I somehow managed to completely mix up my Top 5 Wednesday schedule! “Best Friendships” was the topic of the week at the end of July, and although I’d drafted a post just so I could remember which characters I wanted to talk about, I somehow forgot about it and skipped ahead to the next prompt! I suspect a part of it had to do with just not having a great concept of time right now, especially when the months change. I went on to the August topics, without realizing that it hadn’t been August yet! I decided to backtrack and do the prompt that I missed this week to get myself back on track to follow the prompts in order. Strangely enough, friendships in books are something that I don’t think I pay that much attention to, unless they are particularly strong. It’s also rare that a friendship is the main focus of the book, so I it’s not necessarily what I’d remember most from the book either. Since this is a topic that has come up before, I also tried to stick to books that I read fairly recently.
Top 5 Wednesday is a meme created by Gingerreadslainey on Youtube, and is now hosted by Sam at ThoughtsOnTomes. The official GoodReads group with the weekly topics can be found here.
1) Adrian, Oscar and Ruby from the Renegades series by Marissa Meyer
It’s not too often that side characters stand out enough to me to be this memorable, but Oscar and Ruby are definitely up there with characters like Mik and Zuzana in Daughter of Smoke & Bone. Oscar in general was so much fun to read, and I loved his dynamics with both Ruby and Adrian. Both Ruby and Oscar were also great, loyal friends to Adrian in general.
2) Bryce and Danika from House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
The side characters in this book in general were all so memorable, but what stood out to me the most was Bryce’s friendship with Danika. I thought the first section of the book did such a strong job of developing Bryce and Danika’s friendship, as well as the rest of their group. For a character that didn’t get a ton of page time given the length of the book, I was impressed by how strongly I’d connected to her. I loved the way that Bryce and Danika stood by each other and did their best to protect each other.
3) Frank and Q from Frankly In Love by David Yoon
To be fair, this probably isn’t the most memorable friendship but it really stood out to me at the time that I read it. I especially loved Frank and Q’s habit of talking to each other in old-fashioned language and accents, because it helped to really bring to life their long-standing friendship. I also enjoyed how the author tackled the more difficult topic of Frank’s realization that he may not have done enough to stand up for Q with his parents. I thought that also helped to reinforce the idea that Q was a good friend that Frank really cared for, and showed the importance of their friendship to him.
4) Nikolai and Zoya from King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo
I’m fairly certain this one is heading in the romance direction, so I don’t know if it necessarily counts to consider it a strong friendship, but given the point it is at now, I think it makes sense. Actually, the same could be said for Nina’s new friend in this book as well. I loved the dynamics between Nikolai and Zoya throughout this book, and especially their banter. These are two characters that I don’t think I would have pictured getting along that well in previous Grisha books, so I was surprised to see how well they actually worked. They seem to genuinely trust and respect each other.
5) Eden and Bonnie from Goodbye Perfect by Sara Barnard
I was a little hesitant to add this one, because it’s definitely questionable whether Eden was truly a good friend. In this book, Eden’s sworn to secrecy when her best friend Bonnie runs off with their music teacher. I think part of what made this book so strong for me was Eden having to learn what it really means to be a good friend. She was constantly questioning whether she was making the right decision to keep Bonnie’s secret, even at times thinking it wasn’t such a big deal since Bonnie seemed fine. I loved how it tackled the difficult topic that sometimes being a real friend means doing what is in their best interest, even if it’s something your friend won’t like.
Abyssal Librarian 