Tortured Heroes

Tortured heroes, we all love them but is there a point when they become....too tortured?

I think most have their own definition of what a tortured hero is. For me, it's someone who has suffered through a tragedy that has sent him down a dark path or one that has caused him to put distance between himself and happier emotions. Things rarely go right for this person. He believes feelings like love and happiness are wasted on him because he's undeserving. He protects himself by erecting a wall and will often lash out to hurt others first because he believes eventually he'll be betrayed.

I love these types of characters. They're usually more interesting because of their complexity and the reason behind the anguish (not that they'll ever admit out loud that's how they feel). I enjoy watching as a determined heroine breaks through the carefully crafted barriers to show him (or beat it into his thick head) that he's worthy of love.

But in some cases I think that the characters are too tortured. At times I'll be reading a series full of them and it makes me want to yell, 'is anyone EVER happy?!?'

A lot of authors have books that feature this type of character and one that comes to mind is Sherrilyn Kenyon. I've had the pleasure of meeting Kenyon and she's absolutely wonderful but I think several of her books have toed the line of being too much.

If there was a poster boy for tortured heroes, it would be Acheron. Two years after reading it, I still can't bring myself to re-read the first part of his book because it's so heartbreaking. Several books after Acheron came The Guardian. It's a good book and probably my favorite since Acheron.  Seth, the hero, is both physically and emotionally beaten throughout the book that by the end, I felt drained.

Poor Nick (Chronicles of Nick and Dark Hunters).  Every time something remotely positive happens to him, that moment of happiness is quickly snatched away and crushed by one awful reason or another.

Kenyon's most recent release where the hero had a streak of luck that could be labeled 'when it rains it pours and then turns into a tidal wave and drowns you' is Born of Silence. What Kere is put through had me setting the book down a few times so I could collect myself enough to keep reading. It was very well written and I think one of her best releases but that's not to say I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if the abuse would've been scaled back a tad.

I don't want it to seem like I'm picking on Kenyon's books.  She just happened to be the first author that popped into my head when I started writing this post. But her books have me thinking, is there a point that a hero becomes overly picked on? A time when it starts to feel like he's being continuously attacked just so he can be labeled a tortured hero? Or does being called that automatically mean there's no limit to what he can be put through?