Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday was started by The Broke and the Bookish. Every Tuesday there’s a different topic. This week is top ten characters who X, so it was our choice to fill in. I chose to do characters who had great growth arcs during their books.

10. Elisa from The Girl of Fire and Thorns – Rae Carson. Elisa starts off the book as the younger princess, weak and insecure about her appearance, especially her weight. Her transformation into a strong young woman who believes in herself and her abilities to lead a kingdom was fantastic.

9. Cadence from Don’t Touch – Rachel M Wilson. The book starts with showing just how much OCD can affect a person and Cadence has to work through it in order to live her life.

8. Paige from The Start of Me and You – Emory Lord. Paige has to deal with PTSD and moving on after the death of her boyfriend.

7. Sydney/Adrian from Bloodlines – Richelle Mead. This was more of a series growth. Sydney had to learn to let go of her prejudices against vampires and her need to always please her father. Adrian had to overcome the affects of Spirit and find ways to deal with it that didn’t involve constantly being drunk.

6. Gretchen from Prisoner of Night and Fog – Anne Blankman. This may have been one of the more horrifying growth arcs in terms of a young girl learning the truth behind someone she’s trusted for so long. She had to overcome prejudices ingrained in her and to stand up against her bully of a brother.

5. Lex from Faking Normal – Courtney C Stevens. There was something about Lex’s growth in this book that felt so personal. I found myself getting heavily invested in her well-being. Watching her learn to open up to someone and deal with the secret she’d been keeping for so long was an amazing journey.

4. Adam from The Raven Boys – Maggie Stiefvater. This is another growth arc that’s been happening over the series. Adam has trust issues and an inability to let people help him. He’s been abused by his father for so long and hates the idea of owing anyone anything. He’s slowly learning to completely trust his friends and that they want nothing in return if they do lend a hand.

3. Josh from I’ll Meet You There – Heather Demetrios. The ‘need to escape small town’ feeling is all over this book and Josh needs to come to terms with the fact that he got out but finds himself back after losing his leg fighting in the war. He has PTSD and has to determine what he wants from his life now that it’s taken an unexpected turn.

2. Aysel from My Heart and Other Black Holes – Jasmine Warga. This was another journey that felt very personal. Aysel is depressed and contemplating suicide. She couldn’t see just how strong she was or how much her family needed her because the depression made her see things so differently.

1. Sloane from The Art of Getting Stared at – Laura Langston. This was one of my favourite growth arcs. Sloane has Alopecia and has to deal with everyone who knows saying things like ‘it’s just hair’ to her. It is just hair but it’s her hair. This was extremely personal since one of my sisters also has Alopecia.