Plot or characters?

This week’s Booking Through Thursday is:

Which is more important when you read — the actual story or the characters? I’ve read books with great plots, but two-dimensional characters, and I’ve read multi-layered characters stuck in clunky stories, and I’m sure you have, too. So which would you rather focus on, if you couldn’t have both?

The obvious answer is that both are important – a great novel wouldn’t be great without memorable characters and a plot to drive it along. If I had to choose just one, though, I think I’d go for realistic, three-dimensional characters, much as I hate reading Virginia Woolf and other purely character-based novels. Having interesting characters to get behind is such a vital part of a novel, though. Without that, you spend the whole time frustrated at the lack of them, and that spoils it even if it is a well-crafted plot. At least rounded characters who don’t end up achieving much is true to real life.

What do you think? Leave a comment below!