A reminder on what my lists and challenge is about:
As it’s December, I have decided to make “best of the year” lists for things I like and am interested in. I will cover books, TV shows, anime, movies, and Webtoons.
The challenge part is 100% optional and may not even happen. But the idea is that, if you would like to, fellow bloggers could also participate with the lists, adding in their own personal likes.
If you would like to participate in the challenge, here’s all the lists I’ll try to do. Keep in mind, there isn’t much time left in the year, so even I may not get around to doing all of them. Therefore, you can pick and choose which list(s) to do! Plus, unless he specified, you can choose to have the list be featured around books, TV, movies, anime, or webcomics. Mix it up!
The only rules are that you have to choose fiction or media you discovered in 2017. It doesn’t have to be from 2017, it can be from any year, but you have to have discovered it in 2017. The second rule is that if you do participate in the challenge, please ping-back to one of my posts, so I can see your post! Also, there is no limit to how many things you can put on the list; feel free to put as much or as little as you want.
Lists:
- Best Stories
- Best Main Characters
- Best supporting characters
- Best relationships (platonic and romantic)
- Best antagonists
- Best plot twists
- Most beautiful (this goes for anything BUT books)
- Best written (goes for books and/or Webtoons)
- Best performances (movies, TV shows, and even voice acting)
- Best authors and/or artists
My List:
10. Audrey Rose Wadsworth from Hunting Prince Dracula:
Audrey is a young woman in the 1800s who wants to be a forensic scientist. However, I like that while she wants to work in forensics, which is considered a man’s job, she also appreciates feminine things. However, her development in HPD is even more interesting, as it’s implied she has PTSD after the events of the first book. This causes many problems for her, both emotional and external.
9. Abigail Rook and R.F Jackaby from the Jackaby series:
Fun. That’s what comes to mind when I think of these two. They feel like if the Doctor and his companion would have to take up the shoes of Holmes and Watson for a day. Especially if it were the 10th Doctor…Jackaby is the mysterious detective who can see the supernatural, and tends to be a bit scatterbrained and random. Abigail is much more organized and practical, but is open minded and incredibly intelligent and brace.
8. Kasey Young from Little Monsters:
Kasey is one of the best unreliable narrators I’ve read this year. She has a lot of problems. But when she moves in with her father and stepfamily and also makes two close friends, she thinks everything will be okay. But then her friend goes missing, and suddenly, people begin to suspect she has something to do with it. What makes her so interesting is that we don’t know how much of the danger that’s happening is really happening, or is in her head.
7. August Flynn, This Savage Song:
When I first started to read about August, I was worried he would be the typical emo, tortured male lead. While he does have some of those qualities, he has a good reason to angst a little; he’s not even human. He’s a Sunai, a monster who can steal a soul with a song. And sometimes, when a Sunai doesn’t feed on a sinner’s soul for a while, they “go dark”, and end up losing some of their soul. It’s an understandable fear, especially when you think of Leo, his older brother, who is quite scary.
6. Todd, The Knife of Never Letting Go:
Todd lives in Prentisstown, a strange world where everyone can hear everyone’s thoughts in The Noise, a collective jumble of thoughts (even animal’s thoughts). It also has no women. So when Todd and his dog Manchee discover a strange spot of pure silence, his adoptive parents try to get him out of the town fast. He promptly meets Viola, a girl who emits not Noise, but silence. They try to survive together. Todd has such amazing character development in the book alone.
5. Bronwyn and Nate from One of Us is Lying:
While I also liked Addy and Copper’s chapters, and all four of these characters are fantastic deconstructions, the two characters that really stood out to me were Bronwyn and Nate. Bronwyn is a girl who is incredibly smart, and is desperate to go to Yale, by any means necessary. She’s very stressed from all the responsibility she carries. Nate seems like the classic “bad boy” type. I usually don’t like those, but he’s a genuinely kind person, but is portrayed as really flawed without any sugar coating.
4. Mark Watney, The Martian:
If anyone had to be stranded on Mars, it would have to be Mark Watney. He’s a botanist who was on a mission to Mars with his crew. but when a storm hits, he gets injured and is stranded. Mark manages to survive not only his injury, but his years on Mars as he and NASA try to figure out a way to bring him back to Earth. The book is told mainly from his perspective, so it could be easy to get tired of him. But his humor and intelligence make him a joy to read, and made me love his chapters.
3. Emika Chen, Warcross:
I feel as though we need more “smart” female leads who’s greatest asset isn’t about how tough they are, or even how smart they are; its how they use their intelligence. That is what Emika does, and what makes her such an amazing protagonist. She’s smart, independent, and brave. She uses her intelligence and her abilities with computers wisely. When things get tough, she remains strong in her convictions and doesn’t allow her heart to sway her on the wrong path. She’s not just smart technology wise too, she has people smarts as well and is a fast learner.
2. Kaz Brekker, Six of Crows:
Morally grey protagonists aren’t popular in YA, and when they are written, they can be overly angsty. Kaz is an exception. Even though he’s around seventeen (I think), he has enough street smarts, people smarts, and book smarts to be a formidable gang leader, known as “Dirtyhands” or “The bastard of the Barrel”. But even with that reputation, he’s a surprise. He has PTSD that causes him to hate human contact, but also has incredibly well hidden feelings for his spy Inej that he’s unaware of. Those factors blend together to make a very well rounded protagonist.
1. Jazz Dent, The I Hunt Killers series:
Speaking of morally grey protagonists…Jazz Dent is the son of the world’s most infamous serial killer. Because of this, he’s always struggling between being “normal”, and letting his sociopathic and manipulative tendencies come out. He’s a mess, and it’s hard not to feel at least a little sympathetic for him. Being in his head is as disturbing as it is fascinating. It would be understandable for him to be written as too angsty and dark. But not once does he feel over the top or contrived. He feels real. But he is a master manipulator…he even managed to manipulate me into giving him the number one spot.
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