Monday, October 19, 2009

Bad Boys, Bad Boys


I watched Pulp Fiction a couple days ago (for the fifth or sixth time). I do love me some Tarantino! But the movie got me thinking about characters, specifically the bad boy character. Bruce Willis plays one bad boy and his girlfriend is crazy about him. Uma Thurman's character, Mia, is not only married to one of the baddest boys in the movie, but she's attracted to John Travolta, whom she knows is a hit man. This attraction to trouble is a strong theme in many romance novels.
In The Kitten Club, my first release, young waitress/college student, Brooke, is drawn to Josh, a drug-addicted charmer who always promises more than he can deliver. Yet she can't seem to find the strength to stay away. Of all my novels and novellas, The Kitten Club is still the one I get the most mail about. So many women relate to Brooke's plight.
And this trend reaches far beyond romance novels. I've had many friends over the years who fall for the wrong guy -- the bad news guy. He's the one they can't get off their mind. He's the one they refuse to walk away from. Are these women trapped in some twisted fantasy about being THE ONE who changes him? Or is it something else?
What about you? Do you like those bad boys in real life? How about in books?

4 comments:

Katie Reus said...

I think the definition of 'bad boy' can vary. I love bad boys in the sense that they're mysterious or know how to handle themselves in a fight or use all sorts of weapons. As far as actually bad news, like I-need-to-take-care-of-him or pay his bills. Um, not so much, lol. As a reader, I love my heroes alpha and 'bad ass' and I want them to be able to take care of themselves. While I want a hero to work on his growth issues with the help of the heroine, I don't care to read about bad news kinda guys cuz they rarely change.

Dara Edmondson said...

Oh, but they do in romance;-)

Chudney Thomas said...

I think we all love the fantasy of a really bad boy. I like bad boys with an underlying sense of honor, he might not play by all the rules but he sticks to all the right ones. Though those go out the window if someone he cares about it threatened.

Asylumgirl said...

Yes, I think we all love bad boys. Sometimes we think we can change him and sometimes we want him just the way he is, that was the point after all, right? lol

Deidre