I’ve read all the Harry Potter books, Terry Brook stories, Cassandra Clare’s series. To me, the appeal of these books are that the characters are fully fleshed out. All of them have an Achilles’ heel, where they are vulnerable. And even the good guys aren’t perfect. In other words, the characters are very real.
For instance, I loved it when we discovered in the 5th book that Harry’s father was cruel to Snape when he was younger. Throughout the series, we thought Snape was just jealous of James Potter, and so he took out his hatred and jealousy on Harry, who deserved none of Snape’s dislike. We thought Snape was envious of the outgoing James Potter, who was good at Quidditch, popular with the other students, had the most beautiful and intelligent girl in the school, someone we discovered Snape secretly loved. Then, when Harry saw the sliver of dreams, we discover that James had a cruel streak; he bullied and poked fun at the awkward and socially inept teenage Snape.
Cassandra Clare does well with this too when the parents who adopted Jace end up not trusting him, and therefore don’t protect him from the Inquisitor. Then later they are remorseful for doubting him. I love the mystery surrounding the adults’ pasts and how Clare interweaves the past with the present.
Terry Brooks really explores the dark side of his heroes. His characters, who are constantly fighting evil, worry about becoming evil themselves, about fighting so much that they forget how to love. In Armageddon’s Children, my heart just withers for poor Logan Tom, who lost his whole family when he was only seven years old, and was raised by a military guy who ends up losing his sanity, and Logan ends up having to take care of the man he loved as a father. He worries that he, too, will go insane.
For me, characters make the story memorable. And you’ve got to have characters with an Achilles’ heel.
