Hi dear friends,
Today’s topic in Top 5 Tuesday hosted by Shanah @bionicbookworm is character driven stories.
I know I can be you jokester and tweak the meme but if there is one think I take seriously it’s book characters!
How so they are fictional? They don’t exist in real life?
I don’t care!
They are REAL to me.
I walk in their shoes, hold their hands when they are sad, get drunk (moderatly) with them, grieve and laugh with them…when the author does a good job that is!
I often wish I could befriend them in real life.
So no tweak today just important business.
Oh and I can’t promise to stop at five because …I am passionate!
The Silver Cage by Anonymous
This story is the most intense I have read this year. I’ve been utterly destroyed after my read. The main reason was Caleb. He had such intensity, such presence, such tragic destiny! This book just changed my view on LGBTQ reads.
Making Faces by Amy Harmon
The characters in this story are just fabulous! Inspiring! And Bailey was my super hero.
I wrote: “The characters in “Making Faces” are extraordinary. So much I wish I could be friend with them in the real life. Fern is selfless, caring, enthousiast for simple things and has no pretense. She is deeply loyal in friendship as in love. As Ambrose said, she writes “smutty romance novels and quote scripture”. Ambrose is intense, courageous, beautiful inside out. He is introspctive, strong and loyal. And Bailey … he is my Super Hero! He is so alive, self mocking, determined to fight and beat the odds. Never self centered, never complaining despite his sickness. He is a force to be reckoned with.”
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Finch is the star of the book. Eccentric, extreme, going from upbeat to depressed.
This is what they inspired me to write:
“And yet, I thought many times to stop reading because I could not connect with Fynch for 40% of the book. I could not decide if he was playing a role, had a mental problem hid some dark secret that would make him behave like that. I was dizzy just reading about his personality changes.
Violet I could not really feel either in the beginning.
But as he made her feel better, more like her “old self” I could see the guy had some potential.
On I went …
And all was good even very good as I fell into their world and love. They were wandering and being happy. Fynch was my buddy, the one to take me on adventure in my backyards and discover the wonder of the world just 3 miles from my house. I loved his quirks and how he had a unique perspective on life.
I was in Sophie’s (that would be me) Merry Reader World.
Now I’m furious, mad, enraged, incandescent, incensed, irate …sad, heartbroken, crestfallen, inconsolable.”
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
This book is just filled with unique and interesting characters. Fredrik has a knack for portraying them in a real and humble way.
In a nutshell I wrote: “Frederik Backman wrote a gorgeous story revolving around ordinary human beings led by their dreams only to see them crumble and leave them in a state of despair. With an acute writing he weaves a tale of friendships, fights to survive, to thrive in a hostile environment. Humanity at its best and lowest. He swept me off my feet and made me walk for two days in the shoes of these extraordinarily ordinary but exceptional characters.“
Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
Don’t start le on this one.
Lochan was just so real, so tortured, so beautiful, so …and Maya. I sobbed by the end of the book. I could not stop thinking about it for days after I’d read it.
The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner
I loved the three main characters. I think the author did a fantastic job portraying them. You can see who they are, live and eat with them. They become YOUR best friends. That’s why you suffer with them when fate struck. Their pain is your pain their loss is your loss.
It was my first Jeff Zentner book but not my last!
The Hate U Give by Angy Thomas
Well it simply was Starr’s story! That’s it.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
I adored Louisa Clark! She has an irresistible sunny personality. Everything in the book happens because of Louisa. If it’s not character driven I don’t know what is!
Now drum roll: the answers to last weeks covers!
Under these beautiful hard covers you had:
The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo;
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins;
Passenger by Alexandra Bracken (with the tree);
Hallowed by Cynthia Hand;
Grace and Fury (deep blue) by Tracy Banghart.
Now do tell me what are your top 5 character driven stories?
Thanks for reading!
OF COURSE I have to mention The Raven Cycle, aka a book series that contains my favourite fictional characters EVER (I am always excited, when I talk about it, yeah). I love All The Bright Places too (the characters felt so real!), Cecelia Ahern’s characters are so great in general and I’ll add Harry Potter characters too, which are a colorful, huge cast that J.K. Rowling decided to bless we all with.
The Raven Cycle *sigh* 😉
Totally agree with your take on the characters from Making Faces. Ambrose broke my heart and Bailey was amazing. With The Serpent King… I loved Travis and Dill but try as I might I just never warmed to Lydia. I found her to be so oblivious to the lives her two “best” friends were living, safe and comfortable as she was at her middle class home with two loving parents. But man did that book break my heart. I will forever remember the line, “Is my mom there?” And get weepy every time I think about it.
Well Tanya I wish we could meet irl because you weep reading books and your books are my books etc!
Added Silver Cage to My tbr. Yes to THUG, such an amazing book!
Fingers crossed now Hanna!
My choice for book club last summer was The Serpent King, and I was the only member who’d read YA. The other members were surprised how much they loved the book – they thought YA was all high school drama, crushes, etc. One of them even got her teenage son to read it. Maybe I converted a few of them, lol!
Oh Teri that would be so wonderful! My colleagues and friends always ask me rec for their kids LOL. And when I read it I never knew that a member of a music band could write something like that! Talk about judging people! Jeff really impressed me and I’ve been a fan since.
I still need to read THUG!!
Oh Kayla her next book will be out in a few months 😉
I have All the Bright Places, and admittedly i bought it when i saw it in the charity shop because i keep seeing it mentioned on the blogs i follow 😀
Hahaha Norrie now you have to read it LOL
I’ve only read THUG! But I do want to give Beartown a try! Have you read The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin? That’s one character driven book that comes to mind!
The Immortalist? No but now you have me all intrigued!
Oooooh I need to read BearTown I LOVE Bachman… And All The Bright Places is one I have been wanting to read but always balk… I think you gave me the push I need to go for it! Thanks Sophie ❤️
You are more than welcome Dani!!!!
OMG haven’t read any of these books! But my top5 character driven books are SoC, The Raven Cycle, The Dollar Kids, The Young Elites, and Heartless!!
I began The Raven Cycle and I loved it! I stopped because I had to wait so long for the next book but I should really go back to this series. I love Maggie’s writing.
Making faces sounds really interesting! I had to look it up – the cover was of course of a beautiful specimen (yum) but he’s not in the usual stance of a half naked man. The Serpent King has been on my TBR for the longest time! I really need to get to it!!! Thanks for participating 🙂
You are most welcome Shanah!
Two of my crying books are up there, so now I have to wipe my tears. I loved Finch so much! And TSK — the sad part just broke me.
Well Sam I cried all the time too. But you should try Forbidden you’ll be a real fountain!