Favorite Male Characters in Books

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today is a very special day. It is June 1st, my 18th birthday! That means that when this post goes up, I will be starting my first day at 18 years old.

This post will be a bit different. I am going to be talking about my favorite male characters from books, along with why I like them so much.

Initially, I was going to include both males and females on this list, but there were more males than I thought. Some of them also have fairly long descriptions of why I like them. 

The characters on this list aren't in any particular order. This is just the order my mind thought of them.

Let's get into the post!

King, Alexandria. Musings of Arthritic Artist. 2021.

Percy Jackson

Let's begin with Percy Jackson, the main protagonist in Percy Jackson and the Olympians and a protagonist in The Heroes of Olympus. I love how loyal Percy is. He just has such a likeable personality that I have a hard time explaining. I love the relationship he has with his mother. I love reading the scenes with Percy and Annabeth. The two of them are a Greek demigod powerhouse. I really can't explain how much I love Percy. He's a fantastically written character that I love and wish was real. 

Leo Valdez

I admit that when I first started reading The Heroes of Olympus, I wasn't really invested in any of the characters. My favorite was Piper. I liked Jason, and I liked Leo, but I think I very much had the mentality most people had: The Lost Hero didn't have Percy. 

We had read 5 books and fallen in love with Percy as a person, then suddenly, he's nowhere to be found in the first book of the spin-off series (he does appear in the series in The Son of Neptune though, so it's okay). This definitely affected my opinion of Leo. I liked some of the quotes he makes in The Lost Hero, but I wasn't completely invested (now I read those quotes and smile). 

It wasn't until The Mark of Athena that Leo became one of my favorite characters, to the point where I have a hard time picking a favorite between him and Percy. I love Leo. I love that he's a Mexican Texan (he's from Houston). I love that Spanish words are sprinkled into his dialogue. I love that he talks about Mexican food. 

There's a semblance of the Mexican Texas culture in Leo that I've grown up with and love. I didn't think I'd end up liking Leo as much as I did, but the moment I did, I wondered why I didn't love him the first time.

Jasper Whitlock

This is a character I was surprised to add to my list last year. I read Twilight and honestly wasn’t a fan of it. I thought it was bland and fairly boring. However, I immediately loved Jasper. The main reason I love Jasper is because of how much I relate to him. He’s a highly empathetic vampire. He has the ability to change the emotions and mood of others, which I find really cool. 

He talks about being able to feel others’ emotions, pain, and suffering as if it’s his own, which is something I highly relate to. I’m highly empathetic to the point where being empathetic is both a blessing and a curse. It's nice (and useful) to know when moods are tense or when people are upset or happy, but it gets very tiring since it's not easily controllable. I related to Jasper on an emotional level I wasn't expecting.

Jem Carstairs

Jem from The Infernal Devices is a new addition to my list. I read Clockwork Angel last year and really enjoyed it. I liked Will, but I like Jem more. Jem has health issues, which is another reason why I think I connected with him so much. I especially love some of the quotes he has in Clockwork Angel, and really want to read more of his story in Clockwork Prince and Clockwork Princess. Jem sometimes has to walk with a cane, which I think is a really unique thing to showcase in a YA novel, fantasy or not.

Finnick O'Dair

Finnick is one of my favorite characters, and he's one of those characters I can't really explain. I can't pinpoint a specific reason why I like him so much, I just do. He's likeable and kind. He's interesting. There's really not a whole lot I can say about him, since I don't 100% know why I like him.

Newt

Newt from The Maze Runner is one of my all-time favorite characters. He's easily higher up on my list of favorites. I love how kind and patient he is. Much like Finnick, I think I connected with him on a physical level. Newt walks with a limp due to a physical trauma. This is a point I will touch upon later in the list with a different character.

Elias Veturius 

Elias from An Ember in the Ashes is a somewhat newer addition as well. I read this entire quartet last year and loved it. Elias is compassionate and loyal. He's also very forgiving. One of my favorite things about Elias is that while he had a difficult life, he was never a jerk because of it. There were definitely times were he could've handled a situation better, but he was never a jerk, which I loved and was a refreshing change of pace. I talked more about Elias as a character in my recent spoiler-free review for An Ember in the Ashes (linked here: Ancient Rome Mixed With Arabian Mythology: An Ember in the Ashes (opens in new window))

Frank Zhang

Frank is another character in the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. He isn't as high on my list as Percy or Leo, but he's definitely up there. Frank is intriguing and different. He's incredibly loyal and kind, which is a recurring theme in my favorite characters. He's very similar to other Riordanverse characters, while also being very different. I find his ability to be cool and interesting. There isn't much I can say about him that I haven't already said.

