TOP TEN TUESDAY: Characters Who Have Lost At Least One Parent

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish once a week, and this week’s list is character’s who have lost one, or both, of their parents. I know this is a morbid one, but I realised a while back that quite a few characters in books have lost at least one parent, so I decided to make a really strange game out of it. Here is a list of the first ten characters that came to my head that have lost one, or both, of their parents.

Number one: Harry Potter from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series

This is an obvious one, as I think everyone thought about him at first, and I don’t think needs any explanation.

Number two: Teddy Lupin from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

I thought of him straight after Harry, probably because his mirrors Harry’s as he lost both his parent’s in a wizarding war.

Number three: Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanna Collins

She only lost her father, but I still feel like this is very important in making her the girl she was.

Number four: Eddy Cohen from The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman

I probably thought of this because I read this recently, and Eddy losing his mother is a big part of his story and helps define him.

Number five: Jane Eyre from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre grew up as an orphan living with her aunt, and as this is one of my favourite books of all time I couldn’t leave it out.

Number six: Fire from Kristin Cashore’s Fire

Fire never knew her mother, but she is dead. But her father is a different story as she sort of ‘helped’ her father die, if you get what I mean.

Number seven: Theo Decker from The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

What spurs this book on is him losing his mother, and the love for his mother is the reason behind a lot of choices Theo makes.

Number eight: Alex Rider from Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series

Alex spent most of his life living with his uncle, so you can see why I thought of him.

Number nine: Cassie from The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Cassie technically lost her parents during the book, but she came to mind when I began writing the list, so I thought I could still add her.

Number ten: Harry August from The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

This was one of my favourite books of last year, so I couldn’t miss out on adding Harry August. And I feel as if he has definitely earned the right to be on this list since he has lost his parents several times (the joys of reliving the same life over and over again).

What’s the first character that springs to mind when you think of lost parents? Do you have a Top Ten Tuesday list of your own? If so leave the link to it in the comments so I can check it out.