In Her Shoes (12): Sydney from The Golden Lily

In Her Shoes is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Vanya at YA Story Teller. To participate, simply put yourself in the shoes of a heroine you've recently read about, and then talk about what you would do in her place, or what you've learned from her.

Featuring this week:

Sydney Sage from The Golden Lily

Sydney Sage is a main character in The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead which is the sequel to Bloodlines (a spin-off series of the amazing Vampire Academy). And if you haven't read Vampire Academy or Bloodlines yet, you need to. They are fabulous books that are so well-written that I can't even start to express the level and magnitudes of awesomeness that these books contain in their pages. The talent that Richelle Mead has when it comes to world-building and characterization is breathtaking. So good. But back to the Sydney Sage from The Golden Lily.

What I love about Sydney is that she is one of the most unique female characters I have encountered in Young Adult literature. Her personality traits are so rare in fact that many people like to cast her off as an 'unrealistic' character. Which, in all honesty, I can't say I'm surprised at since Sydney's personality is not the most common in literature and in real life for that matter. But girls like Sydney do exist. 

Sydney is an alchemist who is trained to hide the existence of the vampire world from humans. If I was to describe Sydney, I would say that she is an incredibly logical person, dedicated, responsible, selfless. Sydney is so logical, that she totally misses out on details like social cues/romantic cues because of how analytical her mind is. And what is fun about Sydney is that her blend of incredible smarts/logic and obliviousness to social interactions and situations make her trés adorable. I mean, you can't help but feel for her because of how she sees regular things and the fact that OH MY WORD this girl is so intelligent with everything she does, but put her on a date and it's like you just sent this girl to Mars on a date with a little green Martian :D

Would I change something about Sydney? The answer is: NO. I love Sydney. She is such a breath of fresh air amongst so many heroines that all seem to kinda resemble each other. Sydney's biggest asset is her mind and what I love about her in The Golden Lily is that she is starting to learn more about having friends, dating, questioning the strong beliefs that she has been raised with, accepting and learning to take more care of herself. Because thing is, Sydney is so responsible that she totally forgets about herself while helping everybody out and that can burn out a person. I can see her starting to notice that and her growing and developing. Also, I love that she is so sharp and that is she doesn't know something, she goes out to learn it. Sydney is no damsel in distress, that's for sure. No drama. She gets thing done. And I know she is fictional, but I'm jealous of her because she gets to hang around Adrian Ivashkov - so if I was in her shoes, id be happy. Adrian is hands down one of the funnest and best male characters out there right now in YA fiction.