#4: Favourite book of your favourite series

If you couldn't already tell, it is Lirael from Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series.

I formed an attachment to this book mainly from the first half, a character study full of action, drama and magic. The character of Lirael is 14, a daughter of a female sect (?) known as the Clayr. All of them are Seers and they are all pale with blue eyes. Lirael is not. She is dark-haired and much older than everyone else who first gets the Sight and therefore feels out of place - to the extent that she goes to kill herself.

Not only that, while the Clayr can See the future of everyone, they cannot See Lirael's future. In the novel you find out why. It's an astonishingly beautiful piece of character-driven plot, so accurate in the internal workings of a teenage girl.

I'm fascinated by writers who can so precisely pin down the angst that makes teenage angst teenage angst, especially that of the opposite sex. Nix does this very well for someone who has never been a teenage girl; I'd also like to mention Sonya Hartnett who does the same for boys, though I'm not sure how accurate she is given that I've never been a teenage boy.

There was a session at Worldcon 2010 that was just a Q&A on YA spec fic featuring Michael Pryor, Kate Forsyth, Juliet Mariller and Garth Nix so fortunately I was able to ask Nix on how he managed to get into the head of a teenage girl.

He said it was about getting into the character like a method actor: "It's called imagination." He said he wrote with the adventure in mind rather than to reveal the character's deep personal thoughts, and that a writer can fool a reader by revealing just enough, making the reader think that the writer knows more than they actually do. He also asked friends and family.

So there you have it; Lirael is a great character and a great book.

Day 05 – A book that makes you happy
Day 06 – A book that makes you sad
Day 07 – Most underrated book
Day 08 – Most overrated book
Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 10 – Favourite classic book
Day 11 – A book you hated
Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 – Your favourite writer
Day 14 – Favourite book of your favourite writer
Day 15 – Favourite male character
Day 16 – Favourite female character
Day 17 – Favourite quote from your favourite book
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Day 19 – Favourite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favourite romance book
Day 21 – Favourite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favourite book you own
Day 23 – A book you've wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favourite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time

I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.