Top Ten Tuesday: My Literary Soul Mates

Top Ten Tuesday is an original blog meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. and is currently being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is “Characters That Remind Me of Myself.” Sometimes characters in novels feel like extensions of ourselves, these are the ones that you can’t shake, who feel so like yourself that you wish they were real. I don’t come across a ton of these, but there a few characters that I like to call my literary soul mates. Covers are linked to Goodreads.

1. Lara Jean from To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han – Lara Jean is in my opinion one of the most relatable contemporary protagonists I’ve read. I see myself in her naivety, her being a bit of a homebody, and that whole “I know what I like and I like what I know” attitude.

2. Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – I too sometimes laugh at the silliness of other people. I’m also low-key judgy.

3. Janna from Saints & Misfits by S.K. Ali – The amount of times Janna made me snort can’t be counted. Forget laughing out loud, if you can make me snort while I read, we are simply meant to be.

4. Roja from Blanca y Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore – I know this might shock some of you, but no one irl would ever describe me as soft. My kindness is mostly expressed through actions, so whenever I say something nice, it just comes across as insincere and sarcastic. Like Roja, I will never be the kindest person in the room, but you know, I’m okay with that.

5. Xiomara from The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo – Growing up, there was no greater outlet for me than writing. I don’t do a lot of personal writing now, but these kinds of stories always make me remember the teen I used to be, rather fondly and protectively.

6. Nora from Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina – I relate so much to Nora constantly trying to handle relatives in a way that doesn’t make it feel like she’s going to drown. Sometimes circumstances that we find ourselves in are not our fault and we have to learn to unburden ourselves from them.

Do we share any characters this week? Who do you consider your literary soul mate? Let me know in the comments and be sure to leave me a link to your own TTT post, so I can visit.