Top Ten Tuesday: My bookish girlfriends 👩‍❤️‍👩

10. Bella Cullen

Cullen because she married Edward Cullen, who—I want to scream at my teenage self for loving him so much—is creepy and manipulative and controlling. I can’t even.

Bella got a lot of flak for being this or that, as did Kristen Stewart.

It’s fine if you don’t like her. One less person to fight to the death. 👌

Except I ship Bella with Jacob. And I’m not sure I’d want someone who would act as dramatically as Bella Swan when Edward distanced himself from her. Obsessive girlfriend personalities don’t attractive me…at least past the Bechdel Test, come on!

• The Twilight Saga

09. Anne Shirley

While I admire her smarts and creativity, I am not so fond of her talkativeness. She could infodump on me a lot, but what if I never get to infodump? What if dating her is the demise of my infodumping because I’m forced to suppress it?!

Also, she belongs to Gilbert Blythe. Even if she could have had a thing with Diana. FOR THE RECORD, I WHOLEHEARTEDLY SHIP THE LIFE OUT OF ANNE x DIANA.

• Anne of Green Gables

08. Abra

She’s a middle-grade character who lived a life full of goodness and self-sacrifice, hence why she’s made the list. Not a lot about her in terms of romance was provided, but the tragedy of her childhood that befell her became what she spent the rest of her life fighting against—and that’s why she’s on this list.

• The Day the Angels Fell

07. Cece Goddard

She’s charming and real. The reason she and I wouldn’t work out, however, is how she always wears statement shirts. I’m not into making every part of who I am a political statement. Sometimes I get mad and am like, Okay, you won’t like me when I’m mad. I’m gonna scream this shit from the rooftops, and vent-vomit all up on my blog, but it reminds me of a kiss in She Marched that was done in public to make a statement more than it was to express affection…and I don’t like that.

But I understand it’s a young adult book; she’s still a kid. I was dumb AF in high school and on Team Edward. 🤦 I’m in no place to judge her. 😂

• Keeping You a Secret

06/05. Clarke Griffin/Octavia Blake

Okay, but why is she so weak in the novel series? In the TV show, she’s super badass, so it confuses me and is why she’s #6.

Like Clarke, Octavia (#5) is written to be a weak female character in need of saving by an egotistical man. BUT IN THE TV SHOW, Octavia kicks ass. I like Octavia of the book series more than Clarke Griffin of the book series in terms of GF material.

Both are straight in the book (because what is this, the 21st century?), but sexuality is flexible in the television series. Its creator, Jason Rothenburg, said sexuality is not as big a prejudice in a post-apocalyptic world, because there are more important things to worry about. Thus, if we weren’t talking books, but any fictional character instead, I wouldn’t be able to choose. Clarke is a strong character in TV, but so is Octavia. The female characters can hold their own in the show, and I like that. I’m not completely into ranking women, so going there makes me a bit uncomfortable, but again, this is fiction, so I like to think it’s OK. In a year, I might be disgusted I ever made this post, but…whatevs, man.

• The 100

04. Jacob Black

I know, I know. Jacob’s a guy. I’m not even a dog person. But I gotta fill this list somehow, so I had to resort to expanding my horizons a bit and allow at least one guy into the mix! Also, if I’m gonna be making this list, I may as well. I probz won’t be making a list like this again, regardless of gender identity. Ergo, I should include for you all the only male character I have ever considered to be boyfriend material for me, myself and I in this list while it’s happening.~

As a teenager, I shipped Bella with Edward. I thought it was super attractive how he manipulated her into being with him and she was somehow happy. She had a side of her that craved the danger of it all, as did I. However, in my early adulthood and onward, I’ve found myself respecting Jacob more. Ideally, Bella should have wound up with Jacob. It could have been an underlining lesson of hey, kids, Jacob is better for Bella because Edward is actually abusive and writers don’t write books in hopes of pleasing readers, but to tell their stories. But it wasn’t, so…whatever.

Jacob was a greater friend to Bella and allowed her to be more of herself, whereas Edward didn’t give me the impression that he had respect for her.

So…you could say I’m smitten with Jake. Taylor Lautner’s not so bad, either. 👌

• The Twilight Saga

03. Katniss Everdeen

She doesn’t want to bring kids into a fucked up world. I respect that. I relate to it. Do you know how hard it is to find people like that? Oh, wait—it’s not super hard. What’s hard is finding people who want to adopt instead. 😒 Not that I’m in a rush. Kinda prefer having a partner beforehand…

Putting aside Jennifer Lawrence playing Katniss, can we bask in how badass Miss Everdeen is?

Unfortunately, I wholeheartedly ship her with Peeta, ergo she is unavailable.

• The Hunger Games

02. Kizabel

I’ve been smitten with Kizabel ever since reading her. She’s intelligent and has all around goodness for the future of the world. I can’t say a lot about her without spoiling the series from which she comes, but 👋 hello Kizabel is an adorable mess. I shipped her hard with a character who wound up with a guy 🙄…so it’s frustrating, but technically it means she’s still available, right? 😏

• Ninth City Burning

01. Evelyn Hugo

Evelyn Hugo is old in the fictional memoir of her life. But in her youth? UM, YES?

I respect Evelyn Hugo as a older person, probably too much to have actual romantic feelings for her, but isn’t that what sometimes makes love so tragic? For Evelyn, I surmise I feel more of an admiration for her than anything, but she still tops my list. I think respect is important in all relationships, and romantic relationships don’t get excluded from that. She’s got multitudes and has had to make hard decisions. She’s made mistakes and done things I, as a reader looking at the bigger picture, mayn’t have made, but…in the heat of the moment, she acted with all her humanity.

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

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Who are your book significant others?