Top Ten Tuesday: Platonic Relationships in Books (Featuring a Whole Lot of Begrudging Friendships)

Hey, book bebes! I’m back again for another Top Ten Tuesday, and this week’s topic is platonic relationships in books.

One thing I’ve noticed in my reading travels is that a lot of YA authors write platonic friendships very well, so I’m mainly going to be focusing on platonic friendships for this list (although, to be fair, some of them are related in other ways, as well). Now, sure, we have our fair share of groan-worthy love triangles and nonsensical insta-love in YA, but when I think about books that have my absolute favorite non-romantic, downright heartwarming, inspiring friendships in them—I instantly come up with a rack of YA titles and characters who have my heart!

So, who are they? So glad you asked. (As always, these are in no particular order. I’m terrible at playing favorites with fictional characters, so I wouldn’t have the heart to list them in order of how much I like them and…risk…hurting…their fictional feelings? I don’t know, I’m crazy, okay? Let’s move on.)

Gremma & Dee from The Hearts We Sold by Emily Lloyd-Jones

Some of you are rolling your eyes right now thinking, duh, of course she is including these two right off the bat, she’s pretty much obsessed with Gremma. To which I would say: YEAH. The girl pulls a FIRE AXE out of her PURSE. How can I not be obsessed with her???

Dee and Gremma’s friendship is one of those almost kind of begrudging friendships that we sometimes see in YA when one or more strong-willed characters come into contact with one another and even though they know they’re going to end up friends, they can’t just give into it without a fight. Take Gremma’s first words to her new roommate, Dee, for example:

“Let’s get three things out of the way. First, you make fun of my name and I make your life miserable…Second, I like girls. Third, I have an antique set of surgical scalpels hidden under my mattress. If you have a problem with any of those facts, you should say something now.”

Dee follows up by asking if Gremma is planning on murdering her way to having her own room and if she snores before declaring that they should get along fine, and the rest is history. Despite having “the personality of a grumpy housecat”, Gremma is unrelentingly there for Dee and offers the kind of support that comes along only a few times in our lives. When Gremma wakes up to Dee standing over her bed one morning, she blinks once and then asks, “Paranormal emergency?” Before hopping into action.

Gremma is also no fair weather friend. Things get rough between the two of them (due to a series of supernatural misunderstandings), and even though Gremma is upset with Dee, she comes through when it matters and is able to prioritize the friendship. Throughout the book, despite being a bit of an outsider to the paranormal issues Dee is struggling with, Gremma is always there for Dee to do whatever she can to help, and rarely asks too many questions. It was really comforting for me to see that when things get rough—and then get really rough—she still hung in there.

In conclusion, Gremma For President, basically.

Caro & Kente from Song of the Current and Whisper of The Tide by Sarah Tolcser

Caro and Kente are cousins by blood, but friends by choice, and possibly one of my fave female friendships ever. As y’all may know, I absolutely adored Kente as soon as I read Song of the Current and only wanted more of her. Luckily for me, she makes a return in Whisper of the Tide to help out her cousin.

One of the reasons I love Caro and Kente so much is that they never expressly tell one another that they need help—they just know, and Kente always comes through in the clutch, even when stubborn, hard-headed Caro would never outright ask for her assistance.

Caro and Kente have a lot in common—they’re from the same family and both of them seem to have a knack for stumbling head first into trouble—but they’re also different enough to complement each other perfectly. Where Caro is sometimes stubborn and hard, Kente can be soft and more understanding. And whereas Caro is more of a warrior and will not hesitate to kick your ass, Kente excels in illusions, sticking to the shadows where she can manipulate her magic. When you put the two of them together, they’re a perfect pairing and practically unstoppable.

Claudia & Iris from Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills

Oh, gosh, guys, I’m mentally going through this list and realizing that a large majority of the friendships on this list fall into the category of “begrudging” we-were-kind-fighting-it-even-though-we-knew-all-along-we’d-end-up-friends friendships. Is this my thing?! This must be a thing of mine. I think it’s because I relate to it so well. I’d love to say that I’m an easy person to make friends with, but my mama didn’t raise a liar. I’m a bit of a begrudging friendship type person IRL. Just ask my friend Brittany who literally sneak attacked me from behind a fridge door the first time she ever hugged me, yelling, “YOU WILL ACCEPT THIS HUG!” the entire time.

