Tag: females in YA (Page 2 of 4)

The Women in THE UNHEWN STONE by Wendy Laharnar

November 7, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

Wendy Laharnar was gracious enough to stop by the blog today to give us some insight into the women in her YA historical fiction THE UNHEWN STONE. Thanks for sharing today, Wendy!

The Unhewn Stone is 18 yr old Stefan’s search for identity as he tries to restore honour to his family name which has long been tarnished by the Wilhelm Tell legend. From modern day Switzerland, Stefan is transported back to his ancestors, in the Wilhelm Tell era of 1307AD, on a mission to prevent the legend from happening.

While searching for the hero he hopes to find within himself, Stefan finds the heroism he seeks in the women in The Unhewn Stone.

21^st century:

Heidi – sister of Stefan’s best friend Uri.

Ursula – Stefan’s unrequited love.

Marta – Stefan’s sister

Stefan’s mother

14^th century:

Frau Gessler – the tyrant governor’s mother, a healer.

Cassandra – – a prophetess

Yelka – a wanton strumpet

Eva Tell – Wilhelm Tell’s daughter

Hedwig Tell – Wilhelm Tell’s wife

The sibyl – a shapeshifting prophetess.

Ingrid –the innkeeper’s daughter.

I’ll concentrate on four of these women who represent the differing cultures in medieval life and reflect different aspects of Stefan’s changing character.

The sibyl (means ‘prophetess’; ‘oracle’):

Because many peasants, in the Middle Ages still believed in Greek and Roman mythology, I modified this mythical figure based on the Roman ‘Cumaen Sibyl’ to represent the superstitions still lingering in the Middle Ages after the fall of the Roman Empire. She is the bane of Stefan’s life.

Stefan is drawn to this shape-shifter because she bears a strong resemblance to Ursula, the beautiful 21^st century woman Stefan loves. The sibyl appears as a lovely courtesan, a withering crone, a Snow White lookalike and a large black bat. She mistakes Stefan for his ancestor, the alchemist, who, with her help, invented the magic orb. This orb opens the wormhole between 14^th and 21^st century Bürglen in central Switzerland. The sibyl needs the orb to serve her own evil purpose and pursues Stefan relentlessly to get it back. She is ruthless and dangerous, the antithesis of Stefan, the pacifist, who is forced to pit his wits against hers. He finds her both appealing and repulsive. I believe he equates her ugly side to his own ugly complex.

Eva Tell (Eva means ‘life’; ‘living one’; ‘the first woman’):

Eva is a zealot, dominated by her religion, her father and the vision of a united and liberated Switzerland. Tell’s wild daughter fights by his side and yet she is drawn to Rolf, son of the enemy, the tyrant governor Gessler. Their love is stymied by the feuding families, and family is all-important to Eva. Her courage and stubbornness fascinate and confuse Stefan. He sees her as a threat as well as a saviour. When she swaps her clean grey cloak with his filthy blue one, in order to camouflage him, she receives his reluctant admiration. In effect she cloaks Stefan with her identity. This is a significant turning point for Stefan.

Ingrid Gasparin (Ingrid means ‘fair’; ‘beautiful’; more recent meaning ‘a hero’s daughter’):

The innkeeper’s cheeky daughter also has eyes for the nobleman, Rolf, who encourages her advances. To Stefan, Ingrid is simply a peasant, a flirtatious, buxom wench in need of her father’s discipline and a long, hot bath. But the reader knows Ingrid is an innocent; intuitive and just. When Stefan learns that behind the façade she is pious and brave beyond measure, Ingrid becomes his inspiration.

Frau Gessler (unnamed in the book, but clearly she must be a Sophia because this name means ‘wisdom’):

A noble woman, Frau Gessler is the mother of Hermann Gessler, grandmother of Rolf, and great grandmother 7 times removed, or more, to Stefan. She is a pagan, a healer, merciful and kind even to her enemy, but she is quite prepared to physically defend her family when attacked. To Stefan, who is searching for acceptance, Frau Gessler, the matriarch, represents family. He needs to hear her acknowledge him as her grandchild (Grosschind) just once while he is trapped in the 14^th century.

In this era where myth, magic, religion, and science collide, these women embody the conflicting attitudes of the medieval world within themselves and in their society. Their influence on Stefan is profound.

THE UNHEWN STONE blurb:

The Wilhelm Tell legend has a new hero but he belongs to the wrong side . . . on the wrong side of time.

When Swiss teen, Stefan Gessler, answers the call to restore his family’s honour, he discovers it might be easier to change base metal into gold than overcome evil in the Middle Ages with modern day ‘magic’.

