Secondary Characters by Rachel Schieffelbein

Too bad Bailey had other plans.īailey is inspirational partly because she isn’t trying to be. She’s supposed to do this by being a sad girl with cancer whom everyone figures will die at the end and exists primarily to teach everyone about the preciousness of life. Okay, so Bailey’s “job”-in a book where Tibby is the rightful main character of her storyline-is to inspire Tibby to care about the right things and do some tearjerking. (And the jokes about him being too big to fit in certain cars, chairs, and rooms are delightfully visual and fun for the younger kids who read the books.)Īnother secondary character I love is Bailey from The S isterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. I love what his protection allows Artemis to do in the stories, and I love how he develops certain relationships with the other characters that also braid loyalty and compassion together with competence and badassery. He’s a layered dude and an inspiring (if imposing) character.

He’s also fiercely protective of his little sister even though she can take care of herself. (His sister, Juliet Butler, is similarly trained, and later protects Artemis’s little brothers, among others.) Artemis didn’t know Butler’s first name until he really almost died because of a promise he made. His family has protected Artemis’s family for generations. He’s actually come very close to death more than a dozen times while protecting Artemis, and he doesn’t just protect him physically-he supports him in all his ridiculous evil genius schemes, and his actions are inspired by love for his charge just as much as they are inspired by his sense of duty.īut besides just being a great bodyguard and a loyal protector, Butler has depth. Butler supports his underage charge, Artemis, through thick and thin, and is probably the best bodyguard in existence (for a person who really needs one). One of my favorite secondary characters is Butler from the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. They feel like they started living when they were born, not when they walked into the protagonist’s life. They have independent emotions and they don’t behave as if they’re less of a person just because they have less time on stage.

and aren’t obviously appearing to fulfill a function for some purpose ordained by a writer in another universe. Secondary characters done right are the ones who aren’t just there as part of a story, aren’t just there to “support” the protagonist. Rachel Schieffelbein is hosting a bloghop on SECONDARY CHARACTERS, and I decided to hop in! This is my first bloghop, y’all!

Secondary Characters by Rachel Schieffelbein