Give Me Ladies With Blood On Their Hands

[redbrunja]

Does anyone have recommendations for books about bad girls? Girls who are not nice? Who prioritize their survival over other people?

Because I was reading the opening of Keturah and Lord Death and when I got to the part (about four pages in, so not a spoiler) where Death tells the heroine that he’ll spare her if she names someone she’s prefer to die in her place and she’s like, ‘oh, no, I couldn’t possibly!’ and I’m like, ‘BOOM, DONE WITH YOU, POLLYANNA.’ It could have been anyone! It could have been someone she hated! Someone she barely new! Sweet jesus, I can think of five people who I’d be willing to trade for my life WITHIN THIRTY SECONDS.

Comments

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Hannity.

I thought about Coulter or O'Reilly but honestly I think I'd pick Hannity. Or Limbaugh.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Exactly! There are just so many!

[kerrykhat.livejournal.com]

Maybe Tara Chace from the Queen and Country novels by Greg Rucka? She's a spy, she kills people for a living, and she doesn't apologize for it. She's good at her job, and if her job is an assassination, she'll do it.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Ugh, the library only has electronic versions!

[mirumototsubasa.livejournal.com]

Have you read the Parasol Protectorate books by Gail Carriger? (Starts with Soulless)

[plural-entity.livejournal.com]

If so, I need to know these books. Because I just get so frustrated with most heroines these days.

Personally, when I want to read about BAMF girls, I get sucked back into RA Salvatore's Forgotten Realms Drow-specific novels. An entire society ruled by females, who worship a deity of chaos? His War of the Spider Queen series is particularly delicious. Quenthel Baenre is just awesome.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

See if they have Shooting at Midnight by Rucka. It's a mystery novel/thriller that's part of his series about a male bodyguard named Atticus Kodiak but it's partially told from the perspective of his badass on/off-again girlfriend Bridgett Logan. Bridgett's a former junkie who agrees to go back on the streets/into the drug life because of a promise made to a friend. When she disappears into that life, Atticus starts investigating and her twin sister, a pretty badass NUN, gets involved in the investigation too.

Bridgett is one of my favorite female characters of all time, but ALL of Rucka's ladies are strong, awesome peeps.

Also, you might like the Beauty Killer series by Chelsea Cain about a female serial killer and the cop she's pulled into her thrall. Heartsick is the first (I think) and it's really good. I got a little sick of the series by book 3 or 4 but Gretchen Lowell is pretty twisted and her relationship with the lead is sickly compelling.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Also, since I know you like romance... Did you read Sins and Needles by Karina Halle? The protag is one of the few antiheroines I've found in the romance genre. She's a conwoman/grifter who tries to screw the hero in more ways than one.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I got halfway through, wasn't totally feeling it, my kindle app freaked out, and wouldn't let me redownload it. So, sort of?

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Ah, gotcha. I'll try to think of others...

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

I would totally trade in Glenn Beck. Not only would I be saving myself, but I'd make life more enjoyable for everyone else!

As far as ladies with blood on their hands, I haven't read it yet, but this series seems promising. (http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Engines-Marla-Mason-Book/dp/0553589989/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367741098&sr=8-1&keywords=Blood+Engines)

EDIT: Er, rereading the descriptions, maybe not blood on her hands per se, but I specifically remember something about her being a gangster/crime boss of some kind.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Those are very fun.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/the-summoning/

I listened to these three books and while they're not perfect I enjoyed them far more than the 2 Otherworld books I read by the same author.

These had the creepiest and most vivid portrayal of a necromancer that I've seen yet in urban fantasy, especially by book 3. I'm sure there are scarier books out there, but these.worked for me because thwy really showed how crappy it would be to talk to ghosts and how traumatic it would be to have to animate the corpse of someone you know just MINUTES after they died because, well, life got dark.

[empressearwig.livejournal.com]

Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews?

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

PREACHING TO THE CHOIR.

I absolutely love that series. I've re-read it AT LEAST three times.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Oooh, The Summoning is actually available at the library five minutes away. I think I'll snag that later this evening.

because thwy really showed how crappy it would be to talk to ghosts and how traumatic it would be to have to animate the corpse of someone you know just MINUTES after they died because, well, life got dark.

I am intrigued!

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've read the first book. She has blood on her hands. And she's actually wonderfully unlikable. Thanks for reminding me of that series, I just put the sequel on hold at the library.

[mollivanders.livejournal.com]

I'm only halfway through the book but I think you'd love it: it's called The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairlyland in a Ship Of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente (holy shit, what a spelling). A big theme has been about how the girl September (who is 12) is Somewhat Heartless. It's a stunning book in the first place, anyway, and I'm even more pleased that it's "meant" for a younger audience.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Of course the library doesn't have it! Still, I put that on my amazon wish list. Also, I think I've read one of those books with Atticus Kodiak when I was WAY too young for it.

Bridgett is one of my favorite female characters of all time, but ALL of Rucka's ladies are strong, awesome peeps.

Truth!

And I'll check out the Beauty Killer series - that sounds really, really fun.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, that sounds AMAZING.

[tobu-ishi.livejournal.com]

Smack me if you've already read them eight times, but have you tried Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce? I wouldn't call Aly an out-and-out bad girl, persay, but she's definitely willing to snark hard and fight dirty to achieve her ends, in ways that you don't often see in female protags.

(Incidentally, that kind of who-do-I-have-to-kill-to-get-out-of-here mercilessness was one of the things I liked about first-book Katniss. It's so unusual to see a non-villainous girl written caring about her own skin first.)

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I've read the first couple of books.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Smack me if you've already read them eight times, but have you tried Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce?

I have!

(Incidentally, that kind of who-do-I-have-to-kill-to-get-out-of-here mercilessness was one of the things I liked about first-book Katniss. It's so unusual to see a non-villainous girl written caring about her own skin first.)

Fuck yes. I adored Katniss' ruthlessness and how she really didn't care about anything beyond her sister's life and then her own and then her mother's.