Weekly Contest # 2 | If You Were To Live Your Life As A Book Character... | By @sanyazulfiqar

Bonjour fellow Steemians!

First of all, thank you @hive-186627 and @event-horizon for hosting yet another interesting challenge.

If there is one character that has always inspired me, it has to be the clever Hermione Granger (without whom Harry wouldn’t even survive the first book). However, despite the temptation of being able to live in Hogwarts if I were to live my life as Hermione, I wanted to explore another character for the sake of getting out of my comfort zone AKA the Harry Potter universe. Therefore, my pick for this challenge is Pippa Fitz Amobi, from my favorite YA mystery trilogy, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson.

(Own picture)

"But sometimes remembering isn’t for yourself, sometimes you do it just to make someone else smile. Those lies were allowed."

Now, the character I have chosen has no special powers or abilities that could save the day. Pippa is an ordinary girl, ordinary but fearless! In the first book, she is our amateur sleuth, who has picked an old local murder as her school’s final project. There are multiple reasons (which I would be shedding light on) for choosing Pippa instead of many others.

1. Pippa’s journey as a detective

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Young girls playing detective is not something unusual in YA fiction; yet what makes her stand out among other characters is the organized process she goes through. There are no hints scattered around the book that converge at one point, rather a comprehensive analysis of suspects based on time stamps and the connections being made in a sequence. Being someone who is extremely organized (examples include indulging in filling out planners and daily scheduling of tasks, clean freak who cannot tolerate mess making sure her room is immaculate and, naming folders by their actual names (sensitive of case too) rather than asdfghjkl, etc. etc.). Therefore, I want to live in Pippa’s shoes because I can relate to her orderly nature and believe that if I were to live life as her, I would enjoy her journey as laid out in the book.

2. Ravi Singh

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Benefits of living as a fictional character is that you get to interact with other characters around them. Ravi Singh is not only an accomplice but also a true friend of Pippa, who had stayed with her through the thick and thin. Of course, his incentive was to help Pippa prove his deceased brother’s innocence but he radiated such positive vibes that makes me want to befriend him without a second thought. I do not consider myself as one of those who have managed to maintain friendships from school years or have friends who I can truly count on (as I was always moving around places and therefore, changing schools). When I first read Ravi’s character, he seemed like an ideal friend to have, not only supportive but also providing useful contributions to help Pippa crack the case.

P.S: Bonus points for Ravi’s charisma and aura – he is charming!

3. Curiosity kills the cat

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In most mysteries, the character steps forward to solve a murder because they are either curious or their lives are in danger. It is hardly ever by choice that they wake up one day and start working on a case. In Pippa’s case, the element of choice is involved. Pippa was not forced to put the pieces of Andie Bell’s murder together and that was her biggest strength. I find it harder to believe when characters suddenly become too intelligent when the need arises and unravel a mystery no one else could. Pippa is a dedicated, brainy and high-scoring student, who just did not become one to solve the case. Personally, I have always been a competitive and committed student, and so, I admire these qualities in Pippa too. It gives realism to her character and motive.

4. True Crime obsession

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Now, it is one thing to be sharp and another to be able to solve crimes with no background. This too was justified in the story pertaining to Pippa’s obsession with true crime documentaries/podcasts. If I were to live as her, this would be the first thing I would do – look into her true crime collection, which always fascinated me but never got a chance to dig deeper into this genre. Watching true crime stories rather than fictitious ones with Ravi Singh and Cara Ward would be an experience one would definitely look forward to!

In a nutshell, Pippa is a fun character with a fun story, which is attractive enough to live through!

Thank you for reading my post!
@sanyazulfiqar

Tagging @thenerdaffair, @zeehive and @fariqasf to join the community and take part in this contest!