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME.

Claudia and Iris are the perfect example of this begrudging friendship. They actually start out kind of hating each other and go through the enemies-to-friends transition together as they start to learn more about each other and see each other more as human beings with feelings and things going on in their lives, rather than just looking at the other as an annoyance or a hindrance to their own lives in some way.

I think their whole friendship can kind of be summed up by Iris almost angrily declaring, “I give a shit about you, too, you know,” as her own unique version of expressing her feelings and telling her new friend Claudia how much she cares about her.

Not to mention, these two are unintentionally hilarious together. In spite of (or perhaps because of) their would be hatred for each other, they develop a fast-paced banter that sounds like real young adult conversations and genuinely makes me laugh.

“I think…I don’t know, I think she helped…balance me out.”

“She’s the velvet glove,” I murmur.

“Is that a euphemism or something? Because, I mean, we both have velvet gloves.”

“Oh my God, I meant like that saying. Iron fist, velvet glove. You’re the fist, she’s the glove.”

“Still sounds unseemly.”

“Get your mind out of the gutter.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t focus. I miss her velvet glove.”

I love seeing Claudia and Iris interact, and the more they start to like each other and break each other’s walls down, the better the conversations and interactions get. Admittedly, it might be because this friendship reminds me so much of myself, but this is definitely one of my favorites in recent YA reads!

Freya, Nathaniel, & Harun from I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman

Ugh, this book, you guys. THIS BOOK.

Talk about tearing out my heart and stomping on it. This book did exactly that. I mean, in a good way. But still. It messed me up. This was the first and only Gayle Forman book I’ve ever read, despite her rampant popularity in the YA fiction community, so I’m not sure if she’s extremely talented at writing friendships, or if this friendship in particular just really stuck with me.

What stands out to me in this one is that the three main characters of I Have Lost My Way become so close and so important to each other over the course of only one day. I love that an author explored this concept that we can become so close to people so quickly, and that sometimes you meet your people and you just know their you’re people. There is no question about it. There is no doubt. For whatever reason, you were meant to meet these people and they came into your life for a reason—and that’s exactly what happens for Freya, Nathaniel, and Harun.

“You need people who will give you the food from their plate because they feel your hunger, who will refuse to let you wander off alone no matter how many times you say it’s all good, who will snap in your face and whisper so softly in your ear…come back, come back, until you do.”

Each of the three characters in this book are struggling with their own major issues—Freya was an up and coming singer until she lost her voice and feels like she has lost her direction in her life, Nathaniel is struggling with his father’s suicide, and Harun is suffering after breaking up with his boyfriend—but despite whatever they’re going through individually, they all manage to learn to take care of each other and be there for one another. It’s so beautiful to see and it’s really an encouraging bright spot of hope in the otherwise really dark landscape of the world we live in.

I wrote a mini review of this book here and I talk about its impact on my own personal life here on my Instagram, if you’re interested in finding out a little more about Nathaniel, Freya, and Harun and the powerful effect their friendship has on readers. But the short version of the long story here is this: you should read this book. I highly recommend it. These three characters are all that is good in the world.

Cinder & Thorne from The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Is this one cheating??? I feel like this one might be cheating a little bit because I actually ship Cinder & Thorne SO HARD. Seriously. So hard.

And look, I’ve heard all the arguments—but she’s meant to be with Kai, he’s meant to be with Cress, Cinder and Thorne would kill each other. FINE, MAYBE. But along the way they’re so unbelievably cute and hilarious together, I feel like it would be worth it.

Okay, maybe not if one of them DIED.

But still.

But, as it stands, this is a totally platonic relationship and these two never lay a hand on each other in the romantic sense, so I’m including it on the list of my favorite platonic relationships. The cyborg girl and the outlaw captain have a way of getting each other’s skin—and in fact do it on purpose all the time—but at the end of the day, they never question that they’re on each other’s team. (Aaaand now I have that Lorde song stuck in my head.) There’s no denying it, though—neither of them would get as far as they did without the other.

Plus, I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that there’s really something to be said for friendships that are formed in royal intergalactic jail. It’s just a special kind of bond that can’t be replicated in any other scenario.