With his medieval cousin, Rolf, Stefan is trapped inside the legend, caught in the turbulent events of 1307AD. Pursued by an avaricious shape-shifting sibyl and an evil knight who want him dead, he is hindered in his mission and unlikely to escape the 14thC alive.

Life in the Middle Ages is a dangerous game even for Üserwäälti, the Chosen One.

THE UNHEWN STONE is available at the MuseItUp bookstore, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, and Amazon.

About the Author:

Wendy Laharnar lives on the south coast of NSW, Australia, with her husband and mini Schnauzer, Spitzli. She writes historical fiction, science fiction and children’s stories.

Several overseas trips took her to Europe where she collected ideas and information for her stories. In Switzerland, she researched her medieval novel, The Unhewn Stone, and made lasting friendship with two Swiss women who helped her with their language. Her Arts degree in English Literature and History opened up new worlds to feed her imagination and love for research.

When she isn’t writing, Wendy enjoys spending time with her husband, their son and daughter and their families. She likes to sew and knit and take Spitzli for long walks by the sea.

Contact Wendy via her website, Facebook page, or Twitter account.

Females in YA: Part 8 Reading List

July 22, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

With all these posts about Females in YA, I think it’s about time I offered up some reading recommendations for books that I think have female characters who are worthy of reading. Naturally, this list is limited to what I’ve read, which means it’s subject to my personal reading tastes, and is probably skewed to certain genres (like fantasy). Hopefully you all will offer up your own recommendations in the comments section. 🙂 I aimed to choose characters with varying types of personalities and above all those who are dynamic and complex.

(Note to readers: I’ll try to avoid any big spoilers, but it’s hard to talk about these characters without risking a little bit of spoileryness.)

Let’s start with some classic literature. Granted these aren’t technically YA (since the age designation didn’t exist back then), but I think they have the right kind of YA sensibility to be included in the list.

Fanny Price from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen–though pretty much any of Jane Austen’s novels will offer up some worthy female leads and usually a few females who aren’t exactly role-model material, I wanted to highlight a lead that wasn’t among the most well-known (i.e. a character other than Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice). Fanny is a great example of a female who doesn’t fall into the whole “strong female character” trope. She is extremely shy, often fearful, and has a weak constitution, yet she shows an inner strength of character in her morals, she is intelligent, and as she grows, she gains confidence and self-esteem.
The March sisters from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott–this is one of my favorite books of all time (of course, as I’m so partial to stories about sisters). Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are so different from each other despite being sisters. Meg, the oldest, is beautiful and a bit vain but also loving and dotes on her younger sisters. Tomboy Jo, the principal lead and second oldest, is a passionate, willful, and outspoken. The next sister Beth is a lot like Fanny Price in that she is shy and has a weak constitution, and it is her unselfish and giving personality that is so compelling and ultimately tragic. Yougest sister, Amy, is something of a brat as a child but grows into a talented artist who appreciates the beauty around her and more often than not gets what she wants. What I love about the March sisters is that even when readers identify most with one particular character, it’s easy to see parts of themselves in each of the girls.
Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee–Scout’s young age would peg her more as a middle grade character, but the subject matter of the book and what she is dealing with is mature in nature, so I think it’s fair to include her in this YA list. A tomboy like Jo March, Scout is also highly intelligent, confident, introspective, and moral. Despite facing the evils of the outside world for the first time and losing much of her childlike innocence, Scout maintains an optimist outlook on life at the end.

Honorable Mentions: Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

YA speculative fiction is getting its own category here, in part because it’s one of my favorite genres to read, but also because it’s full of great females characters. Though many females in speculative fiction fall into the stereotypical “strong” female role, I think each of my examples offers something more.

Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins–do I even really need to mention this one? Probably not, but for those of you who may not have read The Hunger Games books (and even if you’ve seen the movies, I still recommend actually reading the books), Katniss is female character to be reckoned with. She is physically strong, mentally tough, a skilled hunter, independent, and a survivor. Yet she is often clueless when it comes to reading emotions and has a narrow world view for a good part of the series, not realizing her own role in the revolution until long after it was evident to many others.
Katsa from Graceling by Kristin Cashore–though possessing many of the same characteristics as Katniss (“What’s with all the ‘K’ names?” I ask with irony because the name of the main character of my own novel starts with a “K”), Katsa is one of my favorite female characters of all time so I had to give her a shout out here. She is intense, independent, a natural-born killer (her special talent, called a Grace, is killing), skilled in combat, brave, and a leader. And yet another female character who is somewhat clueless about not only her own emotions but of others’ as well. As you get deeper into the story, you find there is more to Katsa’s Grace than she thinks and it ends up softening up her personality a bit. I found her views on sex refreshing as well.
Beka Cooper from Terrier by Tamora Pierce–pretty much any female character written by Tamora Pierce is worthy of this list. I chose Beka because she is a more recent creation among Tamora Pierce’s long list of characters and is one my favorites. Born into poverty and adopted into a better life, Beka has just joined up with the Dogs (the nickname for law enforcement members). She is skilled in fighting and brave, but interestingly she is also very shy and has a hard time talking to strangers and even reporting back to her superiors. Despite her shyness, she is very confident in her abilities, bordering on arrogant. Beka also has a strong sense of right and wrong and fights very hard for justice.

