List Maniac #9 Favorite Guys of Fiction

We already did girls and now Guys!! I usually read books with girl narrators and often end up falling in love with the boys they fall in love. So, here we go! In no order in particular these are my favorite Guys of Fiction!

Jesse de Silva - Mediator (Mild SPOILER ALERT)

Oh, Jesse. He had to wait 150 years to meet the girl of his dreams and he did. Jesse is actually a ghost who inhabits Susannah's new bedroom, he was killed in that same room when he was 20 years old in the mid 1850's, and he just hanged around. There is this part in the story where Suze asks him if he knows why he's still around, and he sort of hints that he knows and that the reason is Suze. He's a gentleman, he's reluctant to fall in love with Suze because of his ghostly status, but they still become friends and they still fall in love. Jesse is a really nice guy, that's his core yet his still hot and everything - just because he's nice and gentlemanly doesn't mean he's not going to fight for what he loves (namely Suze), and he's so cute when he gets jealous!!

Wes - The Truth About Forever (mild SPOILER ALERT)
In some ways, Wes is the epitome of the Dream Guy, not that he's perfect but he's all those things any teenage girl wants. He's artistic, he's kind and he's even responsible with his feelings -as in when he starts feeling something from another girl, he ends his relationship as soon as he can, rather than dragging it out - and he still has a bit of a bad boy appeal to him. Plus, he's really handsome. But what I really like about Wes was that he was very honest, he and Macy fall in love by talking, by playing their game of truth and when it comes to facing those feelings he gives Macy the time and space to do so, even when it looks to him like he isn't going to win.


Derek - Darkest Powers (low SPOILER ALERT)
Oh Derk, Derek, Derek. I fell in love with him from mid-way through The Summoning, I just couldn't help myself. He's so socially awkward, he's not good with other people's feelings but the people he considers his pack, his family, those he fights for tooth and nail. Absolutely adore that about him. I don't think he wanted to like Chloe but he couldn't help himself and it starts to show early on the series -at least for me, I remember mentioning to a friend that I thought him and Chloe were going to end up together. Derek doesn't like being vulnerable but he allows himself to be vulnerable with Chloe, first out of necessity and then because he really wants her around, and that made me go "Siggggghh"

Heathcliff - Bard Academy Series (mild SPOILER ALERT)
I freely admit that when I first read Wuthering Heights, and when I first saw the movie with Ralph Finnes and Juliet Binoche, I couldn't quite see what was the big appeal of a character like Heathcliff. That changed when I read Wuthering High. There I could see Heathcliff as this vulnerable boy who was sure of only one thing in his life: his love for Cathy. Cathy, however, turned out to be every bit as selfish as I always thought she was. So when Miranda and Heathcliff met and became friends and all that, well I fell for him. He is the original brooding guy with a big heart. He would do anything for Miranda, he would never abandon her and I love that about him.


Jonah Griggs - Jellicoe Road
One of the first times Jonah Griggs' comes up during Jellicoe Road, Taylor says that he is "not only a name but a state of mind I don't care to revisit" or something like that. Slowly we start to see what happened between them a few years ago and why things are what they are between them, for good and bad. But some feelings are too strong to hide and so happens with Jonah and Taylor. He has one of the most awesome lines ever: "I'm here because of you. You're my priority. Your happiness, in some fucked way, is tuned into mine. Get that through your thick skull. Would I like it any other way? Hell, yes, but I don't think that will happen in my life time." He has had so much crap happen to him yet he's still a decent guy, he loves his family and he loves Taylor. Jonah knows Taylor is one hell of a tough cookie, but he still can't help to give in into his impulses to protect her but he never takes over, he's just there for her.

Those are my guys. What about yours?

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

At 11, Taylor Markham was abandoned by her mother at the Jellicoe Road. Taylor never really understood why but she understood that Hannah's driving by just a few minutes later wasn't a coincidence. Now, at 17, she lives at the Jellicoe School with Hannah - her guardian - and has been elected to lead The Boarders in the territory wars that have been going on at Jellicoe for almost twenty years between The Boarders, The Townies and The Cadets from some school in Sydney who come to Jellicoe every year for six weeks.

At the same time, Hannah disappears, leaving behind unanswered questions and a manuscript telling the story of five kids who lived at the Jellicoe Road twenty-odd years earlier: the orphaned siblings Narnie and Webb, their also orphaned friend Tate, a local boy (a Townie) called Fritz and a Cadet called Jude. Once these five kids were best friends, loved each other to death and ruled the Jellicoe Road.

Taylor's problems don't end there: Jonah Griggs is back in town. Three years earlier Taylor had run away from Jellicoe, she wanted to get to Sydney and find her Mom, but she met Jonah at the train platform and he ended up tagging along, just to stop her when she was almost there (with the help of a Brigadier who might know more than what he lets on and who's also back). Now Jonah is the leader of the cadets and he hasn't forgotten about Taylor.

Okay, so I'm not going to spoil the book, really, that's half the fun figuring out how everyone and everything is connected. But I will say I loved this book, I couldn't stop reading it, and that it only took a few chapters for me to get very emotionally invested. I WANTED to know what was going on and I totally wanted it there to be a happy ending (or as happy an ending as possible).

The two stories, of the five kids from the past and of Taylor, Jonah and friends; interlock nicely, the more you find out the more you want to know.

There are three great strengths about this book, about all of Melina Marchetta's books (So far: Looking for Alibrandi, Saving Francesca and (On the) Jellicoe Road):

One: You feel for each and everyone of the kids of the story from Taylor, Jessa, Ben, Griggs to the five kids from the past.

Two: There is real humor in this book, not the laugh-out-loud-funny type, but even when I did cry for most of the book (I'm a crybaby, sue me) there were times when I found myself smiling and laughing.

Three: The adults are also very real, Hannah, the Brigadier, the chief of the Jellicoe Police, they all feel real, and none of them is a cartoonish evil interpretation of an adult. In YA fiction that's is extraordinary rare; even though we see them from Taylor's perspective the adults don't seem evil, stereotypical adults: they have problems, motives and feelings and you want them to be happy too.

I really hope I'm never pressed to pick a favorite Melina Marchetta book, I love them all including this one.

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