Faves of 2011 Book Awards: The Characters

The Faves of 2011 Book Awards are hosted by Nomes at Ink Crush.

Day Two: The Characters

1. Favourite female main character

I'm going to cheat and say the collective cast of Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. They share the spotlight as main characters, and are all so awesome in completely different ways. I loved Tiara for her ditzy wisdom, Taylor for her kick-arse cray cray, Adina for her snarky smarts, Petra for her brave confidence, Mary Lou for her wild girl ways, Jennifer for her self-assurance, Shanti for her dedication, Nicole for her fierceness and Sosie for her Helen Kellar-bration. Such an amazing ensemble.

 
2. Favourite male main character

Med Atley from I Came to Say Goodbye by Caroline Overington. He was vividly drawn, totally realistic, completely lovable and utterly heartbreaking.

3. Best couple

I read a helluva lot of love stories, so this one is really hard to narrow down. But after some (not so) serious consideration, I'm giving this one to Petra and Sinjin from Beauty Queens. I love the way they're both a little kooky, but totally get one another and accept each other unconditionally. Plus they flirt by quoting Dickens, which is, like, way hot.

 
4. Who I so want to be best friends with

Kiara from Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles. She's smart, kind, funny and doesn't care what anyone else thinks of her. Oh, and she can bake. She'd make an awesome BFF!

 
5. Who I fell completely in love with (new literary crush)

Etienne St Clair from Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Love, love, love, love, love him. There are a lot of other book guys I've crushed on this year, but Etienne is a head above the rest. Not literally, of course - he's kinda short, which is SO not my type, but he's so amazing he more than makes up for it.

6. Worst (best & baddest) villian

President Snow from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Creepy, manipulative and just pure evil. 

 

 
7. Best character twist (who you loved then hated or vice versa)

President Coin from Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. I wouldn't say I loved her to start with, but there was a big twist that definitely made me really, really hate her.

 
8. Best kick-arse female

If you looked kick-arse up in the dictionary, there'd be a picture of Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games trilogy.

9. Best kick-arse male

Alex Fuentes from Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles. He goes up against a whole gang of thugs for the woman he loves. *sigh*

10. Broke your heart the most

Lochie from Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma. Gut. Wrenching. Seriously, I'm getting tears in my eyes just thinking about him.

 

11. Favourite pet/animal character award

Bernie Kosar in I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore. I'm not exaggerating when I say he's the best character in the whole book.

12. Best YA parents award

There were a couple I could have given this award to, but ultimately I have to go with Lola's dads in Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. They're just adorable, not to mention really awesome parents.

 

13. Favourite sibling relationship

Maya and Lochie from Forbidden. Jokes! As much as I like the book, incest doesn't really make for an ideal sibling relationship. Ahem. No, I really adored Mia and Teddy in If I Stay by Gayle Forman (sob!).

 

14. Favourite best friends/friendship award

This has to go once again to everyone in Beauty Queens. They might not start out as besties, but by the end they're 100 per cent supportive, caring and encouraging of one another.

15. Best/worst character names

Best: Call me crazy, but for some reason I really love the name Cricket Bell from Lola and the Boy Next Door.

Worst: Pretty much everyone in Forbidden, but especially Lochan, Tiffin and Willa.

Bonus: Best love triangle

It feels like every YA book has a love triangle these days. I would have to say my favourite of 2011 was the one in The Hunger Games trilogy, purely because for most of the series, I was actually really torn between the two guys in it and didn't feel like it was at all obvious who Katniss would or should end up with.

Who were your fave characters of 2011?

 

*With the exception of Donald Sutherland (Snow), Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss) and Alexander F. Rodrigues (Alex), the actors pictured here are my own interpretation of the characters, not official casting.