Top Ten Tuesday (115) | Awesome Siblings

Top Ten Characters Who Are Awesome Siblings

Friends, I love it when I can read about sibling relationships that are fun and healthy and tight. It reminds me of my own awesome sister. This list is by no means exhaustive of all the very excellent siblings in literature, but these are the ten siblings I’d give gold stars to for awesomeness. (As you can see, I already did.)

I can’t stress to you all enough how many lovely relationships there are in this series. They really do drive the action and the emotions and EVERYTHING. But one of the relationships that touches me the most is the one between Akiva and his Misbegotten siblings, Hazael and Liraz. There isn’t much that can bring siblings closer and foster loyalty quite like literally defending their lives with your own and living through war and devastation together.

THESE GIRLS! If you haven’t ventured into the amazing world of the Penderwicks, I can’t recommend them enough. Just so stinkin’ adorable, I can’t even handle it. They are young girls growing up without their mother, who dies before the stories even begin, and they are just so loving and funny and genuinely the most normal characters I’ve ever read in a book. I LOOOOOVE THEM.

First of all, don’t get me started on Gabe. I mean, yeah, by my fourth read of THE SCORPIO RACES I understood him a little better, and it was certainly heartbreaking. But he always made me see red. Finn, on the other hand, is sweet and quiet and he worries and he has just enough little boy left in him to make my heart grow three sizes. Also, I cried a little bit with that thing he does for Puck at the end there. Like, there’s something in my eye. Allergies, probably. It’s allergies.

You could certainly make the case for Metias being an awesome sibling to June. In fact, Honorary Awesome Sibling award goes to Metias, for raising June and protecting her and sacrificing so much. But I always loved the way June missed him so horribly but turned her grief into purpose. And as the series progressed and her grief became a little muted with time, she always thought of him, and it always made me cry.

I have to give it up for Marie Lu, friends. All of the characters in her books who had siblings were excellent ones. There was NOTHING that Day wouldn’t do to protect his family, especially his brothers, and most especially his youngest brother, Eden. This is a relationship that motivates Day for the whole series, and it’s just one of the many reasons I love him.

I just love talking about Michael Merrick. Honestly. If you read Brigid Kemmerer’s Elementals series, I don’t know how he can’t be anyone’s favorite. I mean, I love them all, but Michael. He’s just so…supportive and strong and not one for a lot of emotions or big speeches, but he’s always able to convey his love for his brothers, and his devotion to them. He’s got a lot on his shoulders as the oldest but he does what he needs to do. He’s my favorite by a mile.

I get extra excited when I read about awesome sisters, and Ginnie from GOING VINTAGE is most definitely one. When Mallory decides to go sans technology, Ginnie supports her and enforces Mallory’s own rules when she wants to give up. Plus they have great chemistry and and are great friends on top of being sisters, which is such a life bonus, you guys. Loved her.

Jandy Nelson once says, in THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE, that there is no need for light bulbs in the Fontaine house because these boys basically beam from the inside out. They have so many things to recommend them: They’re musicians, they’re half-French, they have longer-than-spiderlegs eyelashes, and they love each other in that fierce, easy way that close siblings often have. Also, one of their number is JOE FONTAINE, one of my all-time book boyfriends of ever. That basically recommends them all collectively.

Getting classic on y’all! SENSE AND SENSIBILITY is probably my favorite Jane Austen book because it reminds me of me and my sister. I am Elinor–oldest, responsible, keeps her feelings close, thinks with her head more than she feels with her heart. My sister is Marianne–vivacious, passionate, emotional. They are so different and yet so devoted and loyal and protective of one another, and I see so much of us and our relationship in these characters.

The March family is pretty fabulous. I mean, these sisters don’t always get along. In fact, they basically pair off in terms of closeness–Jo and Beth, Meg and Amy–and Jo and Amy in particular have some epic falling outs. But when the going gets tough–and it often does in Civil War-era Massachusetts–these sisters are there for one another.

Who are some of your favorite bookish siblings?