Top Ten Characters I Wish Would Get Their Own Book

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

Today's topic is about characters we wish had their own books, either minor characters or other main characters whose points of view aren't the focus of the real book.

SPOILERS ABOUND for the books listed here. Proceed with caution!

1. Alba DeTamble from The Time Traveler's Wife
Alba inherits main character Henry's time-traveling tendencies, but from the glimpse we have of her she seems to have more control over her abilities than Henry does. She also lives in a world where her condition is named (CDP: Chrono-Displaced Person) and better understood. In what ways is her life different from Henry's, and in what ways does she have the same challenges he did?

2. Dante Quintana from Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
This book is told from Aristotle (Ari)'s point of view, so we don't get to see much inside Dante's head. We don't know much about his year in Chicago apart from what's in his letters to Ari, and we don't get the whole story of his coming to terms with his sexual orientation. Dante seems much less angry and brooding than Ari, so the same story from his perspective would be very different.

3. Denny Swift from The Art of Racing in the Rain
I know that much of what makes this book great is that it's told from the perspective of Denny's dog, Enzo. Still, with all the crap that Denny goes through over the course of this book, and the fact that he comes off as a genuinely good person, I would find it interesting to get his own perspective on things.

4. Hazel Jones from The Language of Flowers
Hazel's upbringing is set up to be better than Victoria's, but it's still bound to be difficult as Victoria and Grant learn to be the parents they never had. And certainly Hazel will learn to express herself in the language of flowers, but presumably not with as much anger and misanthropy as Victoria. I would be interested to hear her story.

5. Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series
Hermione is, obviously, a main character, but she's not the main character, so there are aspects of her experience we miss out on. Also, we never get to find out whether she was able to reverse her parents' memory modification and get them back in her life. And how will she be as a parent if her children aren't as naturally studious as she was? These are the things I think about.

6. Mi Mi from The Art of Hearing Heartbeats
Although this book tells the story of Tin Win and Mi Mi's relationship, it is Tin Win's story, as well as his daughter Julia's. We get to discover how Tin Win feels to gain "sight" through Mi Mi, but less about how Mi Mi feels to gain mobility through Tin Win, and very little about her life after he leaves. It would be a very different story if told from her point of view.

7. Mrs. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice
Mrs. Bennet gets a bad rap for obsessively trying to marry off her daughters, but she has her reasons for doing so. With all the Pride and Prejudice spin-offs out there I'm sure someone has written from Mrs. Bennet's perspective, but probably not with writing as skilled and sharp as Austen's. It would be a very different story if it were primarily the story of a woman with five unmarried daughters and a sarcastic husband who refuses to acknowledge their perilous financial situation.

8. Mrs. Cooke from We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
This is the one character in the book who doesn't have much agency for a lot of the story (besides Fern, obviously), but she ultimately proves to be resilient and rebuilds her life around what's important to her. I would love to know more about her own journey, of which we only get glimpses from Rosemary's perspective.

9. Owen Dunne from The Art of Fielding
There are a number of intertwining relationships in this book that involve five main characters, and Owen is the only one of the five whose perspective doesn't get shared. He is the character who affects those around him but who remains somewhat of a mystery himself, seemingly unaffected by much of what happens around him. What is it actually like inside his head?

10. Silk from the Belgariad and Malloreon series
It's been too long since I reread these books. Silk was my favorite character, though he was definitely more of a "sidekick" than one of the main characters. He's cunning and devious and funny. I would have loved if Eddings had written a book with Silk as the main character.

Which characters' stories would you like to hear?

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