It's time to talk about characters! Everyone loves a good character, right? I know I do. One of the difficulties with this post in particular is that there are multiple different ways to "like" a character. Sometimes I like a character for who they are, and I probably want to be best friends with them. Sometimes I think a character is complex and interesting, but I don't necessarily like them as...
I love character description! No really, give me all the character description, and I will eat it up. I know some people don't like too much of it, but I love getting to see what every new character I meet looks like. So I thought it'd make a good post to explain why I love it so much, and then you all can tell me your thoughts on the...
The creation of this post has been a curvy path. The original idea came about because of something in The Vampire Chronicles. It got me thinking, so I ended up writing a post about whether rape in books can ever be forgivable. But then I ended up on this whole tangent of why readers might still like a character who has done something bad or seemingly unforgivable. So I decided, instead of...
I've been doing a lot of serious discussion posts lately, so I thought I'd do one a little more light and fun this week. So... Have you ever thought about how observant characters are? I mean, for everywhere they go they seem to notice all the different paintings on the walls, the types of plants, the pattern in the carpeting, and for every person they meet, they seem to notice everything from...
"Strong female character" is a pretty common phrase nowadays. I even used to include a tag for it in my book review posts. I mean, we all know (or should know) that sexism is still a problem in our world, and I just wanted to do my part by pointing out the female characters who could help combat the sexism, who could show that women are just as good as men, etc. But one day I decided to remove...
Last week I talked about the double standard about sexual promiscuity in books (I'll link to that post below), but this week I want to talk about characters getting emotional. If you know me, you know that emotion is my favorite thing about books. I love to FEEL things, and I do that through the characters, by feeling what they feel. So this particular topic is something I've thought about for a...
I'm one of those people who thinks far too much. So, inevitably, I end up thinking a lot about the books I read and how they relate to life in general and to my own beliefs. And one of the things that comes up a lot for me is the way female characters are treated. I feel like people are often pointing out the flaws in books when it comes to how female characters are treated by other characters,...
Last week I posted a discussion in which I asked whether you all prefer male or female protagonists and got some great insight and responses, so I thought it'd be interesting to do a post about age as well. General consensus seems to be that we all just like characters who we relate to, characters who are likeable, and/or characters who have certain traits that we personally happen to like,...
I have no idea what characters other people like or dislike, and I mostly read indie books, so this week's topic is another one of those topics that's just too difficult for me. That's why I've tweaked it! I've come to realize there are certain things that usually make me immediately start to love a character. I'm not talking the typical personality traits like brooding or sarcastic---those are...
Unlike with female characters, there never seems to be a shortage of male characters I like. I often prefer a male protag, but, even as love interests and side characters, they can be just as great. Also, I find it amusing that only 6 of the 16 characters mentioned are normal humans. Not sure if that says more about my taste in books or my taste in men ;-) Anyway, these characters deserve a...
