In the book Earth Girl, by Janet Edwards, eighteen-year-old Jarra falls into the ISTP category of the Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI), a personality system. According to the MBTI, all personalities fall into one of the sixteen different types, one of them being the ISTP. Each MBTI type has four basic functions: a dominant function, a supporting or auxiliary function, and two weaker, developing functions. Jarra is an ISTP due to her independence and way of logical analysis, doing the thing she believes is best even if it means going against popular belief or opinion and danger. For instance, in a world where people of her species, human, are ridiculed upon, she takes a step outside and enlists in a history course with no other humans as …show more content…
It may be marketable and easy-to-sell, hinging on the interests of radical feminists and romance-lovers, but from the overdone characters to the bland world, one can see why the reviews have been so negative. The first cliche out of many originates from the main character, Katsa. Her personality—if one could call the shapeless, inconsistent, and incoherent textbook responses the author gave her a personality—tries to sell off Cashore’s idea of “feminism” and a “strong female lead.” The problem with this is twofold. “Strong female leads” are far overdone in young-adult fiction, especially when written as blatantly as the author did: when the only reasoning going through her head is “because I’m a strong independent woman who doesn’t need a man to help me, and I shall never get married because all men are bad, and—oh, I just can’t stand giving my entire life …show more content…
After the success of Sarah J. Maas’s series Throne of Glass, female assassins have become more prominent in young-adult fiction and an obvious trope. Not only this, but she has a Grace, like a superpower or extreme skill, that we originally believe is the extreme skill to kill well. However, the author deems it “too violent” or “too evil,” and we learn that no, she is not a savage (because that would be repulsive and unappealing) but can survive through anything. I absolutely abhorred this change; with killing as a skill, perhaps the author could have built more on Katsa being a morally-grey protagonist, something young-adult fiction lacks, but she instead goes on to introduce all sorts of other ways Katsa is oh-so-good and working to help others. She runs The Council, a group of people who oppose corrupt and power-hungry male leaders, another trope. And not only this, but the Council barely carries into the general plot. The only times the Council is mentioned after the original information-dumping is when she is staying in Council safe houses while