Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Kick-Ass Femmes in YA Literature - Part 2

Finding strong, independent female characters in popular literature can be difficult, but there are some Ladies of the Pages that do the female gender proud:


Cammie of Ally Carter's I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You - Book one of the Gallagher Girl series

Cammie is a second generation Gallagher Girl attending the prestigious Gallagher Academy - which just happens to be a training facility for teenage spies.  She and her classmates excel at tailing, hand-to-hand combat and code cracking, but Cammie's special talent is for blending into the background.  She prides herself on not being noticed.  So when a boy from the local town actually does notice her, Cammie is stunned.  Could he be the boy of her dreams? Perhaps.  But falling in love is difficult when your trying to uncover a national conspiracy, keep your grades up and keep your mom, the super-spy, in the dark.

Traits: Loyal, Intelligent, Friendly
Pressia of Pure by Julianna Baggott

The Detonations destroyed the world as it was; what has survived is utterly changed from the Before.  Groupies roam the streets turning their many eyes in search of victims, OSR takes anyone over the age of 16 to be either soldier or cannon-fodder, and altered strange amalgamations of animal, plant and mineral wait for the unwary.  Above the turmoil of the outside sits the Dome, a haven where the Pures where protected from the blasts and where they wait for the Earth to renew itself.  Pressia has just turned 16 and the OSR is coming for her; but she does not want to kill or be killed and, in running, puts herself on an even more dangerous path.  Click here for full review.

Traits: Kind, Thoughtful, Resourceful, Determined
Sunday of Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

Sunday is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter and, in a land where magic abounds, this can mean many things.  But Sunday has lived all her life in the shadow of her older sisters experiencing none of their adventures except vicariously through the stories.  Sunday loves stories, hearing them, collecting them, creating her own and writing them down in her magical never-ending journal.  But Sunday never tells stories, over time she has discovered that her tales have an unfortunate habit of coming true, so she contents herself with her journal and her dreams.  Until one day she befriends an enchanted frog in the Wood and unknowingly sets her own story in motion.  For full review click here.

Traits: Loyal, Creative, Kind
Aislinn of Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

The fey realm gets a bit darker in this urban fantasy.  Aislinn has been raised by three rules: don't stare at invisible fairies; don't speak to invisible fairies; and don't ever attract fairies attention.  But those rules will not keep her safe from Keenan, the Summer King, who has spent the last 900 years searching for the one girl capable of becoming his Summer Queen.  Now Aislinn faces an impossible choice: give up her freedom (and possibly her life) to become Keenan's Queen, or watch the world and the people she loves descend into unending Winter.

Traits: Fierce, Determined, Self-Possessed
Cleo of Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

For a hundred years magic, the lifeblood of the three realms of Mytica, has been fading, slowly killing the land and driving two of the three kingdoms into desperate straits.  Cleo, Jonas, Lucia and Magnus soon discover that the actions of a single person can change the course of history and determine a nation's fate.

Traits: Loving, Passionate, Strong-Willed