YMMV / The Familiar

• Base-Breaking Character: Astair is hated by a lot of the fandom for being whiny and self-absorbed, about First World Problems at most, and bitchy. On the other hand many fans feel she's in a tough spot from the beginning of the 1st book on: her eldest child is seriously ill, the other two are Trickster Twins, her thesis is graded an "F" seemingly out of nowhere and only because her supervisor was changed ^note the previous one had given it a passing grade, her graduating University has been interrupted by the family's many moves across the country in the last 9 years, she's dealing with a leaking roof in a house the house-lord isn't cooperative at all about, and she and her husband are in serious financial problems.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Xanther is focused on details ^note This is introduced in her very first chapter, in which it rains and she over and over ponders "How many raindrops?" and socially awkward in a manner that reminds of autism. And she has trouble reading due to difficulty distinguishing letters / numbers), which resembles dyslexia but isn't named.
• The Woobie:
  • Poor Xanther, you really feel for her. To begin with, her epilepsy has a crippling impact upon her life (and affects the lives of her family, something she then feels guilty about), but also she has trouble keeping up at school (caused by what seems to be dyslexia), has always been bullied by her peers, and to top it off she is described as physically unattractive. And her younger sisters don't understand her problems and are carefree themselves, but she still feels only caring towards them, and guilty for the attention she needs from their parents. Plus, she has just lost her biological father Dov (and not even really experienced his funeral, as she went into a seizure during it...)
  • To a lesser extent, Shnorkh. He is being wrongfully charged for a crime he didn't commit, if he'd be convicted he'd lose his job / income, and the one witness who could get him exonerated, doesn't bother to show up at his trial and brushes him off with a lousy excuse. He also has health problems he avoids getting medical help for but which seem serious, and he compares himself negatively against his friend who is a college professor and who is supposedly better looking. He doesn't feel to belong anywhere since he feels neither Armenian nor American, still struggles to speak English well despite trying, and comes across as depressed in general.

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