Honorable mentions: Alina from Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, Elisa from The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson, Quintana from Quintana of Charyn by Melinna Marchetta, Tris from Divergent by Veronica Roth

Let’s now take a look at contemporary YA.

Hazel Grace from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green–this is another one of those “duh” choices that I’m not even sure needs a mention. Frank about her cancer and prognosis, Hazel approaches life and the inevitability of dying young with a realistic attitude and a dose of humor. She doesn’t sugarcoat anything, but she still maintains a wonderful sense of innocence, particularly as you watch her fall in love. With a fervent love of reading, Hazel is also highly intelligent, attending college classes at the age of sixteen.
Lennie Walker from The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson–I love, love, love this book and Lennie. Mourning the sudden death of her sister, Lennie is a hot mess for a good part of the book. A talented musician and poet, Lennie comes from a quirky family and has some adorable quirks of her own. Even with the emotional turmoil she is feeling, she maintains a much-needed level of humor. It’s her realness and her flaws (she makes some truly ill-advised decisions in the story) that make her so wonderful. Ultimately she is able to see that she has flaws and has made mistakes and tries to make amends for that. Seriously, I can’t recommend this book enough.
Lia from Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson–suffering from anorexia and having recently lost her best friend to the disease, Lia is a heart-wrenching character. She tries so hard to overcome her crippling body image issues, but keeps sliding down the self-destructive slope that is anorexia. You root for her to succeed and cry for her when she doesn’t. She is a frustrating and beautifully flawed character, so desperate for love yet also almost incapable of accepting it.

Honorable mentions: Melinda Sordino from Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Anna from Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, Hannah Baker from Thirteen Reason Why by Jay Asher, Caitlin from Hold Still by Nina LaCour

And finally with all the discussion in the kidlit world lately about diverity, I thought I would include a section devoted entirely to diverse female characters in YA.

Ash from Ash by Malinda Lo–in this Cinderella retelling, Ash lives half in a fairy tale world of the fairies and half in the human world. Very much a dreamer and with little ties to the human world, she is challenged to stay there by another great female character in Kaisa, the King’s Huntress. The most rewarding part of Ash is her transformation throughout the story, which is largely due to her relationship with Kaisa, who is not only a skilled huntress but brave, beautiful, strong, and confident.
Ai Ling from Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon–never one to be defined by the men who have rejected her, Ai Ling is another wonderfully independent female character in a fantasy novel. On a quest and faced with challenge after challenge, Ai Ling’s bravery, ingenuity, and powerful inner self rises to the occasion again and again. It was also so refreshing to read about how much she enjoys food because there are some girls who, ya know, actually like eating.
Dellie from The Trouble With Half a Moon by Danette Vigilante–though this story is a little more on the middle grade line than most of the other examples, I think it’s worth being on this list because of Dellie. Despite having to face down the dangers in her neighborhood and her own personal grief, Dellie’s big heart shines through. She is courageous, curious, kind, and not afraid to defy her mother’s protective ways take a chance to help a young boy in need.

Honorable mentions: June from Legend by Marie Lu, Cinder from Cinder by Marissa Meyer, Saba Khan from The Art of Secrets by James Klise

So that’s my shortlist of females in YA, though I know there are many more worthy of reading. Now it’s your turn to share who’s on your list…

Females in YA: Part 7 Unlikable Girls

May 7, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

In my Internet trolling, I’ve come across so many articles recently related to females in YA or women in writing. They’ve inspired a lot of thoughts and I was going to do a quick round-up (with a few of those thoughts) today. But then I started writing about one article and came across some more related articles (as tends to happen in the wormhole of the Interweb) and it turned into enough material for an entire blog post. So I guess those other articles will have to wait until another day to have their moment on my blog.