Magnus Chase

Magnus Chase is the protagonist of the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard trilogy by Rick Riordan. Anyone who's read Percy Jackson and the Olympians knows that Magnus is essentially a Bostonian-Norse Percy with a few differences (Magnus isn't as combat minded, he hates blue, and he's incredibly cynical), so it should probably come as no surprise that Magnus is on my list of favorite characters.

Hearthstone

Hearthstone is one of the main side characters in the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard trilogy. I loved reading about him, and couldn't wait to read chapters that had him in them. Hearth is an elf from Alfheim. He is deaf. He can lip-read, but the main way he communicates with Magnus is with ASL (Alf Sign Language). I loved reading about a deaf/disabled main character in one of Rick Riordan's books, even if Hearth wasn't the protagonist.

Mr. Darcy

I'm not going to go in-depth with this one, because I feel as if most people are tired of seeing Mr. Darcy on every list (I thought of a specific scene in You've Got Mail from 1998; if you've seen that movie, you know what I'm talking about [the whole movie has Pride and Prejudice influences, but I'm specifically talking about the scene where Pride and Prejudice is showed and Joe Fox comments about Mr. Darcy), and if you've read Jane Austen (or watched an adaptation), I'm sure you already know why so many people love him. He's not in my top three, but he's definitely on my list.

Kaz Brekker

Kaz is another surprising new addition. He is one of the six main characters of the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo. I liked the whole cast of Six of Crows, but I connected to Kaz the most in particular. I did a whole spoiler-free review on Six of Crows and how much I like Kaz in another post (linked here: Six of Crows: Ocean's Eleven Meets YA Fantasy (opens in new window)), but I knew I had to include and discuss him here.

If you've been following my blog (or at least read my first post; linked here: What No One Tells You About Arthritis: Introducing Me (opens in new window)), then you know I have an autoimmune disease I was diagnosed with as a baby. While this doesn't define me, it is a key part of my life, and I do enjoy talking about it (as contradictory as it may seem). 

Kaz has problems with his right leg from something that happened in his past, which causes him to walk with a limp and cane. I can only think of one YA character that has a limp (Newt) and one who has a cane (Jem Carstairs), but Kaz is the only one who has both.

I don't have mobility aids and I never have (at least not in the usual cane or wheelchair sense), but I have walked with a limp and leg pain dozens of times due to my medical issues and autoimmune disease flares. To see a character that struggled with this (even if it was trauma-induced) is incredibly relatable and enjoyable. 

Besides that, Kaz was just an enjoyable character to read about. I enjoyed his emotional journey, and I immediately wanted to know more about him, even when there was technically nothing more to learn.

Carter Kane

I didn't know whether I would actually like Carter when I began reading the Kane Chronicles, but I was pretty hopeful. I have more Riordanverse characters on here than any other characters. I just love the characters Rick Riordan writes. They're always so compelling and feel so real. They always feel like people. 

To be honest, I think the only characters of his that I straight up don't like are characters we aren't supposed to like (Octavian, Nancy Bobofit, initially Clarisse La Rue [though she's grown on me the more we know about her], and Drew Tanaka). Other than that, there aren't really any characters I don't like. There are some that I like less than others, but they are all well-written characters. 

Carter is no different. I was hoping that I'd enjoy the Kane Chronicles. I tend to love books that have siblings in them, so I was hoping that this would be no exception. Carter didn't disappoint. I love his leadership skills and the relationship he has with Sadie. I think one of the most interesting thing about the Kane Chronicles and the Kane siblings is that (if we're being 100% honest) we get to see their relationship grow from weak to strong, which is something I really enjoyed. 

Carter is also very protective of his family and friends. He's very knowledgeable and intelligent, which is good in my book. 

That's it for this post! I hope you enjoyed it! 

See you Thursday,

Lexi K🖌