Guest Post by Rachel Morgan & Giveaway

Kick-Ass Heroines

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Damsel: Oh, do save me!
Knight: Never fear, my lady, for your hero has arrived!
Damsel: Oh! [half faints] Oh look, my dress is falling off . . .









According to Wikipedia, the damsel in distress is usually “a beautiful young woman placed in a dire predicament by a villain or monster, and who requires a hero to achieve her rescue.” Now, as romantic as it is to be rescued by your “hero” (and it’s true that I’m currently in love with a certain I Need A Hero song ), you’ve got to admit that it’s way more fun to read about a girl who can kick the villain’s butt herself. And luckily for us, YA literature these days features some fantastic kick-ass heroines.

Here are just a few:

• Hermione Granger: she started off bossy and nerdy (actually, she never entirely lost the bossiness/nerdiness!) but there was a reason the sorting hat put her into Gryffindor, the house that values courage and bravery. I mean, she fought Death Eaters! 
• Isabelle Lightwood: this demon-stomping shadowhunter does not need a man to take care of her. 
• Katniss Everdeen: like I need to expand on this one. Anyone who can survive the horrific Hunger Games—twice—deserves to be on this list.
• Evie: with her trusty pick taser, Evie can handle just about any paranormal creature. 

I’m not saying these kick-ass heroines have to be strong all the time. They have their moments of vulnerability. It’s part of what makes them human, and I love them for it. But I also love that they don’t just wait around for someone else to rescue/take care of them.

The first novel I wrote had a heroine who had to be rescued a number of times. With Guardian, though, I got to write about a heroine who has the skills to rescue not only herself, but others as well. As a guardian of the faerie Guild, Violet has been trained to use her magic and fighting skills to protect unsuspecting humans from attack by dangerous fae creatures. She’s good at it, and she enjoys it. I’m sure one day she’ll have a damsel-in-semi-distress moment, just to show her that she isn’t quite as indestructible as she thinks she is, but for the most part she’s perfectly capable of dealing with the villains herself.

How do you feel about the kick-ass heroine vs the damsel in distress?

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Rachel Morgan is the author of Guardian, the first novelette in the Creepy Hollow series. She was born in South Africa and spent a large portion of her childhood living in a fantasy land of her own making. These days, in between teaching mathematics to high school children, she writes fiction for young adults.

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