I tried out a number of ideas for this essay that would tie into my new YA book, Seriously Wicked. Some of the discarded titles:
- Five Books Where Evil Witches with Ridiculous Plans Try to Totally Ruin Everything, OMG
- Five Books with Cute Boy-Band Boys Who Accidentally Get Taken Over by Demons With a Fondness for Elvis Presley
- Five Books With Dragons in Garages (Real or Metaphorical? Explore.)
But then I decided that one of my favorite parts of Seriously Wicked is the fact that my heroine, Cam, has to save Devon, the cute new boy in school. Devon’s not a wilting lily—it’s just that he’s a normal boy with no magic. And now that Cam’s guardian, the wicked witch Sarmine, has accidentally loosed a demon into him, he’s in a big mess. Cam may not have magic either, but she’s been around magic her whole life, and she’s the one with access to the Witch Internet to look up demons on Witchipedia. So naturally, she’s the one who has to try to do the saving.
Here are some other girl rescuing boy books I love.
Katniss and Peeta in Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games
The big recent example, of course! I never understood the Gale love triangle when I was reading the trilogy—I was team Peeta all the way. Peeta used every bit of his smarts and skills that he had—he just had a different skillset from Katniss’s bow and survival tactics. He’s got tact and brains that he uses more than once—not to mention the camouflaging escape during the games. I thought Collins did a lovely job delineating the relationship between the two of them and showing what each bring to the table.
Hermione and her two plucky sidekicks in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series
Hermione’s usually saving the boys through her brains, not through her muscles—but in the Harry Potter world, of course, your brains direct your magic, which is far more powerful than any punch to the face. When I was writing this essay up I was informed that Hermione might not count because she’s a big know-it-all, to which, in defense of other know-it-alls, I explained that one can be a big know-it-all and still save the boys-who-have-yet-again-failed-to-study from their own idiocy. In fact, being a big know-it-all is generally Hermione’s biggest asset, so there.
Aerin and Tor in Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown
Tor is the male heir to the throne, and does plenty of swordfighting and country-ruling and so on. But Aerin goes off to slay dragons (a nigh-impossible task in this world), and becomes “not-quite-mortal,” and brings back the Hero’s Crown to win the war that Tor and her father would otherwise lose. There’s quite a power imbalance by the end, especially in the implication that she will marry the mortal Tor (whom she loves) for now, but that later she might gallivant off with the other man she loves, who happens to be immortal.
Senneth and Tayse in Sharon Shinn’s Mystic and Rider series
So Tayse is a dauntingly awesome soldier. But Senneth is a mystic who can control fire. She has a bunch of other related powers, is also good with a sword, and is basically unstoppable. Which is a little challenging for the guy sent along to be her bodyguard. Shinn has a good time with this (first of all, it can be challenging to make someone as universally powerful as Senneth interesting, but she certainly is), and the power imbalance leads to amusing moments between Senneth and Tayse. Early on they get attacked, and Senneth dispatches her foe simply by heating the hilt of his sword. But she doesn’t do the same to Tayse’s foe, instead kindly letting Tayse prove his skill against his attacker.
Katsa and Po in Kristin Cashore’s Graceling series
Like Senneth and Tayse, this relationship eases into the power issue by having the boy be strong too, it’s just that the girl is, like, super-duper strong. Katsa is magically “graced” with extra fighting ability—and she is thrilled to finally spar with Po, who is the first person to be even close to her level. The power balance shifts between them in interesting ways which I won’t spoiler for you because the whole trilogy is amazing and why haven’t you read it yet? At any rate, it’s Katsa’s extra skill that lets her rescue him at one point when things look grim.
There are a lot more of these books than there used to be—what are some of your favorites?
Tina Connolly is a Nebula-nominated novelist whose next book, Seriously Wicked, comes out May 5th from Tor Teen. She also collaborated with Spencer Ellsworth to bring an original song from the novel, “Lion Tamer,” to life. Her stories have appeared in Women Destroy SF, Lightspeed, Tor.com, Strange Horizons, and more. Her narrations have appeared in audiobooks and podcasts including Podcastle, Pseudopod, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and more. She runs the Parsec-winning flash fiction podcast Toasted Cake. She wants to read about metaphorical dragon-garages now.
Alanna saving Jonathan, multiple times, in the Lioness Rampant series (esp books 1 & 2).
Hermione was my first thought, but I’m super excited you brought up Senneth :D
I think Wheel of Time probably has some examples of this, as it has a lot of good female characters – for example, Moiraine saving the whole group on a few occasions.
