Do Readers Want the Same Characters?

Before I launch into this, let me first say, the three books I’m going to cite as examples are, in their own right, good books. Two of them I’ve rated four stars, the other one three stars. However, the characters are nearly carbon copies of more famous authors’ characters.

Is that what you as a reader want? If you like a character, do we want to read about another character that is pretty much the same from another author? Or would you rather have originality?

L.T. Ryan has a character named Rachel Hatch. She’s an ex-army criminal investigator, now out of the military and wandering around the country. A loner. Tough. Closed off. Not a real people person. Sound familiar? It will if you’re a fan of the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child. Huge sellers. Movies, television series. Rachel Hatch is basically a female Jack Reacher.

Example number two. Brian Shea has a series with a Boston homicide detective named Michael Kelly. He’s a bit of a loner. Doesn’t necessarily agree with the upper echelon. Has a daughter and is divorced. Has good relationships with many other cops at his level or lower. Doesn’t always color in the lines. Sound familiar? It will if you’re a Michael Connelly fan and a reader of his Harry Bosch series. Huge sales numbers, seven season Amazon Prime series. Movies. The big difference is one detective is in Boston and one is in Los Angeles.

Final example is one I’m currently reading. The book is called Girl Alone by Blake Pierce. The main character is FBI agent Ella Dark. She’s been behind the desk most of her short career but gets her first chance at field work. She’s fascinated by serial killers. Very intelligent – probably smarter than everyone around her. Is going to be the one to break the big case. And this book goes even further into similarities around the killer. One death mimics Ed Gein. Sound familiar yet? Think Clarice Starling from Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. And the story itself resembles that book. Again, a famous, very popular book. Movies, television series (one I liked by the way, so of course it was cancelled).

Those are the recent examples I’ve read. These are all books written in the last few years. Is this a trend? Redo famous characters in different settings by different authors? Is this what readers want? All three of these books are selling well, so that seems to indicate readers want the same characters over and over. It’s not a trend I’m particularly fond of because I don’t want to write another writer’s character into new situations. I want to write original characters in, hopefully, original situations. And do you think these were conscious decisions by these authors? Or are these characters so engrained in their psyche that it’s what came out when they wrote their own characters? I know my vote on that one.

So maybe I’ll not become a bestselling author since I am trying to be original. Maybe people don’t want original. Maybe original is trending out and most people just want familiar.

What about you? What do you want as a reader? Original characters or more of some character you’ve grown fond of?