Wattpad brings you a guest post from TheStyclarSaga, writer of vampire fantasy “Lailah”:
I like a good human heroine; but I love a supernatural one more!
My name is Nikki Kelly, and I am the author of LAILAH - the first book in thestyclarsaga.
As the name of the book would suggest, the first story in the saga centres on a seventeen-year-old immortal girl called Lailah.
When I delve into Fantasy Fiction, I can’t help but notice that so frequently the male love interest tends to be the supernatural and the heroine tends to be human.
It got me thinking… Would an immortal teenage girl not go through the same turmoil as a regular teenage girl? Of course she would. She might just have a few more issues to contend with, such as not being able to die…
Lailah is representative of this idea – nearly two hundred years down the line, she’s still searching for someone she never forgot, but can’t quite remember… As I said, a few more issues.
But ultimately the inner struggle is much the same: working out who you are, who you want to be, and making choices that carve out who you will ultimately become.
Being a big fan of all things fantasy, I have considered other teenage heroines that have inspired us to engage in their stories.
Here’s the run down of my top 5…
No. 5
Buffy: Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Buffy is the ‘chosen one’. She divides her time between slaying Vampires and generally killing all things dark and evil, managing to somehow balance her slaying career with High School. This is a heroine that can most certainly multi-task! Buffy makes my top 5 because she is a kick-ass, fearless blonde who knows her way around a wooden stake.
No. 4
Hermione Granger: Harry Potter
English rose, Hermione Granger has to be on the list! Hailing from a family of ‘muggles’ in London, we watch her grow through her teenage years at Hogwarts. Studious and bookish, she’s less ‘shiny’ than some other teenage heroines, but her bravery and loyalty to her friends make her stand out from the crowd.
No. 3
Amelia ‘Amy’ Pond: Doctor Who
Amy Pond became the eleventh Doctor’s travelling companion, twelve years after first meeting him as a little girl. She embarks on a journey of self-discovery, gets married and has a baby who **spoiler alert!** turns out to be River Song.
We cheered her on as she helped save the world; we laughed with her as she wound up The Doctor; and ultimately we cried for her as she said, “Raggedy Man - Goodbye.”
No. 2
Katniss Everdeen: The Hunger Games
Of all the teenage heroines, Katniss is by far the most independent, thought-out and skillful of the bunch. She shows love for her sister, Prim, by volunteering herself in her place at the Reaping; thus thrusting herself into the position of the female tribute, representing District 12, in the Hunger Games.
During the Games, Katniss uses her talent with a bow and arrow to kill off the competition, plus her survival skills to avoid death via plants and other forest-like hazards.
Her story has romance, even a love triangle, but what I like about Katniss is that for her, love is a luxury – before she can indulge, she has to first, fight. And fight she does. She is a true survivor.
In the top spot… No. 1
Bella Marie Swan-Cullen: The Twilight Saga
Taking the top spot, well it could only be Bella from Twilight. Whilst some might complain that she’s a little one-dimensional, I couldn’t disagree more. When we first meet Bella, she appears to be ‘the girl next door’ and even considers herself to be “utterly ordinary.”
But throughout the saga, Bella demonstrates her intelligence, quick-thinking and pure grit.
There was never anything “utterly ordinary” about this heroine.
And yes, sometimes she gets ‘saved’ by the boy, but I have a soft spot for the ‘damsel in distress’ routine – whose knees didn’t buckle when Edward tilted his head with vengeful, glistening eyes, having found her with a broken leg because of James?
She is courageous, determined and passionate.
Because of all this, Bella does get her forever. And because our heroine made her forever happen, she gets the top spot on my top 5 run down!
Read “Lailah” on Wattpad!
Lailah. That had been my name. My first name. The only name. How had I forgotten it?
On the first day of Christmas, I met a Second Generation Vampire. His name was Jonah. He led me to Gabriel, an Angel, whose face had balanced on the tip of my memory for as long as I could remember. The chance encounter catapulted me into the epicentre of a battle between a race of Pureblood Vampires and the Arch Angels.
Until now, I had believed I was an insignificant, seventeen-year-old girl – albeit a tad on the immortal side – and all I had wanted was to find Gabriel. Then I was told that, in fact, I was the most deadly being to ever exist; that the fate of all worlds hung in the balance, as long as I was still breathing.
As if that wasn’t enough to contend with, I found myself caught between the love and the light that I felt for Gabriel, my Angel; and Jonah, a dark soul, and an itch no less that I desperately needed to scratch, but in a place I couldn’t quite reach.
However, whilst they sought the answer to what I am, they made a fatal mistake.
They should have, instead, considered who it was that I would become – a far more urgent question.
My name is Lailah. Every ending had a beginning. This is the story of the beginning of my end…