5 Bookish Characters in Young Adult Fiction You Should Know about

Book Recommendations

By Joy Lewis

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Being a bookworm never looked this cool for us, but that’s okay!

I think there’s a sort of wish fulfillment going on when we see bookworms as the stars in fiction. As someone who grew up with her nose in a book at all times, I remember feeling validated whenever I saw the bookish, nerdy heroine prevail because of her book smarts. This is contrast to stories that show her ripped from her books and made over as “popular” or otherwise more like the status quo.

Instead of being sidelined as the stock “smart” character, these books take the book-obsessed and celebrate them as they are. And if we’re reading about them in books, why wouldn’t we cheer for our fellow bibliophiles?

5. Elisabeth Scrivener – Sorcery of Thorns

Image by Charlie Bowater

The world of Sorcery of Thorns itself is an ode to bookworms. Elisabeth was left as an infant on the steps of the Great Library of Summershall, a library that houses dangerous and magical grimoires. She becomes a librarian’s apprentice and a fierce lover of books as she grows.

The thing is, the books in this story are alive.

When The Book of Eyes is turned into a monster by an unknown culprit and a murder is committed, Elisabeth is the only suspect. Can she prove her innocence?

“You like this place?”

“Of course I do, it has books in it.”

Margaret Rogerson, Sorcery of Thorns

Check out Sorcery of Thorns on Amazon.

4. David Kostyk – Grishaverse Series

Image by morgana0anagrom

David is a Grisha who first appears in Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone trilogy. As a Fabrikator, he works with metals, glass, and anything solid, manipulating their forms on a molecular level with his Grisha power. He’s singularly obsessed with his work and research.

This brings me to Morozova’s journals. Ilya Morozova was one of the greatest Fabrikators, a martyr, and a Grisha pioneer who pushed the boundaries of what was possible with this power. He left behind his research notes within a stack of journals that has survived the ages.

The secret to defeating the Darkling–that is, the rumored third amplifier for Grisha power–remains undeciphered in Morozova’s journals. Even when others give up on the journals, David hauls them with him in Ruin and Rising in order to find the legendary firebird.

Readers have also hypothesized that David falls on the autism spectrum, an interpretation that I agree with. For those looking for autism rep in books, I believe his character is a casual nod to that.

“I… I don’t understand half of what goes on around me. I don’t get jokes or sunsets or poetry, but I know metal. Beauty was your armor. Fragile stuff, all show. But what’s inside you? That’s steel. It’s brave and unbreakable. And it doesn’t need fixing.”

Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

Check out The Shadow and Bone Trilogy on Amazon.

3. Vhalla Yarl Solaris – Air Awakens Series

Image by Merilliza Chan

Although she was raised on a farm, Vhalla’s mother taught her to read. It’s this ability and her father’s efforts that allow her to get a job as a library apprentice at the Imperial Library.

When one of the prince’s lives are at stake, Vhalla commits herself to finding the cure that will save him in the stacks of the library. Only, this isn’t the prince she wanted to save.

But it’s this dark prince who sees something in Vhalla that no one else has, and it’s something their world hasn’t seen in ages.

“I was raised in a world where I had thousands of friends, each one waiting for me on a shelf every day.”

Elise Kova, Earth’s End

Check out Air Awakens on Amazon.

2. Bilbo Baggins – The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings Series

Image by Kairashima

Bilbo has earned his place as a literary bookworm in more ways than one.

First, it’s impressive that he’s literate at all–let alone a bookish hobbit at that. Tolkien suggests in The Two Towers that many, if not most, hobbits never learn to read. In hobbit culture, this skill is placed in order of importance somewhere after cooking.

What’s more, Bilbo writes his own book, authoring his adventure to the Misty Mountain in There and Back Again. Although he certainly has his own adventure in The Hobbit, Bilbo can be read as a homebody. He’d rather work on his book than answer the door and invite his relatives inside.

All I have to say is, same.

“Books ought to have good endings.”

“I might find somewhere where I can finish my book. I have thought of a nice ending for it: and he lived happily ever after to the end of his days.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Check out The Hobbit on Amazon.

1. Hermione Granger – Harry Potter Series

Image by UptheHill

I couldn’t leave out our most bookish icon of them all–the real reason Harry and Ron survived for six years of Hogwarts plus one on the run–Hermione Granger.

Time and again, Hermione pulls the guys out of a situation with knowledge that she’s gained from pouring over library books. There are almost too many moments to pick from to illustrate my point, so I’ll pick my favorite bookish Hermione moment.

In the second book, Hermione is petrified, along with several other victims. The heir of Slytherin and the heir’s monster won’t stop until a student is dead or until Hogwarts is closed. After failing to get any real answers from Aragog, Harry and Ron are at a dead end.