Fred & George Weasley from The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Okay, so you know how I said I couldn’t pick favorites amongst my fictional friendships? I kind of lied. There is one platonic relationship that stands a head above all the rest, and all of you already knew it was going to be the twins. No matter what happens or what other friendships I read, no one will ever compare to the OGs—Fred and George Weasley.

Fred and George’s friendship is only intensified by the fact that they’re twin brothers as well as best friends, which is a dynamic I’ve always absolutely adored. The pranksters of the wizarding world (at least in Harry’s generation) are always on the exact same page, almost as if they share their thoughts—a kind of twinsense that even the Olsens would envy.

“And what do I need with a bit of old parchment?”

“A bit of old parchment!” said Fred, closing his eyes with a grimace as though Harry had mortally offended him.

“Well, when we were in our first year, Harry—young, carefree, and innocent—”

Harry snorted. He doubted whether Fred and George had ever been innocent.

“—well, more innocent than we are now—we got into a spot of bother with Filch.”

“We let off a Dungbomb in the corridor and it upset him for some reason—”

“So he hauled us off to his office and started threatening us with the usual—”

“—detention—”

“—disembowelment—”

“—and we couldn’t help noticing a drawer  in one of his filing cabinets marked Confiscated and Highly Dangerous.”

“Don’t tell me—” said Harry, starting to grin.

“Well, what would you’ve done?”

If nothing else, their finishing each other’s sentences game is on point in a way that most couples only wish they could achieve. I absolutely love Fred and George’s rapport and banter, and they will be my favorites forever.

As they continue on doing everything together. Forever. Because they are both still alive and well. RIGHT, JO?! Right, then.

Merry & Pippin from The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien

All hail Queen Jo, of course, but I almost can’t mention Fred and George Weasley without also mentioning Merry and Pippin from LOTR. They’re basically the Fred and George of Middle Earth. Or perhaps it would be more appropriate, timeline-wise, to say that Fred and George are the Merry and Pippin of Hogwarts. Either way, the relationship is so similar, and while Merry and Pippin aren’t twins, they are the resident pair of pranksters who are always on the exact same page as one another. Even when things get really dark or really tumultuous, Merry and Pippin can always look to each other and know that they’re thinking alike. Their matching obsessions with second breakfast and having a good time in general make them the perfect pair to buoy each other through an otherwise daunting and epic journey. From the moment they first staged their disruption at Bilbo’s dinner party, this was a platonic relationship after my own Weasley-twin loving heart.

Reagan & Cath from Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Reagan and Cath are possibly the OGs of begrudging friendships. I absolutely love the relationship between these two, and I love Reagan.

“Cath looked at Reagan. Even without her makeup and hair, the girl was terrifying. There was no fear in her. No hesitation. Talking to Reagan was like standing in front of an oncoming train.”

I love this kind of personality and this kind of character, so watching the types of friendships a person like Reagan builds and covets is so interesting to me. Especially because she and Cath are very different from one another—where Reagan is relentlessly fierce, Cath is much more timid and shy. Once they get past what Cath assumes is Reagan’s hatred of her (but is really just Reagan’s personality and her A+ resting bitch face), the two of them balance each other out perfectly, and Reagan turns out to be exactly the type of person that Cath needs in her life. And let’s be real—once in a while, we all need the kind of friend who makes people feel like they’re facing an oncoming train. Reagan barrels into Cath’s life and more or less drags her to the dining hall when she doesn’t know where it is, as well as dragging her to go out now and then when she sees that Cath is entering an unhealthy cocoon of loneliness and anxiety that some introverts who struggle with mental health are prone to. Her approach is nothing short of downright aggressive, but underneath it all you can tell she really cares about Cath, and it’s sweet.

It’s aggressive and kind of mean sometimes and really, really sweet.

“You’re making me feel sorry for you again,” Reagan said.

Cath turned her fork on Reagan. “Don’t feel sorry for me. I don’t want you to feel sorry for me.”

“I can’t help it,” Reagan said. “You’re really pathetic.”

“I am not.”

“You are. You don’t have any friends, your sister dumped you, you’re a freaky eater…And you’ve got some weird thing with Simon Snow.”

“I object to every single thing you just said…I have lots of friends,” Cath said.

“I never see them.”

“I just got here. Most of my friends went to other schools. Or they’re online.”

“Internet friends don’t count.”

“Why not?”

Reagan shrugged disdainfully.

