Top 10 Tuesdays: Secondary Characters Who Deserve More Love

These kinds of topics are always a bit of a challenge for me, because it can be really hard to remember secondary characters from all of the books I read. I tend to find secondary characters a lot more memorable in general in series than in standalone books, but that might be just because I have more time to get to know them that way. Also, I found myself getting confused at times about whether certain characters could really be considered secondary. In some cases, especially when the book has a bigger cast in general, it can be hard to pinpoint who is meant to be the main character and which ones are secondary. This is especially challenging in some series where one or two characters are the main characters for the first book, and then it switches focus to someone else later on in the series. Looking back on the books and especially the series that I’ve read so far this year (and late last year), I found quite a few side characters who I thought deserved a little more love. In some cases, the characters played only a small role, and in others, I found it hard to tell if they were actually meant to be another major character. In any case, these were all characters that I loved, and would have wanted to see a bit more!

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

1) Nate from the Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson – Nate was the first character I connected with in this series, even before Stevie, and I wish he’d had a bit more page time! I love his sarcasm and especially enjoyed seeing his struggles to write his next book. I think one of my favourite parts of the whole series was seeing Nate get accosted by a young fan pressuring him to write the next one.

2) Solomon from the Lifelike series by Jay Kristoff – This series had some great characters in general, but Solomon was easily a standout for me. He’s a logicka robot who has learned how to get around the Three Laws of Robotics, which I thought was a very interesting twist on what robots can do. He also added a lot of much-needed humour to the series.

3) Tolya and Tamar from Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo – These two characters were present in several Grishaverse books already, and I’ve really enjoyed them every time. There are so many amazing characters in the series in general that I find these two tend to fly a bit more under the radar than some of the others. Even though it’s hard to remember the specifics of their roles, I remember liking them both and wanting to see more of them.

4) Emerie and Gwyn from A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas – You could probably make a case for these two being main characters, but I didn’t think they were quite as prominent as Nesta and Cassian, despite them both playing a major role. Sarah J. Maas’s characters are always a highlight of her books for me, and these two were no exception.

5) Tric from the Nevernight series by Jay Kristoff – Again, Tric was a fairly important side character who could probably border on being considered a major character, despite his more limited page time. He was easily one of my favourite characters in the whole series, and I loved the way Jay Kristoff handled the dynamics between Tric and Mia.

6) Noah from the Cursebreakers trilogy by Brigid Kemmerer – Of all the characters on my list, Noah is probably the one that I would most easily consider a side character, since his role in the series is so limited. Even the Wiki page for this series contains only one line about him. Despite his very small part, I loved this character and especially how he put his medical knowledge to use in Emberfell.

7) James Kent from the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi – There are a lot of great characters in this series, but I find James so underrated! I remember loving him the first time I read the original trilogy several years ago, and was easily reminded of that when I reread them and the newer 3 books this year. I thought he brought a very interesting extra layer to the characters, especially Adam.

8) Dru Blackthorn from the Dark Artifices series by Cassandra Clare – I loved the Blackthorn family in general, but I definitely think Dru specifically deserves a lot more love. I think she got a lot less attention than most of her siblings, although I did love how her role grew a bit with each book. I’m looking forward to seeing more of her in the Wicked Powers series!

9) Ellen (Alex’s mother) from Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston – I was originally going to choose Alex’s sister, but then I remembered Ellen’s hilarious slideshow that she put together for Alex after he comes out. In general, I loved how Ellen supported him and put her son above her election campaign, and thought she was a great and underrated side character.

10) Scythe Faraday from the Scythe series by Neal Shusterman – This was another character who could almost be considered a major character, but I decided he wasn’t quite as prominent as Citra or Rowan even though he had a relatively major role. Scythe Faraday was easily one of my favourite parts of this series, and I especially loved his philosophy behind choosing who to Glean. I don’t remember seeing him talked about as much when I’ve seen this series discussed, so I’d say he deserves more love.

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