I have an affiliate relationship with Bookshop.org and Malaprop's Bookstore in beautiful Asheville, NC. I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase merchandise through links on my site. Read more on my affiliate page.
We all have characters we love. Let’s spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too!
Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie’s arms. The possibilities are endless.
Be sure to post the book’s title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters.
Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.
If you like strong female characters, you have got to read Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Allison at The Allure of Books raved about this book so much on GoodReads that I finally just had to go check it out. The summary hadn’t done much for me, but this book was seriously awesome.
Katsa and Po were both great characters, but I feel like writing about Katsa today.
Katsa is Graced. She has one blue eye and one green, and she has an almost supernatural ability to kill. She’s been her uncle the king’s hired gun for a long time, and she’s a young woman. He got her started early. She doesn’t like what she does but doesn’t feel like she has much choice in the matter. She’s a little afraid of her abilities and she’s a little insecure because very few people want to spend time with a woman they view as little more than a killing machine.
Throughout the book though, she comes into her own. I really can’t write it any better than I did in my review: “I loved seeing her realize that she was living her own legend. Whether it was a good story or a bad story was entirely up to her.”
I have read complaints that Katsa is a little too strong. There is one scene I wish hadn’t happened, but otherwise, I really see where she’s coming from. She’s practically been caged her entire life. Sure, she’s physically been able to move around, but she’s been doing entirely her uncle’s bidding. Once she starts to break away from that, she’s reveling in her freedom. She’s able to do what she wants when she wants. She’s also skittish about forming any lasting attachments. I can understand how that works. The only person that she’s had many ties to has exploited her. Who wouldn’t want to keep all options open? Now that she’s out of that metaphorical cage, it’s going to take time, effort, and a lot of patience to sort of tame her. She’ll never be completely tamed, but I think there’s infinite potential for her to learn to have a committed relationship. And if she doesn’t, she still seems happy where she is. Even though I’m happily married, I can even see a little of her point. She thinks it would be nice to know that every day, your partner chooses to be with you, rather than feeling like he has to be with you because of social custom. That wouldn’t work for me, but I can see how it would appeal to a personality different from my own. Her choices might not be choices some of us would make, but they make sense in terms of her own character. And whatever else she might be, Katsa has learned to be true to herself.
Who did you connect with this week? Write a post and link up! Be sure to visit everyone else’s posts too!
3 Comments
I really liked Katsa as well. Such a breath of fresh air in terms of female characters. Really enjoyed Graceling overall.
I've heard so many great things about this book, and I have a copy on my shelf, but I STILL haven't read it! The fact that you wrote your Character Connection on Katsa makes me much more excited to read it!
Great post! You know I'm a big Katsa fan…and like you kinda said, the way her character is written makes her thought processes and the ways/reasons she does things make sense. Even if you don't agree with her, its hard to not see where she is coming from.