Types of characters I LOVE and HATE!

Hi guys!! Hope you’re doing well and happy fourth of July to those celebrating! 🙂 I hope you’re having an amazing time + eating lots of cake and chocolate!

Anyway, to state the obvious: I am a total bookworm! And as a reader I have come across various different types of books and characters and have kind of shaped my preferences through all the books I’ve read. Especially through book blogging, since I’ve discovered so many different books because of it. I have no doubt everyone holds some preference towards certain types of characters than others as well?? IT IS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO. So let’s see which ones we may have in common, shall we?

*Pst: I also have news about my giveaway!! It ended yesterday and I chose the winner, who will be announced at the end of the post!! ❤

1. Bookish/Nerdy/Geeky/Fangirl-Fanboy Characters

You have no idea how many times I squealed “MEEEEEE” as I read Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda or Fangirl??? Or just found a book with a Harry Potter reference? Or a book/movie/something I recognize? And even if I don’t recognize it, the general fangirl sentiment is there and it makes the book just that much more relatable. And I love relatable! You love relatable! Everyone loves relatable! And having these types of characters are just universally representative? If that makes sense. You can’t really get these characters “wrong” or misrepresented unless there is NO PROOF of actual fangirling/bookishness in the character? (Pst: Show vs tell!!)

SO GIVE ME ALL THE BOOKISH CHARACTERS.

Fabulous examples ft. books I’ve read and on my TBR:

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli: LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE SO MUCH. This book is fabulous in its own right but would not be the same without Simon’s utter geekiness?!

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: Oh hi do I see my name written on this book??? INDEED. ❤ Such an amazing and adorable book!!

Geekerella by Ashley Poston: I’ve mentioned this book a few times, I LOVE IT SO MUCH. It is an utterly fluffy and adorable book with fangirl and fanboy main characters, also a retelling of Cinderella and it’s so cuteeeeeeee. ❤

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde: SO MUCH GEEKINESS. AND I (WILL) LOVE IT!! Shh, no I haven’t read it yet because I am an odd procrastinating pumpkin but I can’t wait to read it!

The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash: Look at all these geeky books *proud tears* The synopsis mentions a love of Harry Potter (#yes) and comic books + visit to Comic Con!! I’m not a comic book person but GEEKINESS please.

Bookishly Ever After by Isabel Bandeira: I was SO excited for this one when it was first being released, and I think a lot of other people were as well (THE TITLE)! I’m still excited for this but I kind of forgot what it’s about? But it sounds like the perfect book for a bookworm omg.

2. SNARKY/WITTY Characters for lifeeeee

If there were two types of characters I would never ever ever get tired of, it’s the bookish and the witty ones!! Oh. My Gosh. The amount of love I have for these characters is unreallll?? Snarky and witty characters are just so much fun to read about! Also because I wish I was that witty in real life? But also banter is one of my favourite things of ever in books and with these types of characters, the banter is endless and I LOVE IT SO MUCH. You can never ever ever part me from these types of characters!!

Some precious examples:

The Dregs from Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: I recently-ish reread the two books in the Six of Crows duology and it just hit me again how AMAZING the characters are?? + SO MUCH BANTER ❤

Will & Jace from The Infernal Devices and The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare: Ahhhh it’s been so long since I read or even mentioned these books!! MY PRECIOUS.

All my precious characters from the Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab: Rhy! Lila! Kell! Alucard! Schwab writes such amazing characters and seeing how there is so much wit and sass in these ones it’s no wonder I love them?

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee: I haven’t read this book yet, but it’s on my TBR! I have been promised diversity and many sassy characters so I can’t waittttt. ❤

3. SOFT and pure characters

This goes more for love interests in particular (but not necessarily), but I am kind of really over the “macho”, agressive love interest which trended for a while? And have rediscovered my love for the soft characters who are sweet, and kind and thoughtful because WHO DOESN’T like them?? ❤ They are true book boyfriend material, you know?

Reid from The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli: He’s SO SWEET! ❤ *cries* He’s also a geeky character?? #win I’d also add Simon to the list but I already mentioned that book and I didn’t want to repeat lol. Becky Albertalli writes such amazing characters!!

Adam from A List of Cages by Robin Roe: I will neverrrr stop trying to get people to read this book haha. It’s so heartbreaking, and also Adam is the BEST. He is an amazing brother, his personality warmed my heart and GAH.

Frank from Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson: Frank is also so niceeee! I loved how his and Emily’s friendship/relationship developed, it was so cuteeee.

Rishi from When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon (unread): I haven’t read this book yet but I’ve read a ton of reviews that have mentioned how sweet Rishi is!! I absolutely CAN’T WAIT to meet him and Dimple ahhhhh.

