Antagonist Connection

Depressed or rude characters can still be sympathetic. You simply have to give the reader a reason to root for the MC. You don't need infodumps or flashbacks (though flashbacks aren't a total no-no, they just ought to be used with care) to make them pull the reader with them on a mission for revenge.

I learned in theater that an actor onstage can command an entire audience without speaking a word. Writing is much the same in that regard. If your MC is solid and compelling enough, people will read on, with or without being told very much.

You'd have to make your main character extremely likeable. Have them do nice things to establish a connection with the reader, and make them REALLY undeserving of what the antagonist does. Then have the antagonist do their thing and really rub it in the face of your protagonist. And make sure they're always out of reach, or that they get away with it scot-free -- or maybe even benefit massively from it. Make it UNFAIR.

Just remember not to lay it on too thick, so that what you're trying to do doesn't become too obvious. And if you do it this way, make sure your protagonist has some good stuff going on in their life, because I've read a few books where so much crap happened that I didn't care to stick around long enough to find out of if everything turned around.

EDIT: I'll give an example. The bad guy burns down the protagonist's parents' house during a reunion and drags her out to kill her, but gets caught. He somehow manages to spin it so that it looks like he saved her. He gets lots of praise for it and she -- who is furious -- can't prove anything. His success leads to lots of good press and his business or whatever starts to boom. She can see things getting better and better for him, while nobody believes her when she insists that he was the arsonist (maybe because he had a good reason to be there).

In this case, it's understandable that she feels some kind of black rage; her parents were burned alive, and their death basically propelled this guy up to his new position. And he's getting praise for it. If the reader likes her, and you really show her anguish, they'll be as hellbent on revenge as she is.

You just need to create a really strong sense of injustice. The reader will really, really want to see the scales tipped the other way.

Violeta said:

How do I make sure the reader gets as bent on revenge* as my MC? How could
my MC possibly feel so much hate/pain inside her and still function as a pretty sane person?

I read somewhere that what matters to the MC, matters to the reader (so long as the reader cares for the MC), but;

-I don't wanna info-dump anyone with backstory or flashbacks, so it would have to flow naturally
from the MC's thoughts, feelings and actions. But how? It could go south and make the characte
seem dull, depressed, rude or who knows what. You know. Alienate the reader.

Any ideas? Please?
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*She wants to avenge her boyfriend's death by proving the antagonist is the killer.

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Well, wanting 'to avenge her boyfriend's death by proving the antagonist is the killer' doesn't really require that she 'feel so much hate/pain inside her' that she can't function.
I've seen those true-life murder stories where families spent years trying to prove that the in-law killed their child. They didn't seem enraged/destroyed by pain. Just really, really determined, and really sure that someday they would be justified.
Maybe she thinks that she's the only one who cares, or believes or is interested?
Is it that she knows the antagonist did it, and no-one believes her? Or that no-one knows who did it, and that she thinks the police aren't investigating?
In either case, she doesn't have to be crazed, just determined to get justice for her boyfriend.
Look at things like 'The Justice Project', where people re-open the cases of convicted killers, to see if they are innocent, and save them from the death penalty. They do that for strangers.
She wouldn't even have to deeply love the guy. Maybe she feels guilty for not loving him more, not being more broken up about it.
I'd believe it if you show that she's one of those people who likes everything 'just so', a really orderly person, and the thought of the murder unsolved is what's making her crazy. The universe is out-of-joint, etc.
It's that she knows/suspects that the antagonist did it, and he's still walking the streets, that won't let her rest, and if she could just prove it, she could finally get on with her life.
Of course, if she just 'decides' that the antagonist did it, and pursues him relentlessly, based only on her beliefs, then, yeah, you might have a crazy lady on your hands.

Violeta said:

Hmm... you're right. House MD comes to mind...

I guess I'm just worried I may end up with flat characters on my hands.

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I really like the first couple of seasons of House, the obsessive, driven guy who just had to figure out the diagnosis, of total strangers (not the 'friends and family' plan of some detective shows, where everything has to be personal or it's not important), just because the not-knowing really bugged him.

Maybe the things that help her prove the antagonist is guilty were the things that messed up her relationship with the boyfriend?
It occurs to me that a stalker ex-girlfriend tracking down her target's killer just because he was hers, damnit! could be interesting. Probably not what you were going for, though.

You could always have a cop suggest it as a motivation for her getting in their way.