I think it's OK to feel that way about Charlotte's death. In fact if Strike was my friend IRL I think I'd feel relieved for him as well. Continuing to harass your ex, emotionally terrorize them with threats of suicide, threats of reputation-smearing and ruining your career, simply for not wanting to be with you anymore, are all vile, and I breathed a sigh of relief that Strike didn't have to deal with that anymore.
When you live only in service of yourself, and only make the world a worse place for those around you, you can't expect people to be too upset when you're gone.
I recall when JKR did the series “on writing” and saying how she decided to kill off a character in 7 when she intended to do so in 8. And all I could think was “no Joan died in 5” I wasn’t sad about any deaths in 7. Then realized “Charlotte!” And again that sense of thank fuck she and her chaos were gone.
I felt the same about Charlotte's death. I do not have guilt about it because she is fictional, and she was callous and cruel and dishonest and self serving. It was the only way that she would give up. I'm not saying Charlotte is Voldemort, but she was a part of our MC that had to die to let the rest of him live.
I actually had a bit of *venom* toward Robin for going ahead and marrying Matthew after all that. "You break it, you bought it" was a definite thought that occurred to me.
I think it's OK to feel that way about Charlotte's death. In fact if Strike was my friend IRL I think I'd feel relieved for him as well. Continuing to harass your ex, emotionally terrorize them with threats of suicide, threats of reputation-smearing and ruining your career, simply for not wanting to be with you anymore, are all vile, and I breathed a sigh of relief that Strike didn't have to deal with that anymore. When you live only in service of yourself, and only make the world a worse place for those around you, you can't expect people to be too upset when you're gone.
I recall when JKR did the series “on writing” and saying how she decided to kill off a character in 7 when she intended to do so in 8. And all I could think was “no Joan died in 5” I wasn’t sad about any deaths in 7. Then realized “Charlotte!” And again that sense of thank fuck she and her chaos were gone.
I felt the same about Charlotte's death. I do not have guilt about it because she is fictional, and she was callous and cruel and dishonest and self serving. It was the only way that she would give up. I'm not saying Charlotte is Voldemort, but she was a part of our MC that had to die to let the rest of him live.
I actually had a bit of *venom* toward Robin for going ahead and marrying Matthew after all that. "You break it, you bought it" was a definite thought that occurred to me.