But Hermione’s already solved it for them.

In her petrified hand is a page ripped from a library book–a page on the legendary basilisk creature.

Even decommissioned, Hermione saves the day with her love of books and the habit of going to the library for answers.

“I checked this out weeks ago for a bit of light reading.”

“This is light?”

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001 film)

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What happened in A Curse of Silver? A Quick Recap before A Dance of Gilded Lies

A Curse of Silver

In a world in which magic is almost always dangerous and out of control, having Silverblood in your veins is against the laws of the kingdom and Guild. For years, the royal family and the Guild of Magic Control have been two separate but equally powerful entities, which has caused tension in the past of one overstepping the authority of the other. Silverbloods (people who are discovered to have magic inside them) are hunted down, captured, and held by the Guild for the good of everyone.

One day, formerly homeless kitchen worker Everin wakes to a dreaded discovery: she’s one of the dangerous ones. What’s more, the Guild has arrived at the castle and apparently set fire to the area from finding this infestation of magic.

Prince Alaric, youngest of the three heirs to the crown, meets Everin for the first time, and he explains that he has been watching her before today. The two of them both have Silverblood (likely causing such a strong response from the Guild’s detection meters), and he says the Guild has slit the throats of his parents and eldest brother in their zealotry.

After Alaric shows Everin their possible only hope, an ancient book with a spell to hide their Silverblood nature in it, they flee the castle together to find missing pages torn from its binding.

The two travel across the kingdom, stopping at various cities and villages in search of the two missing pages of the ritual. As they ride, they are nearly caught in the woods by the Guild’s hunters. Everin uses her magic to save them, but ends up inadvertently killing many of the hunters on their tail. She is haunted by this. Will her Silverblood magic will drive her to madness if she uses it too much?

Throughout this time, Alaric hints that he thinks Everin is attractive and might have feelings for her. But as a peasant girl born into poverty, Everin feels the differences between her and Alaric are too stark to overcome. Despite this, the two share a kiss at a festival while being hunted by the Guild. They wear masks to disguise themselves, pretending they are only two young festival attendees in love.

They don’t have much luck finding the missing pages until they reach the capital. Everin goes by herself to ask a rare books shop for the pages, but the shop worker acts strangely to her written request. He gives her two papers, one clearly torn from their ancient book and the other a handwritten note. Everin can’t read and considers that the worker might be taunting her for her illiteracy. However, she doesn’t show Alaric the handwritten note.

The two share a night together before attempting the first part of the ritual detailed in the page. After, they are nearly caught by the Guild’s hunters again. During the chase, Everin finds that the first part of the ritual seems to have worked, and she can’t manage to use her magic. Alaric saves them instead, causing terrible destruction throughout the area and killing several people, including at least one innocent. In the wake of this, Everin separates from Alaric and her horse.

As she processes what they’ve done and hides from the hunters scouring the woods for her, she discovers the page from the rare books collector is a note to her to teach her how to read. Using her new ability and a wanted notice of her, Everin discovers that the public doesn’t know Alaric has Silverblood and thinks that Everin has captured the prince. Something doesn’t add up.

Everin and Alaric meet up in the woods again and briefly form a plan. Alaric’s surviving brother, Aleksander, is hunting Everin on behalf of the Guild. Alaric says he is prejudiced against Silverbloods and would kill Alaric if he found out he was one. Thus, they craft a fake hostage situation so that Prince Aleksander lets Everin and Alaric go.

During this time, Everin has decided she will protect Alaric’s Silverblood secret even after they both stifle the magic from their blood, preserving the idea that she was the villain and his captor. This shatters the earlier possibility that they could have a future together. This way, the kingdom need never know that one of its princes had cursed magic.

Everin’s plan is to part ways with Alaric after the full ritual and hide her true identity for the rest of her days.

The two arrive at the burnt castle where Alaric has suggested the last page might remain, but Everin feels his behavior is off. He leads them upstairs to his father’s study, and he suggests she look for a hidden compartment where the last page might remain. Everin peeks out a window and sees smoke in the distance, suggesting the Guild might already be on their way.

Alaric is preparing for the ritual already, and she discovers there is no second page. Using her new—although weak—ability to read, she sees that the ritual is not what she thought it was.

Prince Alaric is intending to sacrifice Everin’s life to steal her Silverblood magic for himself. He already stole most of it from her, in fact. Before he can kill her to make this permanent, Everin slices open his throat, spilling the stolen Silver and taking back her cursed magic.

In the epilogue, soon-to-be King Aleksander has already found Alaric’s mangled body and is out for revenge on the Silverblood monster who took his younger brother from him.

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