Um, The Paper Bag Princess, obviously!
Constantly in Y: the Last Man.
@2
I think that one is very different. This is an example of a mother figure saving her “children”. That is less unusual than a female character saving a peer.
I had to think about these a bit, because it isn’t as simple as just having a female lead, they have to actively save a male at some point. But my votes would go for :
Susan Ferris, in the Halfmen of O trilogy by Maurice Gee.
Eilonwy, in The Castle of Llyr by Lloyd Alexander
Wren Elessedil, in The Elf-Queen of Shannara by Terry Brooks
Phedre no Delauney, in Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey
Morgaine, in The Chronicles of Morgaine by C.J. Cherryh
Indigo, in the Indigo series by Louise Cooper
Kerowyn, in Kerowyn’s Tale by Mercedes Lackey
Susan Sto Helit in Soul Music by Terry Pratchett
Tiffany Aching in The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
Renie Sulewayo, in Otherland by Tad Williams
Eddi McCandry, in War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
Cordelia Naismith, in Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
Coraline, in Coraline by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
Sybel, in The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip
Arguably Kitai in the Codex Alera by Jim Butcher counts
I’m leaning towards Linden Avery in the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson.
Sabriel saving Touchstone, in Garth Nix’s Sabriel.
The female lead in any book based on the ballad of Tam Lin. (There are many of them; epseically recommended: Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, and on the old-school YA side, The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope.)
Winter saves the males leads at the end of the The Thousand Names (although neither of them is a love interest).
Ka-Poel is the only reason Taniel didn’t die a thousand times over thoughout the Powder Mage books. It’s subtle since she is basically a support mage (and mute), but yeah the whole country of Ardo owes her big.
Does anyone else think about Vin saving Kelsier in the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson?
And I can think of other examples in The Wheel of Time. Birgitte as a Warder in itself turns the male bodyguard trope on its head. There are plenty of strong female characters in that book that don’t have to constantly rely on magic. The maidens, Faile, Berelain, Min, etc. (for the most part). Nyaneave eventually saved herself and Lan on the ship.
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Cadsuane and Nynaeve saving Rand in Far Madding, in Winter’s Heart.
Vin is a great example. Also an example of the student saving the teacher.
How about Breq saving Seivarden in Ancillary Justice though who is male and who is female is a bit confusing at times and in some ways, not really all that relevant.
@5 – that was the first one that popped into my head, but there are a lot of other badass women in that series – Nyneave being my favorite. Although, come to think of it, most of the examples I can think of are examples of women saving other women (such as Birgitte and Elayne, or Faile and the other women working together to escape their captors, etc). Egwene also goes out with a huge blaze of glory and pretty much saves everybody ;) But I suppose it’s not the exact same dynamic as a woman saving a man who is in distress.
@9 – I was definitely thinking about Vin – it’s been a few years since I read the books, but I was trying to remember if she ever saved Elend or not.
It’s not a straight-up “girl saves boy by force of arms,” but I’d argue the titular heroine of Ella Enchanted belongs on this list, for certain. Female characters don’t have to be warriors or battle-mages to be rescuers–or to be strong, three-dimensional characters, for that matter!
A Brother’s Price – Wen Spencer
@12 Vin definitely saves Elend multiple times. For one, think of the events that kick off the house war, and for another, remember the attack at the council meeting.
As far as WoT heroines saving male peers, I can’t think of any that aren’t more or less immediately reciprocated (before or after), making them more “we got each other’s backs” than an inversion of the classic male saves damsel trope.
Steelheart and Firefight in Sanderson’s Reckoners series have some very, very spoilery examples.
Any books where the girl saves the boy/the woman saves the man not simply because she is super-duper powerful? I mean someone like Germione, Cordelia Naismith, Phedre and, to some extent, Katniss.
And how is it that no one has mentioned Luthien Tinuviel saving Beren three times? First, in Minas Tirith in the Vale of Sirion by getting Sauron beaten by an immortal elvish dog, then after stealing the Silmarillion from Morgoth and Carcaroth bites Beren’s hand off, then after Beren dies in the final confrontation with Carcaroth in Doriath, she begs the Valar to return him living to her?
Then, in the Moon of Gomrath, after Colin is abducted by Pelis the False and imprisoned in the ruined mansion, Susan organizes the elvish assault on said mansion and the bodachs of the Morrigan …
No love for Hans-Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen”? The whole story is about Gerda saving Kai.
