Saturday, May 2, 2015

Sidekick Showcase [96]


Sidekick Showcase is a monthly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on the first Saturday of the month, then whichever day during the month that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in the month's topic
• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• The day of your post, click the 'Sidekicks' link in my header and enter the link for your post. Here, you can also see anyone else that posted during the month to visit their Sidekick Showcase's as well.

Topic ideas for May are: Favorite character that grew up away from their parents, Favorite motherly character, Favorite character over 60



My choice is Briar Wilkes
from Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

My choice for the month isn't really a sidekick but she is a badass mother so I cheated a bit.
Briar Wilkes From Boneshaker.

Briar is the hardworking willing to do anything to protect her son hero of a mom.

Her lack of interest might have been interpreted as a lack of caring, but it was only a side effect of permanent exhaustion. Even knowing this, she felt a pang of guilt and she said out loud, because there was no one to hear her -- or agree with her, or argue with her -- "I'm a terrible mother."

Being as busy and worn out as she is she just wants to spend time with her son.

"I was just ... I was looking at you, that's all. I don't see you enough, I don't think. We should, I don't know ... We should do something together, sometime."

Even though he may not always appreciate her efforts.

Ezekiel left the fireplace and followed her. He stood at the end of the kitchen, blocking her exit and forcing her to look at him.

"That it's worth what? What do I have to lose, mother? All this?" 

With a sweeping, sarcastic gesture he indicated the dark gray home in which they squatted. 

"All the friends and money?"

When he turns up missing, she goes into mamma bear mode.

"You," she began with a finger aimed high, up under his chin. "You know where my son is, and you're going to tell me, or I'm going tear your ears off and feed them to you, you dirty little poison-pushing wharf kitten."

And when she finds out getting to him means going into Seattle, which is walled off, full of zombies and the air is full of the gas responsible for creating the zombies...

"Every mother swears it of every son," he argued. "But even if you get inside, how you going to get him out? You going to climb? You going to dig?"
She confessed, I haven't gotten that far in my planning yet, but I'll think of something."

Briar to me is an amazing single mother, she works a job she hates, for little pay with people who constantly mess with her stuff and all the while her son takes it for granted. But yet she shows that she is willing to face her greatest fears to save and protect him. Somehow when she told him they needed to spend some time together, I don't think she meant in the zombie infested city.

8 comments:

  1. Hm, I need to think about this for a bit. The picture might be tricky... We'll see. Interesting concept :)

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  2. I love the threat of ripping the ears off. What an insult she lays out "...you dirty little poison-pushing wharf kitten." Mama bear mode is a scary place. I've been there and people look at me differently after experiencing it. Great pick, Matt. I have to get on my post. I've been neglecting all those awesome sidekicks!

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  3. This one was a pretty solid steampunk novel. add in the zombies and the mom who won't back down and it ended up being pretty good. :D

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  4. I love when a parent don't fear anything. :D

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  5. I can't wait to see your sidekick post. And her ferocious attitude really set the tone for the book. :D Fear mama bear should be most people's motto

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  6. Bookworm BrandeeMay 5, 2015 at 7:06 PM

    Well as a mom, I'm loving the sound of Briar. :) I don't read steampunk, Matt...for some reason I'm nervous about taking the plunge. But Briar may just push me over the edge. :)

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