No discussion of of strong female characters in modern YA would be complete without Tally Youngblood, protag of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy. Okay, it's not a trilogy anymore, but the fourth one has a different protagonist, Aya, and I'm hoping in my heart of hearts that she's eventually going to get her own trilogy. How about it, Scott? Please?
The existing books are Uglies, Pretties, Specials and Extras. This is one of my absolute favorite series. It deals with serious issues, such as body image, the pervasiveness of the media, and the apathy of society in general. But you hardly notice, because of all the hoverboard chases, anti-grav jackets that let people jump off buildings in a single bound, and, most importantly, the great love story.
At the same time, Westerfeld plays with language, inventing an entire future slang that leaves you thinking in it by the time you're done reading. This effect lasts about a week. You flip on the TV and see America's Funniest Home Videos, and you think, "That really is brain-missing." Or maybe it's just me.
The best part is how you can tell how the characters feel about each other based on the use of nicknames, which consist of adding a suffix. Tally becomes Tally-wa, Shay becomes Shay-la. I don't know if every name would be able to survive this treatment. Dandylyon-wa? Too many syllables. Dandy-la? Better. What do you guys think?
The main reason I despair of there ever being another Aya book is that Westerfeld has moved on to a new series, which begins with Leviathan, coming out in October. His blog shows stacks of the ARCs, just waiting to be cracked. I guess *sigh* that after I see it, I'll get attached. After all, it's an alternate history involving biotechnology and big robot-looking things.
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