Every one starts from their own marker. It's up to the author to allow the readers to form that relationship. If you have, it's because the author didn't make you care about the characters. If, as a writer, I can't establish a bond with the people I've created, I cannot expect the reader to care about them. While I never plot out characters, simply learning them as I go along, there are times in which I know it isn't working.
Writing is a fascinating process, one which seems as much based in sorcery as it is skill.
Most of the time, I can see these people in my mind, watch their lives, tell their stories, until a certain point in the book is reached. Then it seems as if they turn and look at me and shake their heads - a sure and certain notice that I've spied long enough. But sometimes the connection doesn't happen, and I know either I don't like the character, or they're acting in ways contrary to their own nature and they simply won't do what I think they ought to do. When there is a bond between me and the character, when I know them and like them and care about them, I suffer as much as they do when something happens to them. Sometimes, life isn't fun or delightful or charming or amusing.