities. He wasn’t back to his old self immediately after the trial ended. We saw the aftermath of his recovery, which I was able to appreciate more since he didn’t die.

As for the author taking the easy way out by letting him live, I’m all for that. There are some deal breakers for me as a reader. Killing a main character is number one for me. It used to bother me when I would read warnings in the blurb in which the author mentioned triggers as well as story themes like death and adultery. It seemed like such a spoiler. Guess what? I’d rather be spoiled so I’m not shocked later on. Reading about the death of a main character is too emotional for me. I actually end up depressed, despite the story being fiction.

Here’s where I have to make a confession. I have actually killed a main character in my novels. My Reader View’s literary award-winning book, Extraordinary Will, is all about the declining health and ultimate death of young adult Will Cooke which happens in the midst of him experiencing his first love. It was such a hard story to write that I contemplated pulling a miracle out of my ass and letting him live. I couldn’t compromise the integrity of the story. In the end, he died, and I cried my eyes out the day I wrote that scene. In other books I’ve written, I’ve also killed off secondary characters and implied the death of one. Since his body was never found, readers always believed he would come back one day. Who knows? Maybe he will.

In the meantime, I am going on record right now as saying I will never kill another main character again. And if I can help it, I’m not going to read any books in which this happens. Let’s just hope the authors are kind enough to give fair warning before killing a main character.