“And I don’t have a weird thing with Simon Snow,” Cath said. “I’m just really active in the fandom.”

“What the fuck is ‘the fandom’?”

In which Reagan kind of sums up how outsiders to the nerddom must always feel when we try to explain things to them.

Reagan may not always understand—but dammit, she tries. She knows that she and Cath are from two different worlds, but at the end of the day, they’re roommates, and she wants to take care of Cath in her own unorthodox way. This is the kind of friendship/platonic relationship I love seeing in fiction, and to be honest, while I love rereading Fangirl for how much I relate to Cath and how drop dead adorable Cath and Levi are (hello, OTP), a good portion of why I reread this book so much also has to do with watching how Cath and Reagan interact throughout the novel. I think Rainbow is a very talented writer all around, but I love what she does with friendships and relationships.

 

Mila, Riley, June, & Dayton from Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

Okay, it’s official. This is my thing. This is another kind of begrudging friendship and it just made me like it that much more. So it’s official, this is definitely my thing.

What can I say, I like what I like.

The dynamics of the female friendships in Undead Girl Gang are pretty interesting—for one thing, only one of the girls is actually alive. So, there’s that. The other three were brought back by said girl (Mila) and a magical spell she found in a mysterious grimoire.

Like one does. Duh.

While Mila and Riley were best friends while Riley was alive, June and Dayton were nothing short of Mila’s enemies, and kind of the resident mean girls of their school. In life, the four of them never would have been seen together, let alone consider each other friends.

But in death, everything changes.

 When Mila accidentally ends up bringing back to the two Queen Bees in addition to her BFF, she has to accept the consequences that she has to help all three of them—there’s no time play favorites when you’re raising zombies. At first, none of the girls are happy about it and have trouble getting along. But as the story goes on, Mila really begins to see June and Dayton as people (similar to how Claudia and Iris’s views of one another changed), and realizes that they have their own problems and their own personalities aside from the surface level façades they project on a regular basis. It takes being dead and then being undead for these girls to see each other in a different light, but it’s really beautiful to watch them grow and change and mature and learn about themselves and each other. The four of them really band together and create an unstoppable force for good, and I loved seeing the relationships between them. And again, girls supporting girls, which we always need more of.

I also have a review of Undead Girl Gang here if you want to find out more about this book and the resident zombie Mean Girls!

Brooklyn & Sofia from The Merciless by Danielle Vega

….Okay, fine, this is a weird one. But you didn’t think I could make this whole post and not throw in one weird one, did you?

Hear me out, meow.

Brooklyn and Sofia are a platonic relationship, and technically, they are a friendship. I love watching the relationship between these two because it has so many twists and turns. First, it seems like Brooklyn is a sweet, misunderstood girl who really wants to take Sofia—the resident New Girl—under her wing and be nice and be her friend. When Sofia discovers that a group of popular girls from school have straight up kidnapped Brooklyn and are literally torturing her in the basement of an abandoned house, the relationship takes a weird turn. And by the end of the book, Brooklyn ends up leading Sofia down what is basically a literal path to hell. If this isn’t one of the most tumultuous platonic relationships or friendships in a YA book, I don’t know what is, and it’s for that reason that I’m putting it on my list of top ten favorite platonic relationships.

Plus, flaws aside (and, um, they’re some pretty demonic serious flaws), I really do love Brooklyn as a character.

(Psst, looking to find out more about The Merciless series? Of course I have reviews on them! You can check them out here for the first two books, [as well as Danielle Vega’s standalone novel, Survive the Night] & I talk about the series here in my spooky book recommendations!)

Friendships are a weird thing, and it’s true what they say—good friends are hard to find. Which is why seeing really cute and interesting friendships in fiction can be so uplifting. I’d love to see other forms of fiction take a cue from YA and include more friendships that can keep our interest and make us happy in this way. Granted, adult fiction is not without friendships, and YA as a genre is more inclined to explore those kinds of relationships just based on preferred subject matter, but it would still be really interesting to see these types of platonic relationships reach out into other books, as well!

What about everyone else? Who are your favorite platonic relationships in books? What about favorite platonic friendships, specifically? Is there a specific type of friendship you’re really drawn to, the way I love pairs who begrudgingly become friends and then end up loving each other?

Let me know in the comments! You know I’d love to talk. <3