Some Girls Are: What Did You Think of Regina?

This week's focus is on Courtney Summers's Some Girls Are. Courtney writes books that embody this month's theme: Resilience. Regina is a formerly popular girl who's been ousted by her so-called best friends. The brutal immediacy of Some Girls Are is riveting, and the emotional honesty at its core makes accompanying Regina on her journey a truly moving experience.

For discussion: If you've read Some Girls Are, what did you think of Regina? Like Sam in Before I Fall, she's sometimes hard to like because of her past actions.

And, in general, what books have you read where the main character grew on you over time?

Courtney Summers on Unlikeable Female Protagonists

The amazing Courtney Summers just wrote a great post "on unlikeable female protagonists", and I had to share a bit of it here (though you really must go read the whole thing).

Basically, when people responded to one of her novels saying they loved the guy protagonist, who was not exactly a sweetheart, but hated the girl protagonist, also not sweet (they couldn't connect with her, she was cold, etc), she started feeling... annoyed. Courtney says:

"I did a lot of navel-gazing soul-searching and I just kept getting annoyed because my thoughts decided to circle in this way: WHY DO GIRLS HAVE TO BE NICE ALL THE TIME THEY CAN BE MEAN AND ANGRY AND GENDER STEREOTYPING MUCH ARGH. Just. Like. That. I was bothered that the behaviours that are supported, loved, celebrated or romanticized in male characters would be, I thought, rejected in female characters because we have the perception that girls are sugar and spice and everything nice (er, not that I think wanting your significant other to DIE is an inherently male characteristic). "We are HARD on girls."

The whole post is fantastic, and it reminded me of this video clip I filmed of Libba Bray last year discussing something similar.



Let's let female characters be compelling -- must they always be likeable? Thoughts?

Cover Stories: Cracked Up to Be and Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers

Courtney Summers did a double Cover Story with me this week.

First, she talks about her debut, Cracked Up to Be. I loved this book, btw.

Here's Courtney:

"When I found out St. Martin's was going to publish Cracked Up to Be, I was really eager to see what they'd make of the cover. I secretly wished that:

1) there would be a girl on it and her face would be obscured, because I like covers that leave character's faces to the imagination and

2) it would be awesome (what author doesn't want that, though!)

"When I got the first cover for Cracked Up to Be, I loved it. It had a faceless girl laying on some bleachers set against a field and I thought it was awesome, so I was 2 for 2! Unfortunately, *cue ominous music*, it was not meant to be...

Read the rest of the Cracked Up to Be Cover Story.

Courtney also shared the Cover Story for Some Girls Are:

"Some Girls Are's publication timeline was similar to that of my first novel, Cracked Up to Be, so when the time I figured I'd get my cover rolled around... and passed me by... I was all kinds of nervous and excited. And then a little more time passed...

"AND THEN when I thought I'd explode of anticipation, I got to see a rejected version of the cover. I can't show it, but it featured a pair of (faceless!) girls back to back against a chainlink fence. I liked the concept, but the models struck me as too young and they were wearing pink and green pastel colours which gave the overall feel of the cover one of happiness and happiness has no place in Some Girls Are -- just misery and mean girl brutality and all that fun stuff!..."

The full Cover Story is up on Barnes and Noble's Unabashedly Bookish blog.

Enjoy both!