 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to Top 5 Friday. Today we are talking about my top 5 favorite female characters. I will be doing the male characters after this. I do want to preface this with I was going to do the top 5 worst lines ever written today, but as I was going through my notes, I couldn't pick just 5. So I'm going to spend a considerable amount of time actually going through all the lines because I have a whole notebook filled with atrocious lines and I also have a little private note over on Goodreads of my books that I have private shelf. All of the books that include the worst lines ever written and there are a lot of them. I'm talking over a hundred. So we'll get to it. It's just going to take me a little longer to research it. So right off the bat, the very first one is an honorable mention and that is Elizabeth Salinger from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or the Millennium Series written by Steg Larsen. The reason why this is an honorable mention is because I've only read the first book and she is the only part of the book I enjoyed. Once she finally, once the book focused on her, I started enjoying myself more. People have said that the rest of the series she's in it more and she's more the focus. So I will maybe get into it. I'm not sure, but the other books are longer than this one and this one really dragged for me, but I loved the character. The only reason she's not on the actual list itself is because I don't know how the rest of her story art goes. Alright, next up is a character whose name I am going to absolutely butcher from 1Q84 by Heruki Midekami and that is the character of Aomami. I'm not sure. It's spelled A-O-M-A-M-E. She is terrific. I enjoyed everything about reading about her. In fact, the other person in the book after her, I forget the guy's name, and not that he is forgettable. His name is forgettable. It's Tango, but she really stole the show in this one and that's odd for Heruki Midekami to have such a strong female character. At least, that's been my experience with Japanese literature. I have not read many female authors, Japanese authors. Natsuo Kurino comes to mind, and there's another one. I can't remember her name. There's another author, but even in the books written by Japanese women, their characters are not the strong point, which is unfortunate. But, yeah, M-M-M, you know how I do. I can't pronounce these names, so we're just going to go ahead and move on. Next up, I'm going to switch out these because the more I think about it, the more I want those in my top three, is Marianne Engel from The Gargoyle. If you have not read this book, I highly recommend you go out and pick up a copy. It's by Andrew Davidson. I don't think he has any other books. I think this is a debut novel. I could be wrong about all of that, but the character that stands out the most is Marianne Engel, the woman who starts such an odd relationship with the main character after his car accident. The car accident and the aftermath is the whole reason to read this book, and Marianne Engel steals the show. She is a fantastically drawn female character, and she reminds me so much of my wife. When I was injured back in 2005, and I hurt my back, it was right after my daughter had been born, and I couldn't even hold my daughter for fear that, you know, I'd either drop her because I was too weak or that I would fall or even sitting down. I had problems sitting upright for any period of time, and just the added weight of the child made it very difficult, but some of the woman's actions in this one, the lengths that she goes through reminds me of my wife. My wife stuck by me through all of that, all of it, and there was quite a bit of stuff that I don't even want to talk about on camera, but she stood by me through all the stuff that I could not do for myself and helped me overcome that, and I will be forever grateful, and this character reminded me of her, so I'm a little biased as far as that's concerned, but the book is terrific. Moving on, we have Beck, Guinevere Beck from Caroline Kepnes U. This portrayal of a stalker and his prey, I guess, or victim is fascinating, and one of the things that makes it fascinating is the character of Beck, and it's going to be, this may be a little controversial, but the way she deals with the stalking, the way that she comes to fall for this guy, and yes, this minor spoilers for this book, they form a relationship, the way she reacts to finding out that he's a stalker, everything about her in this book, I hate it. I know that sounds strange to have a favorite character, but I love reading about this book because of Beck. Joe's great also, but it's the fact that somehow Kepnes managed to make a stalker, an atrocious human being, into a likable character, and then make a victim into an unlikable character. That just blew my mind, and the ending of the book I thought was perfect. It's the best part of the book in my opinion, and I don't want to spoil anything, but yes, so number three, definitely Guinevere Beck from you. Next up we have, this is kind of a tie, because I honestly couldn't pick, but I guess I'm going to take the step, and I'm going to go ahead and say that this is number two, I'm going to stick with it, stick to my guns, Dolores Claiborne of the titular Dolores Claiborne. I read this book for the first time when I was 13, I told the story in several of my Stephen King videos on the subject, I stole the book out of the mailbox, because my mother was part of Stephen King Book Club, she wouldn't let me read Stephen King, I read the book over the course of two days, I'm hiding it anytime I wasn't reading it. Luckily my parents pretty much left me alone, so I was able to, you know, read for huge lengths of time, but reading about this woman, even the subsequent rereads that I've done is so much fun. I love her tone of voice, I love the way she reacts, I love how she doesn't take any shit, I love the end of the book, the comeuppance for the characters, I love the way she handles everything, and the best part of the book is, you know, she gets away with one murder that she did do, but then she gets, you know, in trouble for a murder that she didn't do, I think that was epic also, but Dolores Claiborne, anytime I think about my favorite female characters, this name pops up, so that one as well as Victoria McQueen. This is, NOS 482 is my second favorite novel of all time, only behind it, and one of the main reasons for that is because of Vic. I had so much fun reading about this woman, her trials and tribulations, her as a kid going across the bridge on her bike to becoming the pretty crappy adult that she becomes to finally in the end getting some retribution for it all. Watching her story arc from childhood to adulthood was great, I loved every minute of it, she stole the show. In fact, she for me is the best part of the book. Some people like the gas, the gas mask man, some people like Manx, but for me it is Vic. There is not a dull moment in the book, there's so much originality, I do not agree with people who say that the book is just a rip-off of his father stuff. Yes, this is comes the time where he starts, he started to add in dad stuff, there's mention of mid-world, mention of Pennywise, that kind of thing, but dad started doing it also in Dr. Sleep and so on, Mr. Mercedes talking about Judas Coin and then talking about Manx, I think in Dr. Sleep also, but Anywho, Victoria McQueen is amazing, she is my favorite female character of all time. Now if we want to talk movies and all that stuff, I have a completely different list for that one, so if you guys want to see my top five favorite female, either my favorite actresses or my favorite female characters in movies, let me know down there in the comments below and of course, leave your own top five, top 10, whatever favorite female characters in novels or short stories down there in the doobly-doo, but until next time, I have an E, you have an U, this has been another top five Friday, I'll talk to you guys later, buh-bye!