Fourteen characters their creators should have spared

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Nicole Hill tagged fourteen poor fictional "souls, taken too soon, who should have lived, through whatever deus ex machina necessary," including [SPOILER ALERT]:

Tom Robinson should have lived because Tom Robinson was innocent, and no court of law, real or fictional, is needed to tell you that. The appeal Atticus promised in To Kill a Mockingbird might not have cleared his name, but what’s even more abhorrent about Tom’s fatal prison escape attempt is how little it matters in the eyes of Maycomb County’s denizens.

Read about another entry on the list.

To Kill a Mockingbird made Isla Blair's six best books list, Lauren Passell's list of ten pairs of books made better when read together, Charlie Fletcher's top ten list of adventure classics, Sheila Bair's 6 favorite books list, Kathryn Erskine's top ten list of first person narratives, Julia Donaldson's six best books list, TIME magazine's top 10 list of books you were forced to read in school, John Mullan's list of ten of the best lawyers in literature, John Cusack's list of books that made a difference to him, Lisa Scottoline's top ten list of books about justice, and Luke Leitch's list of ten literary one-hit wonders. It is one of Sanjeev Bhaskar's six best books and one of Alexandra Styron's five best stories of fathers and daughters.

--Marshal Zeringue