Also, Chanur series by C.J. Cherryh, IIRC.
@19 The Snow Queen’s not really a book though, that’s short fiction.
diziet sma in Ian Bank’s Use of weapons saves zakalwe quite a number of times if I remember correctly
Patricia C. Wrede’s series “The Enchanted Forest Chronicles” with Princess Cimorene
Miri in Princess Academy. Not only does she save the boy, she pretty much saves everyone. More for tweens than YW, I suppose, but I read it in myt 40s and was truly charmed by it. (Haven’t read the rest of the series, but would like to!)
Wow, these are all amazing suggestions! I’d thought of a couple of them, but many of them I haven’t even read and need to add to my list, stat.
#7 – you are so right about the Tam Lin stories. And Fire & Hemlock is one of my favorite books ever, by which I mean it’s probably literally in the top three.
#19 – Snow Queen totally counts! That could be a whole new post – point to the fairy tales where it happens. There’s a couple on the tip of my brain but my brain isn’t really braining yet this morning.
Thorn and Brad in Half the World by Joe Abercrombie.
@24 The Snow Queen is a great example of girl-saves-boy, I’m not denying that, I just don’t think it’s long enough for this post. I don’t know the word count, but it takes me like an hour to read it. Still, a post like this for fairy tales would be pretty awesome.
#26 This theme’s just a perfect one for fairy tales/folktales/myths. Here’s my top-of-the-head list:
Beauty and the Beast
East of the Sun, West of the Moon
Snow White and Rose Red
The Six Swans
The True Bride
In the Saga of the Exiles quartet by Julian May, telepath/healer Elizabeth saves the life of fellow exile Aiken Drum. “You’re a tough Scottish lad and far too wicked to die young.”
I thought 0f the Snow Queen too. Another example is the Lunar Chronicles, where heroine Cinder has to save Prince Kai from the evil Queen Levana (it’s more of a side plot but it’s there).
@22: So glad you mentioned Princess Cimorene!
She’s my kind of princess.
Sonea from the Black Magician series? Think she definitely counts for this list
Ash Lenthard in Hunting by Andrea K Host.
Horse-riding, waterfall-climbing, parkour-running, city-saving vigilante FTW!
I’m going to add Meg from A Wrinkle in Time. She saves her brother and her friend. She has no super powers, just a lot of bravery, gumption, and desire to keep her family safe.
@30 Anne Remillard is another female metapsychic who saves the day in the Milieu Trilogy. She figures out who Fury is.
In George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin, Princess Irene saves Curdie’s life (he subsequently saves her from abduction and forced marriage).
You folks ought to check out the Six Stones Trilogy by Nat Howler. The three books are as follows. Book One—Three Fugitives. Book Two—Everywhere Foes Lurk. Book Three—Cursed Quest.
The main character, Orren, is a boy of 13 facing overwhelming odds and ruthless enemies, and he only has his wits to save himself and his friends. His friends are colorful characters, but one of them is a 16 year old girl named Marett–she’s a blue blooded noble girl but proves surprisingly intelligent and adaptable, and she helps gets Orren and his little posse out of several pickles. She turns out to be an indispensible part of the story.
May not be as well known as these other books, but it should be. Check the trilogy out, folks. I promise you that you’ll have trouble putting it down.
I’m just going to bookmark this page so I have a recommended reading list down the road….
And 35 – YES! Of course. I should have thought of Meg. One of my all-time favorite series.
What about Sargent Torin Kerr in Tanya Huff’s Valour series
and ‘Harry ‘ Crewe in The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley?
Cat in Cold Steel, book 3 of Kate Elliott’s Spiritwalker trilogy. Heck, the tag line on the book is “Revolutions to plot. Enemies to crush. Handsome men to rescue.“
Kade in The Element of Fire, though there is definitely mutual life saving going on.
Actually, there is usually at least a trade off of life-saving in most of Martha Wells’ books–in Wheel of the Infinite I think the lead briefly keeps count before giving up on it. Tremaine and Ilias also trade off a fair amount in the Fall of Ile Rien series; while he’s a bit more competent at the life-saving in general, she has some pretty incredible moments of it, both in the heat of battle, and coming to rescue him (and others) from captivity more than once, sometimes aided by her (also female) friend Florian. And the Emilie and the Hollow World books, aimed at a younger audience, do it too.
@30: I’d argue that Elizabeth saves Marc Remillard as well, to quite spectacular effect. Not from a physical threat, but from himself (which is altogether more dangerous).