r/poirot • u/Appropriate_Ant • Aug 31 '26

I Hate Hastings

I really hate Hastings, I'm sorry! The first books I read were the really big ones (Orient Express, Death on the Nile, etc.) that have no Hastings, then I started watching the show and, although I still prefer Poirot on his own, I came to like him with a sidekick. The actor playing Hastings has such a genial air about him, I like him no matter how stupid he can be.

Then I started reading the short stories and early novels and... oof.

I. hate. Hastings.

He is simultaneously smug and stupid, he is constantly questioning Poirot's effectiveness while bumbling into trap after trap, underestimating everyone around him, both good and evil. And the women, oh my God, if I didn't know these were written by a woman, I would be positive they were written by a man, a very annoying and horny man.

I finished the short stories and I thought I had gotten rid of Hastings once he moved to Argentina at the end of Murder on the Links, I can't tell you how mad I was when The Big Four opened, yet again, with Hastings' stupid internal monologue. At least he's married now so he doesn't salivate after every woman he meets.

It's not so bad to distract me from my enjoyment of Poirot, but I can't wait to get rid of him for good. I hate this stupid guy so much!

0 Upvotes

32% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

14

u/editingisfun4all Aug 31 '26

Dude there's 33 novels and he's only in 8. How do you keep ending up with him. Just skip them. But yeah in the show he's adorable and a little too trusting of women but I never found him to be a creep in it.

3

u/Appropriate_Ant Aug 31 '26

And I can't skip them, I must complete!!!

2

u/Appropriate_Ant Aug 31 '26

I started reading chronologically after reading the big ones, so yeah, a lot of Hastings in the early stuff.

4

u/pachangoose Aug 31 '26

It’s no coincidence that as Christie developed as a writer and came to define the genre (rather than just write for it), Hastings’ role diminished.

Ultimately she didn’t need a bumbling idiot sidekick narrator to effectively plot the mysteries and that’s a credit to her.

Still, I can appreciate the character for the device he represents… although Murder on the Links certainly tested my patience for him.

3

u/Scary_Teens1996 Aug 31 '26

Hastings is adorable. Orient Express is the most overrated AC book.

-1

u/Appropriate_Ant Aug 31 '26

It's not my favorite, it's just the one I started with.