4. Characters who bake/love food

NINA from Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: I’m going to make an exception for my no repeats rule here because there are so little characters I can think of who show an appreciation for food? Nina is my SPIRIT ANIMAL.

Layla from Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen: So much french fries appreciation in this book through Layla!! and I was SO HUNGRY and also I relate??? French fries are treacherously divine.

Cath from Heartless by Marissa Meyer: Cath baked soooooo many delicious things and that was probably my favourite part of the book? Lol. I wasn’t the biggest fan of her character itself unfortunately but there was food!! A+

Lara Jean from the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series by Jenny Han: So much baking in this one as well!! I am utterly jealous because I can’t bake to save my life?? I want allll the stuff she made. *stomach grumbles*

Story time: I tried making icing the other day for cookies and I ended up with watery butter and a bowl of wasted icing sugar?? It was like soup with butter and sugar chunks. It was SO BAD. #neveragain 

I don’t have any books that I know of on my TBR yet where there are characters who love food?? Give me recsss of food positive books haha.

5. Intelligent + Kickbutt Characters

Shahrzad from The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh: She is SO fabulous oh my gosh!!! Her wit and sass is great, and although there isn’t much evidence of her combat skills (I don’t think?) WOO for brains!!

Kestrel from The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski: I LOVE Kestrel’s intelligence, it is so important to hightlight how being physically capable in a fight is not the only way to be a strong heroine!

Zahra from The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury: I loved Zahra’s character so much as well, she did not show particular physical strength (though she is a jinni), but her outstanding feature was resilience and strength of SPIRIT. This book is so underrated!!

Alex from The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis: Yayyy a strong character from a contemporary novel!! Alex is… something incredible. I never met a character like her, it was so amazing to read from her POV and I loveddd this book!

(Do I want to add in the Dregs, or more specifically KAZ??? Yes, yes I do. But I am resistingggg. Now on to:

1. Cliche 1 dimensional mean girl (UGH)

No more girl hate please?? Or slut shaming?? And with this character, 99% of the time both are present and I absolutely hate it. It is one of my biggest pet peeves in books. Sure, perhaps there is this type of person in real life, but more often than not: Girls are each other’s ride or die, best friends, shoulder-to-cry-on, and #1 supporters. The girls I know in real life are SO SWEET and some of the best people ever! So excuse me if I am TIRED of seeing girls oversimplified to 1 dimensional mean girls no purpose other than to create tension and drama between the main couple. #nothanks *mini rant over*

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before // The Problem With Forever // Holding Up the Universe

2. Manic pixie dream girl

I don’t dislike these characters completely?? But I think I just got tired of them because I can’t seem to relate to them? The manic pixie dream girl, in case you don’t know, refers to the characters who are most often very quirky, attractive and full of life, usually a contrast to the more quiet and reserved male love interest. Sound familiar? They’re nowhere as bad as the mean girl characters, those ones I’m just totally over and quite frankly, hate at this point. But at the same time I’m not a fan of the manic pixie dream girl either, most of the time they just seem so cutout/formulaic like quirky + lively + fun + splash of mysterious and there you go–but people aren’t really like that in real life, you know?

Paper Towns by John Green // Looking For Alaska by John Green // My Kind of Crazy by Robin Reul // When We Collided by Emery Lord

3. Predatory & possessive boyfriend

Once upon a time, I overlooked these characters and didn’t mind them? But oh boy, these types of characters are… annoying at best and disgusting/problematic at worst? I’ve stopped reading books with them so there’s that, at least haha. It’s the worst for me when possessive/rude actions are passed off as being ‘romantic’, like no?? I can be a total sucker for the bad-boy-with-heart-of-gold character, but this one is nowhere near the same. I’ve seen these types of characters STALK the love interest and pass it off as romantic?? #nope

Twilight // Hush, Hush // Obsidian

I actually didn’t mind these books when I first read them, but looking back the characters are kind of horrible, and I probably would not enjoy these if I tried reading them now? Don’t recommend them whatsoever, though that’s just my opinion and I know tons of people who like them still which is good!! Just not my cup of tea. 🙂

What types of characters on this list do you LOVE or HATE??? Aren’t bookish/geeky characters THE BEST? Which of the books I’ve listed have you read, and do you have any other recs featuring the types I love? (if you do I would be immensely grateful!) Let us spotlight our favourite characters and least favourites!!!

OH and!! The winner of my 1k followers giveaway celebration is: Kat @ Life and Other Disasters!! CONGRATS! And thank you to everyone else who entered, and anyone who has ever supported me, it means so much. ❤