The best books to me are those with the best characters. Give me a character like Hermione Granger, Bilbo Baggins, Atticus Finch, and the book will stick with me forever. That is why I think Nick Carraway has always fallen flat for me, he is simply not very interesting.

Nick’s purpose in The Great Gatsby as the narrator was intentionally passive; the story was never about him, which is why his bland personality worked, and The Great Gatsby is able to be such an amazing novel.

However, when Smith decided to make an entire book around a person so passive and bad at listening for his prequel, his work was cut out for him.

Nick, as a character, manages to bore me with his lackluster view on life and simultaneously annoy me with his self-centered thoughts. He is also the type of character that tries to be philosophical, and yet has thought processes I had at twelve.

I have never really liked his character.

When I look toward characters I love, I notice a commonality: passion. Hermione has a passion for learning and her friends, Bilbo has a passion for life, and Atticus has a passion for justice. They were all active characters with strong morals and took matters into their own hands.

I believe this is why I never liked Nick as a character, even in the original Great Gatsby, and why I believe Smith’s book did not resonate with me. Nick simply lacks qualities I look for when attaching myself to a character and then to a story. The best way I can put it is in the author’s own words, “She had become a ghost. Or he had. He wasn’t sure,” (Smith, 103). Nick is a ghost in his own story; every action he takes seems impulsive and yet idle. He rarely has deep thoughts or self-reflection, and what I get from this book is a person who is deeply lost.

I understand what Smith was trying to do; he was making a prequel, which means you have to lead a character to the point where they become recognizable as who they are in the original, and Smith does a decent job at this, in my opinion. He makes the same character that reminds me of a saltine cracker, easily digestible, and yet I don’t want to eat it.

Now I realize this is a harsh criticism of Nick, especially because he partially becomes the way he is due to his PTSD; however, there are many characters with the same disorder I find fascinating, like Cherry, from Cherry by Nico Walker. Now Nick does not have to become a bank robber for me to find him interesting; however, it is not Nick’s diagnosis that makes him so mind-numbing to me. It is the fact that he is, as the author stated, a ghost in his own book.

I never go into a book or any form of media wanting to dislike it, and oftentimes I find myself being very easy to please while consuming media. I honestly have one criteria, give me a character I can love, and I do not think Nick Carraway would ever be able to make me love him.