This post in particular was inspired in part by the article “Why Talking About Girl Really Matters” on Stacked Books. The article begins with the thought that we need to talk about girls reading and ways to encourage them to read (not just focus on getting the so-called reluctant demographic of boys reading).

The part of the article that really struck me was this statement, “Girls are as complex as boys, but so often, we let girls be placed into one of two categories, based entirely on our preferences: likable or unlikable.These aren’t critiques of story nor are they critiques of character. They are preferences. There’s nothing wrong with preferring a likable or unlikable character, but there is something wrong when that becomes the means through which we critique a story and thus the way that we then present those stories to readers — especially to girl readers who may identify as unlikable or as likable vis a vis those books.”

I can look to my own character Katora in my YA fantasy Elixir Bound. In reader reviews, she has been called self-centered, couldn’t quite be liked by the reader, whiny, selfish, a bit of a pill, stubborn, and a control freak. Yikes! Based on those comments alone, I’d probably make some pretty harsh judgments on Katora.

Yet one reviewer said Katora was her favorite character because she was strong-willed and the novel benefited from Katora’s personality, another adored her, and a third was enchanted by her. She is also described as driven, hard working, likable, a great heroine, having a side of her that really cares for her siblings, self-dependent, strong, and brave. A bit of a different picture of the character of Katora.

(Please note that I appreciate all reviews written of my book, even the unfavorable ones. I’m not saying any of these reviewers are wrong—and many of them mentioned liking her even though they also used unfavorable descriptions, some of the positive and negative descriptions came from a single reviewer—just pointing out that my beloved character can be seen as unlikable by some standards.)

Given in many ways that Katora is a reflection of myself (in a weird fictional way), I could take that to mean that people see me as unlikable. Yikes again! Now what if a teenage girl saw something of herself in Katora and then read a review that described Katora as unlikable or selfish or something much worse. She might make the mistake of thinking herself unlikable or worse. Triple yikes!

I can think of many YA books in which I didn’t always “like” the female character at some point in the book (one in particular that comes to mind is Samantha in Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall), but that didn’t mean I didn’t “like” her in general. Usually a “dislike” moment stemmed from some action she took. In the case of Samantha, she is a popular girl who doesn’t always treat people nicely, but there are many sides to her and part of her journey is learning to treat others better.

So just because Samantha had “unlikable” moments didn’t mean she wasn’t a good character lacking any redeemable qualities, and it certainly didn’t make for a bad book. In fact, Before I Fall was one of my favorite books that year and came highly recommended. Again, it comes back to the fact that so much of what is considered likable or unlikable is subjective and not necessarily a good means of evaluating a character or a book.

And if writing good characters is in part writing characters that are dynamic and realistic, then all characters should possess “unlikable” qualities. In fact, a character who is totally likable would probably be pretty boring to read and would ring untrue to life. The best characters have flaws. Maybe we need to rethink the terminology and stop pegging female characters in YA as “likable” or “unlikable” because those terms hardly encompass what a character’s (or person’s) true personality is.

What females in YA have you found to be either likable or unlikable (or both)?

For more reading on this topic, check out:

“The Girl Myth in YA (And Beyond)” on Book Riot

“UNLIKABLE FEMALE CHARACTERS IN YA FICTION: A READING LIST” on Stacked Books

“Boys Will Be Boys, and Girls Will Be Accommodating” by Laurel Snyder

“The 10 Most Annoying Teenagers From Books” on Huff Post Books, though these are not all girl characters and not all from YA books, still a worthy—and fun—read

Females in YA: Part 6 the Bechdel Test

March 10, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

I’ve mentioned the Bechdel Test a few times in conversations recently and most people have given me a “huh?” look and proceeded to listen to my explanation of what it is with a glazed look of disinterest. But stick with me for a few minutes because I think it’s worth a moment of thought.

So what is the Bechdel Test? Originally used to evaluate films and now used for other works of fiction, it is a quick and basic way to look at a film or book or whatever to see if it fails a very simple gender bias test. The criteria: Two named women characters (let’s revise this to females b/c with kids’ books we’re not always talking about grown ups) speak to each other about something other than a man (let’s revise this to male for the same reason stated above).

Seems like a pretty basic test to pass, but it’s amazing how many films don’t. Just taking a look at this year’s Oscar nominated movies for best picture, only four out of nine pass. (Here’s a website where you can explore what movies pass/fail the test and a thoughtful article about women in movies by Frank Bruni called “Waiting for Wonder Woman”.)

