Throughout everything, Alex leans on her friends. Later on, after the first showdown with Aven, Alex befriends D.C., her previously cold roommate. When she arrives at Akarnae, she befriends two individuals called Bear and Jordan, who become her core support.

It seems like the only way to be special is to isolate yourself wherever you can – Alex doesn’t do this.

We see it in Katniss from The Hunger Games, Tris in the Divergent trilogy, and Hazel Grace in The Fault in Our Stars. In young adult novels, the ‘Outsider Protagonist’ is quite common. As she learns new things, the reader laughs with her, and even feels some of her embarrassment. Alex is a character with a wild imagination set free in this land. It’s not magic, but rather technology adapted over centuries. One of the better things about this land is that, as much as Alex likes to say that it’s magic, everyone else keeps telling her that it’s just science, and with their explanations Alex gets to see that they’re right. All gifts are different and everyone who comes out of Akarnae has a gift. Gifts include things like shapeshifting, invisibility, and compulsion. Not much more can be said about Medora without giving away major plot points, but there she meets Aven Dalmarta (who is later revealed to be the antagonist of the series) before ending up in the magical school of Akarnae.Īkarnae trains gifted humans before they end up working in Medora. We meet a young woman heading to a boarding school, who steps through a doorway into a land called Medora. The first time Alex is introduced in The Medoran Chronicles is in the first book, Akarnae. Looking into the tropes that are commonly found in young adult novels, she proves she is not your typical protagonist. The Medoran Chronicles stands on its own as something completely different in the YA genre, and a large part of that comes from the characterisation of Alex.

With five novels and a book of short novellas, the series is a must-read for any fans of young adult fantasy. There are no spoilers for Vardaesia.ĭescribed as Harry Potter meets The Chronicles of Narnia, and written by Australian author and Supa-Star guest Lynette Noni, The Medoran Chronicles follows 16-year-old Alexandra Jennings’ journey into a magical new land as she tries to understand it whilst also trying to get home. WARNING: This article contains spoilers up until and including book four, Graevale. With the release of Vardaesia earlier this month, the final novel in Lynette Noni’s Medoran Chronicles, we look back on what separates protagonist Alexandra Jennings from the rest.

Akarnae book series