Do you believe a protagonist/narrator has to be likeable in order to capture a reader's interest? How far wrong can they go in their character/decision-making for a reader to remain invested in their journey? Any thoughts on this I'd be so intrigued to hear, as it's something I think about often!

H.M. Long A character doesn’t need to be likeable, but they do need to be relatable. We need to understand that they are still a human like us, and that they are the way they are for various reasons and are not simple a flat “bad person” but have depth and nuance, internal cohesiveness AND contradiction.
With how far a character can go before readers start to bail, I think there’s no straight answer and that deeply depends on the story, the circumstances, and the way the author has managed everything.
I personally think it takes a lot of skill to pull off an unlikable character! And even with the best authors, there will always be readers turned off (which is true with any topic!)

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