Gender trap: Why we need more ‘unlikeable heroines

Anyone who's read Paula Hawkins's The Girl on The Train will know that the protagonist is, to say the least, troubled. She's an alcoholic whose condition makes her selfish and unreliable. She has obsessive tendencies and can't stop harassing her ex. But she has also (spoiler alert) been in an unknowingly emotionally abusive relationship for years with a master manipulator and (even bigger spoiler) murderer.