Category: favorite female characters

Maxine Kiss from Iron Hunt (Hunter Kiss books) by Marjorie M. Liu

I’ve only read the first book in Liu’s Hunter Kiss novels, but I loved it so much. I couldn’t put it down, and I loved Maxine very much. I love how she calls herself out on her own bullshit and always seeks the truth and finds a way.

Maxine comes from a line of women warriors with special tattoos. During the day, these tattoos live on their skin, but at night, they peel off and become demons which protect her. Each demon has its own personality and special abilities. As a hunter, Maxine and her female ancestors before her rid the world of demons, mostly zombies, but there are other creatures out there.

Of course, there’s a curse of sorts involved, that on the daughter’s 21st birthday, she gets the tattoos, which leaves her mother vulnerable and soon dead by the Blood Queen of zombies. While at the same time, Maxine has some hereditary knowledge and was taught and loved by her mother.

As an adult, Maxine is very capable. And she’s capable of changing how she sees the world and saves the world as she falls in love with Grant, a former priest who can reform lost people and some demons, and meets people she forms real bonds with.

Maxine is a fascinating warrior character, and I’m going to read the rest of the Hunter Kiss books really soon. Fall in love with Maxine’s story, buy The Iron Hunt (Hunter Kiss, Book 1) by Marjorie M. Liu.

Lyra ‘Silvertongue’ Belacqua from His Dark Materials

Lyra starts off her journey as a nosy young girl spying on her father, hiding in a wardrobe with her daemon Pantalaimon. She has an enthusiastic spirit and an intense interest in learning and exploring. Lyra wants to know more about the world, and she does not think that children should be limited because of their age. Additionally, Lyra has a great passion as an advocate for others.

Lyra starts off on a simple mission: to find her friend Roger and to figure out why someone wants to kill her father Lord Asriel. But Lyra soon finds out that there’s more to the kidnapped children and Lord Asriel than she first realizes. As Lyra grows, she also gains powerful allies. She becomes perhaps the first human to become friend and allies of a panserbjorne Iorek Byrnison. She also befriends witches, sea gypsies, and sky pilots.

I was worried in the second book, The Subtle Knife, in that it seemed to focus too much on a new character Will Parry. And I was even more disappointed when Will was clearly going to be her love interest. While first loves and sexual experiences are certainly a part of growing teenagers’ lives, I was worried the text focused too much on that part of Lyra’s growth.

However, Lyra truly does become a hero by the end of the books. She also becomes an adult.

Follow Lyra’s path, buy His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman. Though I do suggest ordering the British versions as Lyra’s sexual awakening was censored in the US.

Katharine Clifton from The English Patient

I first read Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient when I was 12-years-old, but I’ve read it many times since then. I’m not big on re-reading stuff (re-watching is another subject). Of course, I never do re-read it from cover-to-cover, which with Ondaatje’s non-linear writing style, it’s pretty suited to my reading habits. And I’ll argue that to full appreciate the book, you had to read the proceeding book, In the Skin of a Lion. In 11th grade, I did a book report on The English Patient and had to do an oral presentation where I dressed up as Kathrine in order to give it. (I wasn’t quite as entertaining as the boy who did a Star Wars tie-in novel.)

There’s a lot of love that I have for Katharine, and how she goes after what she wants, even at the very real risk of her own life. Katharine may be dead at the beginning of the book. However, she is not a dead saint or the pawn used as the main motivation for Lord László de Almásy, her lover and the English patient. Katharine is her own woman. And while we see her mostly through Almásy’s viewpoint, part of what he loves about her is her independence. When Almásy asks her what she hates most in the world, Katharine tells him a lie, and he returns saying ownership. He’s attracted to her for both her independence streak and her mind; and he falls in love with her when she reads their desert exploration group poetry.

Katharine’s love affair with Almásy is volatile. They are both worried that her husband Geoffrey will find out about their affair. Katharine and Geoffrey are newlyweds when they join Almásy and his crew in Cairo to explore the desert. And they both have good reason to fear Geoffrey as when he finds out about their affair, Geoffrey tries to kill all three of them.

Of course, had Katharine not died in the Cave of Swimmers, I doubt her relationship with Almásy would’ve lasted. She’s very dominate and claiming, and while Almásy is attracted to this (perhaps because other women around him did not posses these traits), they fight over it. She breaks a plate over his head; stabs his shoulder with a fork; and gives him a bruise on his forearm, among other injuries. Almásy clearly believes Katharine’s fiery spirit makes her like the desert and wants her by his side as he explores it. Except that Katharine loves the greenery of England and expresses a desire to return.

Perhaps Katharine explains everything about their love affair in a postcard she writes:

Half my days I cannot bear not to touch you.
The rest of the time I feel it doesn’t matter
if I ever see you again. It isn’t the morality,
it is how much you can bear.

Get to know Katharine and read my favorite book, buy The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje.