Why Do We Love to Read About the Evil Rich? by Tara Laskowski

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I know, you're thinking that title doesn't seem to go along with our Christmas theme this week! But you're wrong, dear readers. Because you're about to get cash, or gift certificates, or just plain old "treat myself" and you KNOW you're going to want a gorgeous thriller to curl up with the day after Christmas. Lucky for you, Tara Laskowski's latest tale of the diabolical doings of the elite, THE WEEKEND RETREAT, is landing in bookstores on Boxing Day (the Feast of Stephen, for you musically minded.) It's set in my old stomping grounds, the Finger Lakes, y'all! But in a place I'm pretty sure I'd never get invited to. 

Tara's here today to tell us just why rich people behaving badly is so irresistible...

 

Our family saw Wonka this weekend at the theater. One of the elite chocolatiers, Fickelgruber, is only concerned about keeping his and his friends’ monopoly on the confections business. Money and power are his main—and only—focus. In fact, any time someone says the word “poor,” he physically contorts and “throws up in his mouth a little.” Suffice to say, everyone in the theater is rooting for his demise by the end of the movie.

It's fun to root against evil rich people, isn’t it? Why, though?

When I wrote my debut novel One Night Gone, I didn’t realize that writing about out-of-touch wealthy people was going to become a part of my “brand.” And yet the three books I’ve written so far have all kind of centered on, at their core, a group of affluent people who think they can get away with anything (and often do.)

People have said that they enjoy my books even if they love to hate my characters. And weirdly, I enjoy writing my characters even though they are, at times, absolutely despicable people. 

 

The characters in my stories often have a sense they are somehow above the law. That the rules don’t apply to them. Many times it’s because that’s true—they’ve managed to get away with something terrible in their past and they don’t believe it’s going to ever come back to bite them. It’s not even about their wealth as much as it is about their power. Power can go a long way toward people bending wills to get what they want. Power and influence can easily lead to corruption.

 

Take, for example, the Van Ness family in my latest novel, TheWeekend Retreat. They are an influential and somewhat notorious bunch who’ve managed to piss off a lot of people in their lives. They own an upscale winery in the Finger Lakes of New York, and they travel their every year to celebrate the birthdays of the eldest twin siblings. Of course, this year, things aren’t going to go as planned.

 

The Van Ness siblings are complete snobs, and yet they have a sense of entitlement that’s intoxicating. I enjoyed writing about them because they are delightfully awful. Harper owns an online beauty company and touts herself as a feminist even though she’s horrible to her all-female staff. Richard is a control freak who looks down on anyone he deems lesser than him. Zach is an entitled golden boy who has had pretty much everything handed to him his whole life. And their significant others aren’t much better—desperately trying to get a piece of the family’s wealth and influence or hiding other agendas. 

 

All that said, I love them and their horribleness. They were intensely fun to write because I know all their fears and vulnerabilities. Because beyond the airs they put on to protect themselves from hurt, they are people with insecurities and challenges. They make terrible choices, but they do it with a gusto. It’s hand-me-the-popcorn fun to watch them slowly march toward a downfall—and feel guilt and glee at the same time. Glad it’s not you.

 

And maybe that’s at the heart of why we like to read about rich people getting destroyed—it’s often self-inflicted. They bring it on themselves. They are out of touch with reality, they don’t realize their privilege, they are too ruthless—and those flaws make us feel like we’d surely never make those same mistakes. We can safely judge and condemn without ever worrying the same fate might happen to us. We say, “If I won the lottery, I’d do all the right things with the money” or “If I was independently wealthy, I’d never let it go to my head.”

But would we? Or would we be the stars in our own tragic thriller novel, destined to a terrible fate?

And would we—sipping our fine wine and laying into our satin sheets, staring out at the view off our terrace—really care?

Until it’s too late, that is.

 

Tara Laskowski is the Agatha, Anthony and Macavity Award winning writer of both suspense novels and short stories.  You can read more about her at her website, follow her on Instagram as TaraLWrites and chat with her on Twitter as @TaraLWrites. Her newest thriller, THE WEEKEND RETREAT, will be out on December 26, 2023.