Now I realize the Bechdel Test isn’t a perfect way to evaluate the gender biases of a work of fiction and certainly isn’t a good judge of whether or not a piece of fiction is good. The test is too simple to be a comprehensive look at gender bias, but I think think the point is that it’s simple and it’s a good jumping off point. And there are many, many works of fiction that are brilliant that don’t pass the test. (I’m thinking of The Shawshank Redemption, one of my favorite movies, which happens to fail all three of the Bechdel Test’s criteria and probably shouldn’t pass the test given the setting and time place–an all male prison in the past.)

So it seems Hollywood isn’t doing a great job at representing the–ahem–better half 😉 of the human race. But how are we doing in YA? I think a pretty good job. If there’s one form of fiction that is female-centric, it’s YA. There are so many different genres, topics, issues, and characters in YA, and it is this diversity (when I say “diversity,” I’m not talking about race here…that’s a whole other topic) that is one of my favorite things about YA.

Sure YA has lots of books about boy-girl romances and there are those books where the regular girl falls for the hot, often non-human, guy for no more compelling reason than he’s hot and maybe not totally human. Beyond that, though, there are romances where the female character has real conversations with her female friends about things other than the male love interest, there are books about female friendships, and there are books where females are taking on the world together. (Now you want some specific examples, right? Hmm…maybe I’ll have to pull some recommendations together for another blog post.)

If you haven’t seen my past Females in YA posts, you can find them all in this link. So what are your favorite YA books that pass the Bechdel Test?

Females in YA: Part 5 Strong Female Characters

October 28, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

There’s no shortage of strong females characters in YA, and the likes of Katniss from The Hunger Games, Tris from Divergent, and Katsa from Graceling come to mind. Strong female characters are equated with physical strength. And a physically strong character is a nice change from the damsel in distress that has been so prevalent in literature and movies.

But why stop at physical strength? Dictionary.com does have physical strength as the first definition, but definition 3 is “mentally powerful or vigorous”; definition 4 is “especially able, competent, or powerful in a specific field or respect”; and definition 5 is “of great moral power, firmness, or courage.”

I’m not the first to pose this question. An article called “I Hate Strong Female Characters” by Sophia McDougall (though more about film and TV than books) states, “No one ever asks if a male character is ‘strong’. Nor if he’s ‘feisty,’ or ‘kick-ass’ come to that.” She argues that male characters are often assumed to be strong, so there’s no need to label them as strong. The label of strong female character means that these characters are not the norm, she uses the word anomalous, meaning females are assumed to be the weaker sex.

So what does Ms. McDougall want instead of strong? She says, “I want a wealth of complex female protagonists who can be either strong or weak or both or neither, because they are more than strength or weakness.” Amen to that!

Several bloggers wrote their own posts in response to this article. YA Confidential had a roundtable discussion on the topic. A somewhat lengthy discussion, but worth the read as they cover topics from double standards, love triangles, the Harry Potter books, and George R. R. Martin’s characters. One person mentions Melina Marchetta’s Lumatere Chronicles (fabulous books b.t.w.!) and how her female characters “aren’t just strong; they have depth, emotions, motivation, feelings… they represent what actual people (women in this case) would be like.”

In a post by the YA Guy, he takes issue with Katniss “unwittingly” starting a revolution. In an astute observation about Katniss, he points out, “Strong as she is, Katniss both relies on and is manipulated by the male characters who surround her… While she’s running around kicking butt…it’s the men who are plotting behind the scenes, whether they’re coaching her through her televised interview, figuring out a strategy to survive the Games, or attempting to double-cross her. She’s strong. But they’re smart.”

Katniss’ ignorance of the stirring revolution and her role in it was the answer to the question that had been bothering me throughout the whole series. While I was reading, it was more of a feeling, and it wasn’t until I read the YA Guy’s post that I was able to put words to it.

Another post worth reading is Rebecca Rogers Maher’s “Flawed Heroines and the Likeability Standard.”

Over at YALSA‘s The Hub (article appears to no longer be available), Molly Wetta offers some alternatives to the typical “strong” female character in her post “What We Talk About When We Talk About ‘Strong’ Heroines in Young Adult Fiction.” She asks that we “celebrate the quiet(er) strength of realistic characters as well as the dramatic, death-defying strength of sci-fi, action/adventure, and fantasy heroines. Strength is more than physical prowess or fighting skills.”

During my Elixir Bound blog tour, I offered my own thoughts on strong female characters. Seems I’m preaching to the choir when I ask readers and writers to think of more than just physical strength when considering whether or not a female character is strong. Because, for me, a strong female character is one who is strong in character. Whether that be a physical strength, an emotional strength, or an intellectual strength. And hopefully we see more female characters who exhibit several types of strengths, and shows some weaknesses as well.