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.
I’m keeping today’s ‘top ten’ to a top five, partly because of time, and partly because I kind of struggled to find books which had a cast ‘big enough’ for there to be minor characters. Plus after going back a certain amount of time my memory on a book can get a little fuzzy, so yeah. I think I need to start taking notes when I read (again!).
Top Five Minor Characters That Deserve Their Own Book
Tinbu – The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
I could have picked almost any of the ‘minor’ characters who support Amina in this book, but I leant towards Tinbu (with Dalia at a close second) partly because he is the one Amina leaves her ship with, and I’d love to see his adventures between Amina leaving the ship and her return, especially with the way his character is set up at the beginning. He’s one of those characters who is very easy to love, very quickly.
Primrose – The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Fantasy – Romance
Similarly, there is a fantastic supporting cast in this book who could all provide their own intriguing stories, but Primrose comes across as the most complicated. She’s quite strict with Mika, and although she isn’t ‘nice’ to her, it becomes apparent as the book goes on she really is doing what she thinks is best, though her best comes from a place of fear and trauma. I think Primrose’s story would really be worth reading, especially with all the implications of what’s happened to her before this book starts.
Pretty Much All Other ‘Couples’ – Becoming Human
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Fantasy – Romance
Apologies for not remembering specifics on this one, but I do remember being completely swept up in Jack and Marin’s story, and really loving the scenes where they meet up with the others in similar positions to them. Like the other characters mentioned previously, there’s something really intriguing about the characters off doing their own thing, and I’d love to see how their travels panned out alongside Jack and Marin’s.
The Gravewitch – Nettle & Bone
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Again, apologies for not remembering the specific name of the character (I’m not the best at remembering names!), but the gravewitch is another fascinating character who totally grabs attention when she’s on the page. I adored this book, and I loved the whole cast of characters, but I think if we had a gravewitch book it would be something very intriguing.
Shane – As Far As You’ll Take Me
Format: ebook
Age: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary
I’ve not long finished reading this book, and it’s really great. Truly heartfelt. Out of the excellent cast of minor characters, however, it’s Shane’s story I want to see. Marty’s cousin, who he lives with while in London, it feels like Shane is the character we see so little of, yet he has his own story going on in the background while we’re focused on Marty, and I’d absolutely love to see that play out.
So there’s my five – what about you? Any particular minor characters you’ve absolutely loved, who you think would deserve their own book?
Unwrapping Words 