Academia Book Recomendations

Books with Morally Ambiguous Characters

I thought I might share my personal favorite books with evil or morally ambiguous characters since you’ve all shared your favorites.

Vicious

(main character is awesome and very grey)

The golden compass

(really goes into detail what evil and good really mean and has a ton of morally questionable characters in the second book)

The Bartimaeus trilogy

(main character does a lot of bad shit for selfish reasons but you still love him anyways somehow?? And there’s a lot of themes involving systematic oppression and propaganda manipulation and ethics)

The curseworkers

(the main character is constantly put into situations where he has to choose the lesser of two evils. Not to mention mafia families)

Six of crows

(do I even have to say…?)

Howls moving castle

(howl is seen as morally ambiguous in the beginning because of his reputations, so this technically counts. Also I love this book to death)

I hunt killers

(so the main character is super psychopathic and manipulative and overall a creepy ass person. He’s always questioning whether or not he’s truly a good person or just pretends to be or is hiding something worse. This psychological thriller is fucking incredible and underrated.)

The name of the wind

(the main character is the most realistically human I’ve ever met. He’s so real I can touch him. He’s also very morally ambiguous in ways I can’t say because it’s all spoilerly)

Artemis Fowl

(greedy selfish 12 year old criminal mastermind kidnapps a fairy for ransom money. What I love about this series is that he grows throughout the books and his character is constantly developing. He is definitely morally ambiguous and has no problem embracing his cunniving and devious nature)

The Cruel Prince

( every character is an asshole. Every. Character. No excuses, no secrets, just pure assholes. And you’ll love them)

The lies of Locke Lamora

(one of my ALLTIME favorite books. Locke lamora is like a darker shade of grey. He’s selfish, slightly murderous, incredibley human and very handsome. This motherfucker is the leader of a group of conmen who steal money from the rich but keep it for themselves. They are grade A smart assess and they have to make actual hard choices that really determine their character. I’m not gonna say more because there’s no way I can fit this masterpiece into a small summery bye)

The wrath and the Dawn

(The Prince is such a morally grey character. As you read on you’ll question whether or not he actually kills his brides or if there’s another deeper mystery to him. His choices are very questionable and very….bad? I can’t describe how amazing these books are)

I bestow upon thee; concept playlists

•classical music to sip tea to while contemplating philosophy and the next marble bust you’ll buy

•stealing books from the Oxford library with friends you never thought you’d find, in the snow, yelling about Ovid, lighting candles

•folky music for sitting on your front porch in the lazy evening sun, surrounded by your closest friends, gazing at a wheat field and singing along with a guitar in your arms

•feeling listless; like you’re walking the world alone, wandering with no destination, held in the arms of the earth and happy with that

•songs to sing LOUD in the car on a road trip going nowhere in particular

•staring out the window of a quaint coffee shop, watching the raindrops cling to the glass and thinking of all the poetry you’re going to write for that lover you left behind

•looking back on a long relationship and realizing all the ups and downs you’ve had as one, suddenly seeing it all in slow motion like a silent film

•laying back on your bed, smiling uncontrollably, thinking of all the beautiful, bucolic times you’re going to have in the sun with that person you can’t stop thinking of

•a rock in your rib-cage, sobbing on the floor, feeling empty; things are coming to an end and you can’t bear to see them go

•the first day of summer – sprawling yourself in the green & vivacious grass, heart shaped sunglasses perched on your nose; youth in all its glory

•songs that bring back days of your old glory, reliving your childhood and your golden days, tracing over the old scars and remembering how you got them

•the smell of old books, melancholy, songs that are so potent with a sort of wild and tragic longing that they’re almost dangerous

•looking out a car window; letting your eyes cling to weeping trees and then letting them snap back again. feeling self centered and tragical.

•literally just songs that remind me of Oscar Wilde and Bosie Douglas

•stuff that i’m listening to right now! always changing, songs that i’m playing on repeat

Probably James Sirius Studying

James : "Okay I'll start studying at 8:00."

*some time goes by*

*time is 8:01*

James : "Oh well, I missed it, I'll start at 9:00 then"

Headcannon : ( Teddy Lupin)

Can we all agree that:

Seeing that Teddy Lupin is just like Tonks; being a metamorphmagus.

Teddy morphing into people who are having a hard time whether they should dye or cut their hair.

So in that way, they can see what they would look like if they did it, also helping them if it looked bad/good on them.

all pedophiles should die and theres literally no downside to them all dropping dead

🌹 a flower for everyone not feeling their best today

tumblr: that thing you like is Problematic and you should feel bad for liking it

me, an adult capable of critical thinking and criticizing things while still wholeheartedly enjoying them: please get out of my living room

Reblog if you were ever bullied.

17851

That’s disgusting.

Well done society.

Well done.

I think another big thing with the Weasleys kids is the age breakdown. Percy is closer in age to Ginny than he is to Bill—that whole bottom five is squished together, and it creates some weird dynamics. When Harry meets the Weasleys, Percy Seems like the oldest. But he’s not *really.* He is very much a middle child. Even though he’s two years above the twins in School, their birthdays put them at closer to a year and a half…much closer than the almost four years between Percy and Charlie.

I always got the impression that Charlie and Bill were their own unit—and the rest of the kids were the babies. Now, Percy is kind of the leader of the babies, but he’s still a baby.

And that’s immediately apparent when Bill and Charlie come home in GoF. They are cool and sophisticated and looked up to…and Percy argues with his little brothers. He DOES get included with his big brothers in fighting the Death Eaters…but he drops back down quickly to the Kid Section as soon as the crisis is over.

It’s an awkward place for Percy to be, and I think it contributes to his Ugly Duckling syndrome. Because to his younger siblings, he vacillates wildly between being almost a peer to being Mum’s Second in Command. They don’t know what to make of him: will he play with them today, or is today a day where he’s writing a report to Mum? And his older brothers are just…too old growing up to really engage with him.

Percy’s in this spot where he needs to take a position of leadership and responsibility in the family—because Bill and Charlie leave for school and then work well before they stop being Needed at home—but Percy’s also so Young when that happens.

And Percy takes on that emotional burden. Sometimes smugly: “Ginny has Other Brothers to set an example for her,” sometimes with a temper that reveals how close in age he truly is to them (see: every interaction with the twins), but more often than not, it’s very sincere and poignant. Percy doesn’t ASK his siblings to like him. He seems pretty okay doing his own thing in life. But he Does constantly look to and move to protect them. He loves them in a way that’s really almost parental, when it’s all said it done. It’s flawed as a sibling relationship, and I hope that as they grow up, that weirdness in ages evens out and they can all relate to each other as peers. But it is something really interesting.

of course i have a lot of pent-up rage you fool i’ve been the same height since i was 12