Mother Figures – Top 5 Wednesday

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme. Check out the Goodreads group for more details. This week’s topic is favourite mother figures.

Trying to think of what to pick for this topic, I realised how under-represented good mother figures are. We get so many examples of father figures, but I struggled with thinking of strong mother figures.

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5. Charlotte from The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare

This is a very popular and well loved series, but I feel like Charlotte is one of the characters that gets somewhat overlooked. She is so integral to the found family atmosphere that is such a huge part of why the series is so amazing. She’s the glue that holds all of them together and she is determined to look after them, she takes all this responsibility on herself even though she’s not much older than the rest of them. But she loves and protects them fiercely, like only a mother could. And I think she’s very underrated and she deserves some recognition.

4. Kara Resnik from The Themis Files

We don’t see a lot of her as a mother in the series, but what we do see in my opinion definitely qualifies her for this list. She’s so fierce, will do anything to protect her child and I just got so many feels reading this series, particularly the stuff that related to Kara’s story arc as a mother. I found it very compelling, I felt how visceral her need to look after he child was. And I did enjoy her as a character in general, but I think it was not until I saw her as a mother that I really loved her. I do have a review of the series if you want to hear more of my thoughts.

3. Alana from Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

This graphic novel series is sooooo good. I love their little family. I’ve only read 3 volumes so far, but they’re such a cute family and I love Alana so much. She’s badass and vulnerable at the same time and she will DESTROY anyone who threatens her family.

2. Abbess Glass from The Book of the Ancestor by Mark Lawrence

This has become one of my favourite series, I love everything about it. All the characters are great, but Abbess Glass is definitely one of my favourites. She’s this scheming… I wanna say Dumbledore-like character. She’s not really anything like Dumbledore except that she has the same kind of long sight that Dumbledore has and also the same kind of connection with Nona that Dumbledore has with Harry. She sees herself as a parental figure for all of the girls at the Convent and to some extent the whole world. She has this strong desire to protect as many people as possible, but is quite ruthless at the same time.

1. Essun from The Broken Earth Series by N. K. Jemisin

I love everything about this series. If you’ve not heard me rave about this series, check out my spoiler-free review and my spoilery rave. But specifically, the amount of mum feels I got from this book is unprecedented. I’m not really a maternal person. But this series man! And Essun and her single-minded desire to protect her children. It just gave me all the feels.