Welcome back! We’re about to tackle our last poll for the first round, on Monday we’ll begin knocking the final 32 into the Sweet Sixteen. I don’t know about y’all, but I am having so much fun with this I can hardly stand it. Last night’s voting wasn’t even close, in any category, so I’m not sure how many surprises you’ll find after the cut.
The Winners!
YA Fantasy/Sci-fi/Dystopia – Meg Murray defeats Sabriel
YA Fiction – Scout beats Claudia
Adult Fantasy/Sci-fi/Dystopia – Morgaine beats Tarma & Kethry
Adult Fiction – Offred sends Jordan Baker packing.
Once again, I don’t have the bracket available for embed. I will email the PDF to anyone who asks, our FTP isn’t letting us put new things on the server. (selena@ persephonemagazine.com)
And on to the voting for the weekend! Since this is a field full of underdogs, and it’s Friday evening, this poll will be open until 5p EST on Monday the 14th.
27 replies on “Middlemarch Madness Voting Day 8: Ones v. Sixteens”
It’s Harry in The Blue Sword, which isn’t an adult novel–it’s YA. Its companion novel, The Hero and the Crown, won the Newbery Medal.
Most of Robin McKinley’s is classified as both adult and YA. Seriously, if you go to Barnes & Noble right now you will find “The Blue Sword” and “The Hero and the Crown” in both sections. When we first divvied up the lists, one of us put Aerin in YA and someone else put Harry in Adult. When it was pointed out, we decided to leave it to account for the fact that McKinley is at home in both.
Isn’t the heroine of The Blue Sword named Harry? It’s not Elspeth…her real name is Angharad.
It was a typo the first time the list went up — Selena mentioned it then, but I guess it hasn’t been fixed.
I tried, but I can’t edit the actual polls; that takes special sorcery that only Selena possesses, I think.
Nooooo! Why? Why are all my faves losing? I…need to go cry now :(
By Alicia, I of course meant Louisa.
I’m drunk on Madness, it’s my only excuse.
I dunno if anyone voted for Jo, but I always liked her.
Also, man oh man am I glad to hear that Offred offed Jordan Baker. Frankly, I think Offred is in my top three to Win It All, right up there with Lyra Belacqua and Jessica Darling.
First, a disclaimer: I tried reading Colour of Magic a few years ago, but it had been highly recommended by my most recent ex-boyfriend, which certainly soured the experience, and I never finished it, nor any other Terry Pratchett books.
That said, surely I’m not the only one who can’t help thinking, My god, ANOTHER Pratchett character?! with every round of voting. It’s an endorsement, to be sure, and I hope to get to his books eventually, but next time March Madness rolls around, I wouldn’t say no to capping the number of characters per author, if only to get a wider variety in play.
I could have written this, essentially. I’ve only read Good Omens (which as a co-venture with Gaiman only partially counts as a Pratchett), and I loved it and Anathema’s awesome, but… when, like, Winnie Foster and Cassandra Mortmain (and I’m sure of I’ll think of like eight more examples as soon as I hit Post) didn’t make the list, but let’s make sure we get every wackily-named female character Pratchett ever wrote about? It’s sort of… I don’t want to say boring, because this is the most fun I’ve ever had with a March Madness bracket (and I play Fug Madness! THIS IS BETTER), but a cap wouldn’t be a bad idea, at all.
There is no such thing as too much Pratchett, but a cap isn’t a bad idea.
His first few books aren’t his best. I read them all in order, because that’s how I roll, but when I reread I usually start at book four.
I agree, there is like 3 in every round! Maybe the Pratchetts should only go against each other until there is only one?
Ooooooo, tonight’s picks were super easy for me. Except for Anne v Turtle because I really loved me some Westing Game.
Anne v. Turtle was deeply troubling for me, as well, since I love both of them dearly but they are SO different. I think in the end Turtle edged out Anne for me, but it wasn’t an easy choice!
(It’s hilarious how attached one can get to fictional characters. Which only serves to illustrate how awesome books can be.)
I AGONIZED over that one. I think I just blindly clicked in the end. I’m not entirely sure who I ended up voting for. I feel like it was Turtle, because… TURTLE. “Hi, Sandy! I won!”
What a heartbreaker, though.
If it were not for Turtle Wexler, I’m not sure there would be a Persephone. I’m not trying to sway the votes though. ; )
I am HEARTBROKEN at Claudia’s loss. SHE RAN AWAY AND LIVED IN THE MET, Y’ALL. And don’t throw anything at me but I am that one person who doesn’t really Get The Big Deal about TKAM. As an important part of our culture, yes. As a book I want to sit down and read, give me From The Mixed-Up Files… any damn day.
Co-signed.
I voted for Claudia. TKAM was an important book for me, but when it comes to who I’d rather BE? Claudia any day of the week. Talk about a role model!
You guys? I know y’all love Hermione, and I do, too, but let me tell you a little bit about Tally Youngblood and why you should vote for her instead. Here is a partial list of awesome things about Tally:
* She sneaks into the part of town where only Pretties go while she is still an Ugly!
* She makes a daring rescue of her friends and the parents of this guy she hardly knows (David ♥!) even though it would be SO EASY to just become Pretty, which is what she wanted in the first place.
* She GOES UNDERCOVER AS A PRETTY even knowing what it will do to you.
* She fights the bubbly ALL ON HER OWN!!!
She does kind of treat David like an ass. That I can’t forgive her for. And she does betray the Smoke, but it only makes her more real, not superwonderfulfabulous all the time
Mary SueHermione Granger!Who do you root for, Rocky or Apollo Creed? The Sandlot kids or those obnoxious boys with uniforms? The Goonies or those rotten developers? The Mighty Ducks or the Hawks? LONG LIVE THE UNDERDOG! VOTE FOR TALLY YOUNGBLOOD!!!
PS – The Uglies series is awesome, and if you don’t know who Tally is, you should get out there and read it straight away.
You post this and I just now finished picking the comments of the week.
I do what I can!
You bring up some good points, but c’mon – Hermione Freaking Granger! Through loyalty and book learning she saved the wizarding world!
And Hermione is not one of those ‘obnoxious boys with uniforms’ she discovers a wonderful magical world, and then pretty much immediately discovers there are strong forces within it that hate her for who she is. She ends up fighting oppression in just as real a way as Tally. She is also just as ‘real’ a character as Tally, and grows significantly as a person over the course of the series.
Hermione forever!
If it were Hermione v. Tally for the YA Fantasy/Sci-fi/Dystopia crown, I would be all over Ms. Granger. But I can’t bear to see Tally go down without a fight so early on. It’s not fair! Just because not enough people had read Uglies and got her stuck with the sixteenth seed?
UNDERDOGS HO!
Uglies is on my Kindle, just waiting to be read, and now I feel as though I should drop everything and get to it.
Do it, @Anna, but only if you have the weekend free! Extras is not as good, but I couldn’t put any of Uglies-Pretties-Specials down for a moment.