My Favorite Female Characters

Hi guys! Together I've compiled a list of my 5 favorite female characters. If you want to know more about the books they feature in, you can click on the titles and they'll take you to each book's Goodreads page.

Let's start!

Elphaba from Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Let it be heard once and for all: Elphaba is my favorite female character of all time. Yep. In Maguire's adult retelling of the Wizard of Oz, Elphaba is a very human characterization  of the Wicked Witch of the West whom you can't help but root for. Born with green skin, this very special girl grows to become a very intelligent young woman who sees the hidden horrors of her world's society and decides to do something about it. And as she sets out to do what she can to change things, her transformation into the legendary Wicked Witch of the West begins. She's a rebel. She's a feminist. She's simply awesome. 

Cinder from the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

All the leading ladies from the Lunar Chronicles are pretty cool but Cinder remains my favorite. Each book in this series is based on a fairytale and Cinder is based, as you can guess, on Cinderella. She's a rather unique Cinderella in that she's a mechanic! She's always covered in oil stains, she's very down to earth and she's quite a strong female character  and that, too, without being your traditional kick-ass heroine. I mean, she doesn't even really knows how to fight but she's still a pretty cool female character. She's got her sensitive side and has the same apprehensions any young girl in her situation would have. And yet, she still succeeds to become a strong character with a lot of potential for great things. 

Cath from Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Most of us who've read this book have probably recognized themselves to some degree in Cath. I mean, she's an introvert, she's a fangirl, she writes fanfic and she's pretty much a book nerd. Cath and her twin sister are beginning university and while her sister is pretty hyped for it, Cath is equally anxious. She'd rather be typing away on her computer than talking to people around the campus. And yet, as she begins to let people in and actually try her hand at this university thing, things slowly begin to get swinging for her. This book was very realistic while remaining super endearing and Cath is a great character a lot of us are bound to relate to.

Alana from the Saga graphic novels by Brian K. Vaughan

Now here's an actual kick-ass female character. In this epic sci-fi graphic novel series, there's an ongoing war between two alien species. When two people from these enemy races, Alana and Marko, fall in love and have a child together, authorities and bounty hunters alike begin to hunt them down. Alana fiercely loves her family and never shies away from grabbing a gun or wielding a sword to defend them. She's super flawed too, but in my opinion, that just makes her a very relatable character. 

Agnes from Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

In 1839, Iceland, a woman called Agnes is accused of murder and until her sentence is finalized, she's banished to a remote farm in the care of the family who owns it. This family is initially horrified to be housing a criminal but as time passes and the date of the final sentence looms closer, they begin to discover the truth about Agnes. What I loved about Agnes is that she never, at any point in the novel, seeks the sympathy of this family. She quietly offers her help around the house and keeps to herself mostly and it only after some time that everyone, the reader included, that we begin to get to know her. In her own way, Agnes is pretty much a strong character of her own right.

So those were my favorite female characters. Leading ladies in books can be pretty bad-ass sometimes ^^ Do you have a favorite female character? Let me know in the comments!

Source

Cover art by Of Stacks and Cups via Pagemodo

My Top 5 Villains

Ah, villains... How we love to hate them. Today I thought I would show you my five favorite villains from various books and series. Feel free to comment down below to share your favorite villains with me. If you want to do your own version of this post, go ahead! Just don't forget to link it back to my original post ;) 

Alright, let's begin. So at the 5th position we have...

5. Luke Castellan from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan

Luke is a demigod, the son of the Greek God Hermes. Although be befriends main character Percy at the beginning of the series, he ends up betraying his demigod bretheren and siding with the series' main villain, the Titan Kronos. Luke remains a great antagonist throughout the series as not only is he relentless in his pursuits, but he actually also has pretty strong justifications behind his choices and behavior. Aside from being a powerful antagonist, Luke is also a well flesh-out character with enough complexities for you to both love and hate him as a character. 

4. Sebastian Morgenstern from the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare

Sebastian Morgenstern is probably the most interesting villain I've read about in the YA genre. He is born to the Shadowhunters, a race of demon hunters, but later sides with demons. Evil to the core and equally beautiful and smart, Sebastian is a formidable foe and a genuinely lethal threat to the heroes of the series. He is portrayed so cleverly that by the time you realize that he is actually evil, he will have already won your weak fangirl heart over. He also has one of the most beautifully written character arcs in the entire series.

3. Bellatrix Lestrange from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling 

Bellatrix is one of the most interesting characters in the Harry Potter universe. She is loyal to Voldemort almost to the point of fanaticism, making her one of the most lethal of all Death Eaters. She is as powerful as she is sadistic and is second only to Voldemort as the series most evil character. In the movies, she is portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter, as pictured above. 

2. Cersei Lannister from A Song Of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

Cersei is my favorite female character from the whole series. Seriously morally impaired and vicious to the bone, she is one of the most interesting characters in the series. She genuinely considers herself to be wickedly smart while she keeps making the worst mistakes possible. No one is as big an enemy to her than she is to herself. She is the Queen Regent, widow of the last King of Westeros. She helps her son becomes the next King when in reality he is an illegitimate child born from her incestuous relationship with her twin brother. Her forbidden romance with her brother is also one of the things that make her such a complex and interesting character. Cersei is portrayed by Lena Headey in Game of Thrones, the TV show adapted from the books. 

1. Lestat de Lioncourt from the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice

Lestat is a powerful and immortal vampire of questionable morality. The best part? He is also the main character of the series and actually narrates several of the installments. He is bold almost to the point of fearlessness although he does have his vulnerabilities. One of his greatest fears is loneliness, which drives him to commit irreparable acts such as turning an innocent child into a vampire only to secure the ones he loves to his side. First curious of the origins and limitations of his kind, he quickly grows defiant of the laws binding the vampire community and goes on to break the rules and challenge forces he does not entirely understand. Lestat is driven by passion, which leads him to both great discoveries and impossible pains. His defiant and temperamental personality eventually earns him the nickname Brat Prince among his vampire brethren. And let it be heard, Lestat is my favorite literary character ever. He is portrayed by Tom Cruise in the brilliantly adapted movie Interview with the Vampire and by Stuart Townsend in the butchery that is the second movie adaptation, the Queen of the Damned. 

So that's it for my favorite villains guys. And like I was saying earlier, if you want to do your own version of this post, please do so 'cause that's something I'd love to read! Just don't forget to link back to my post :)

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And because I can never get enough of Lestat...