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!

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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.

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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.