I have decided to begin the "Strong female test" of the Ominous Book series on Nelida Earlrose, the troubled little girl that spends a good portion of An Ominous Book driving her poor elf uncle Spaulding insane due to being a complete pain in the ass spoiled brat.
When I first had the idea of writing this series, it featured the death of the vast majority of a human royal family by a batshit crazy magical book to advance its own nefarious purposes and Nelida was the unlucky sap that became infected by it. She gets to enjoy a lot of suckiness (many of them magnified because again, she is insufferably spoiled) but she is one of the drivers of the initial story.
Ahoy spoilers, if you don't want to be spoiled before this post, go read my book and feel free to come back! 😉
1. Does the character shape her own destiny? Does she actively try to change her situation and if not, why not?
In chapter 3, Nelida and Richard meet Lord Yu, the "colorful" heiress to the Red Clan who came to Spaulding's estate after Trevillin begged for her help.
Annoyed out of his wits, Spaulding wished his friend had chosen someone he didn't detest to help him. Too bad Trevilin got caught by his supervisor sneaking out of the job and grounded with unpaid overtime. Beggars can't be choosers when you plan to bend the law, I suppose!
Nelida already had a basic grasp of the Elf Language thanks to her classes and the two siblings discovered Spaulding was hiding a magical chest in his castle.
While it seemed both kids agreed to find it, Nelida could have urged her brother to behave instead of meddling into Spaulding's private affairs. Nobody coerced her to look in the pantry. She opened the door and discovered streak marks on the stone flooring which indicated the existence of a hidden trap door and got infected by the artifact that drove the story forward.
Given a lot of Nelida's behavior during the story was spurned by the book that posessed her, many things don't apply, but she did beg her uncle to learn magic.
Points: 0.5/1
2. Does she have her own goals, beliefs and hobbies? Did she come up with them on her own?
A lot of her initial goals is geared towards returning to her old life in Ayrtain and to be able to eat meat whenever she wanted. But it isn't so easy when you're a penniless 6 year old girl in a strange country where you neither speak the language or understand the rigid society that will never change to appease you. Hamarin offered the sheer basics of the language and culture in his daily classes without explaining anything about the existence of magic because Spaulding assumed they would soon depart his perfect solitary life and it wouldn't matter.
Nelida isn't seen doing any hobbies, except perhaps for her penchant for mischief looking for dangerous magical artifacts. The things she does do that are within her control given her young age and overall weakness are under her free will.
Her beliefs however are very straightforward: elves are fastidious, she misses the normalcy of the home she left behind and wants to return to it but learning so many things about her uncle's country and the existence of sorcery has marked her forever.
Points: 1/1
3. Is her character consistent? Do her personality or skills change as the plot demands?
Nelida grows during the course of the story. She continues to have a preference for human customs and cuisine, but she learns how to become less unappreciative, more open minded and caring.
Halfway in the first novel when she is delegated to the grim task of protecting her cousin Herb who is bedridden from disease, a badly injured Spaulding borrows his dagger for protection while he searches for help and she tries her earnest to keep her cousin alive within her limited abilities (she fetches for some water and tries to keep his fever under control). She is weak, practically defenseless, worried about her kidnapped brother and beyond exhausted, but she does not back down in this scene and stays awake until her uncle returns. I would really like to know what do readers think about this scene but I personally like seeing her in a positive light for a change.
The Nelida that we meet in the first chapter and at the end of the book shows some consistency in her character, but we can agree she will never be the same person ever again.
A lot of her growth seems stunted in book 2, but I believe it is marked by the trauma of her new life situation as the third in line to the throne. Her memory has been erased because the Ominous Book has no need to carry through with its plans at the time.
Because of the uneven growth of her character development in Book 2 partially because she no longer had full control of her body anymore, I had to give her a half score.
Points: 0.5/1
4. Can you describe her in one short sentence without mentioning her love life, her physical appearance, or the words ‘strong female character’?
A spoiled little girl that is forced to adapt to a foreign country and is loyal to her family.
Points: 1/1
5. Does she make decisions that aren’t influenced by her love life?
Given she doesn't have much of a love life, this would ring true. She looked for the magical chest due to boredom and wanted to learn magic to protect her older brother.
She has a crush on Lord Siri, but the influencing roles are reversed. She is the one that demanded him to get a haircut because he looked too much like her uncle.
Points: 1/1
6. Does she develop over the course of the story?
If she had been given a dagger and the command to stay put while her cousin was feverish while her uncle searched for help in the start of the story, she probably would have demanded to go with her uncle and abandoned Herb.
Fed up with being saved over and over again due to being unable to use magic served as a source of motivation.
Sadly for her, the fact she had been posessed by a magical book that used her body like a puppet to serve its own interests did knock half a point. The book did its best to emulate Nelida's decisions, but it isn't the same thing to have a false notion of free will.
Points: 0.5/1
7. Does she have a weakness?
Nelida probably has too many to tell! She's crass, spoiled, prone to temper tantrums and pretty poor at getting into someone's else's shoes.
She laughs at her uncle's spelling mistakes without acknowledging Human isn't his maternal language and being incapable of awakening her mana like her brother did made her feel jealous.
Points: 1/1
8. Does she influence the plot without getting captured or killed?
Well, nobody told her to open a hidden door in a pantry to get herself infected with a dangerous magical artifact, right? 😒
Funny thing is that even though this crucial event is the cause that moves the story forward, doing so proved to be her demise because she was never the same person ever again.
Points: 0/1
9. How does she relate to stereotypes about gender?
Nelida loves femenine human clothes and feels ashamed of wearing skimpy clothes. Elvish swimsuits are too revealing for her taste and she spares few jabs in the book to complain about wearing clothes she doesn't like.
That isn't to say she fits in a square box as a passive lady. If she had known how to use sorcery early in the story, she would not have hesitated in fighting in self-defense.
She shows no real interest to become a nobleman's wife when she grows up. Being only 6 years old in a family that was left in financial ruin, she was quite open minded to absorb Hamarin's teachings which did prove to offer some use in Book 2 as she tried to be a more neutral mediator between Richard and his cousin Leilandy.
Points: 1/1
10. How does she relate to other female characters?
Nelida mostly interacts with 2 female characters.
Book 1: Seiran where she soon formed a brief but amicable relationship. As a tomboyish outcast, Seiran didn't show offense when Nelida would speak her mind. Nelida seemed quite entranced by the elf's knowledge.
Book 2: Leilandy Aethinford. This is a tricky relationship. Both Leilandy and Richard were at complete ideological opposite ends when it came to their opinions of the Elf Kingdom. Richard espoused a nearly religious devotion to the kingdom and seemed to resent being forced to live in the relatively ordinary Ayrtain. Leilandy meanwhile grew up biased against elfkind even though she never traveled to the country or even met an elf other than Trevilin.
Nelida was then sort of stuck in the middle between both cousins where there was no truly right side. She appeased Leilandy because she hated eating vegan cuisine but she sided with her brother because they both appreciated their uncle. Nelida and Leilandy had a degree of common ground in this respect and her cousin even attempted to coerce her into agreeing with her on political issues more than once.
Points: 1/1
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So, how did Nelida do? A pretty good 7.5!!! 🥳🥳🥳
In my star rating meter, she got 4 stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Go Nelly!
Well, this was a real fun writing exercise, and I shall soon present the next post.
See ya!
