The Kane Chronicles: Sadie the Mary Sue who doesn’t need to choose one boy—she can have both.

First and foremost, I pay my respects to Rick Riordan who gave me Percy Jackson and The Olympians, my favorite book series (sorry Harry Potter fans). So, it is with love, and a writer’s analytical mind, when I critique his more recent book series, The Kane Chronicles. After Percy Jackson, I was excited to read anything by Riordan; and, while I enjoyed The Kane siblings facing off against Egyptian gods, one thing that killed it for me was the character of Sadie and the so called love triangle. First, let’s get into what annoyed me about Sadie.

Sadie Kane is a Mary Sue: Unlike her brother, Carter (my favorite character from the series), Sadie doesn’t seem to suffer or grow a whole lot.

-She’s pretty awesome when the series begins and doesn’t shift much in her personal growth as a character when it ends. Everyone constantly reminds her of how amazing she is. Carter, on the other hand is often belittled and humiliated both by her and other main characters.

-Sadie’s biggest issue seems to be what hot boy she should go for. She often complains about this, saying she can’t be with either while receiving kisses from both and objectifying them whenever she can by staring at their looks shamelessly. (There’s a reason she can get away with this and not Carter. If a boy was doing this, we’d consider him a flake, but indecision on a girl is okay because it feeds female fantasies. I’m not into feeding fantasies when they become unbelievable and a jerk move is a jerk move, whether you’re a girl or a boy. As my brother once said, “I am like death. I show no partiality.”)

-I also care less about Sadie’s boy troubles when she’s got both of them openly in love with her and Carter can’t even get the girl he likes to look favorably on him for the longest time.

-When she’s supposed to be worrying about her parents, Sadie’s reminds us what’s most important to her—how attractive Anubis looks in black or whatever.

-Sadie comes off as flaky when she’s staring at Walt and doesn’t want him with anyone but her, even though she can’t stop thinking about Anubis. She ditches a sick, dying Walt to go to the dance and waltz with Anubis instead of staying behind and, I don’t know, keeping Walt company. —He’d do it for her.

This is a common mistake with writers and it makes the reader unable to empathize with your character: If they’re good at everything, desirable, and their greatest problem is which amazing guy to choose from--why would we feel sorry for them? We sympathize with Katniss Everdeen in her love triangle because she’s choosing between a boy who saved her life and endured the Hunger Games with her, and her childhood best friend. Her circumstances are harsh, her world is violent and cruel. And her choices go from bad to worse. It’s very easy to dislike a girl who has two guys fighting over her, so you MUST do your best to make her relatable and her situation sympathetic.

Walt and Anubis do not act like REAL boys: Say what you want about Anubis really being thousands of years old or whatever, he’s either an old man masquerading as a teenage boy to entice a twelve year old girl or he’s as the book says, young for his age as far as Egyptian gods go. Neither makes sense with the way he behaves around her.

- If he’s that old, then he’s seen many pretty girls and for some reason this twelve year old is different. It would make more sense if he’d been interested in her mom.

-If you’re saying he’s a young god and therefore like a teenager, then he’d still be attracted to her. The book takes great pains, though, to have Sadie be attracted to Walt and Anubis but them Not be attracted to her.

- Here’s where we have the contradiction. It’s like the author knows it would be weird to have the two boys checking out a twelve year old girl so they have to be drawn to her inner goodness. Not only is this hypocritical, but it makes no sense within the story. Anubis asks Sadie in their first real conversation if she shouldn’t have been married off already. To which she responds, that she’s only twelve. She may be, but in his mind she’s old enough to be married so why isn’t she old enough for him to find her attractive?

I like Walt better than Anubis, since Anubis feels like a rehash of every YA boy in leather and doesn’t really do anything. He doesn’t contribute help to the story or Sadie aside from saying “Something is coming” or “you’re in danger.” Walt has a good story and is literally dying to stay by Sadie’s side. This aside, neither he or Anubis have a problem with each other. They are aware of Sadie’s feelings for both of them yet never come to blows or even bear the slightest dislike towards each other (Wolverine and Cyclops wouldn’t understand this). This is not realistic, which brings us into my main problem with the Love Triangle.

It’s a Love Triangle, you have to choose! Except, Sadie doesn’t…In every good Love Triangle, someone has to walk away unhappy. It’s not an easy thing for a writer to do so they often tease a little too much or have the girl take liberties instead of acting like a real person with a hard choice to make. This is the reason I don’t like most triangles—they’re too afraid to break someone’s heart so they try to satisfy everyone. You’ll never be able to do that as a writer. You have to break someone’s heart (sometimes more than one) and make it look like all characters involved had their reasons for acting the way they did.

-Having Sadie kiss both guys with no pressure coming from either side might be good for her but it’s nothing like real life. Elena does this in Vampire Diaries. She gets to play the field with both Damon and Stefan to the hilt. But we’re never worried who she’ll end up with if she’s already slept with them both and they’re at her beck and call. There’s no stakes or anticipation because you’ve given us everything with no repercussions.

In a love triangle, characters A and B both like character C. All characters must be flawed enough to keep character C from simply choosing one. The reader must also be kept guessing who they’ll end up with and how things will be resolved. The movie First Knight does the best job I’ve seen of this so far (since my sister’s novels haven’t come out yet).

- In the film, King Arthur wants to marry Guinevere, but he’s way too old for her. His flaw is, he loves her too much to see how she’s only willing to marry him out of duty and that she’s in love with Lancelot who she met prior.

-Guinevere accepts Arthur’s proposal, even though he gives her the option to opt out. She does so partially to avoid her feelings for Lancelot. She also feels a sense of duty to Arthur because he’s protecting her people and she’s very young. So her mistake is understandable, but still a mistake none the less.

- Lancelot wants Guinevere too much to be the bigger person and walk away, even though he highly respects Arthur.

-Consequences? Arthur catches them kissing after Guinevere has resisted Lancelot the whole movie. They are almost hanged for treason, and Camelot is attacked because Arthur has been emotionally compromised by heart break.

There are no character flaws or consequences pertaining to the Love Triangle in The Kane Chronicles. Sadie gets to have her cake and eat it too.

-She gets to be with both boys in the same body (even though it feels like it’s strictly Anubis to me in Walt’s body but what do I know), and they have no issue with this.

-I might also point out that Anubis/Walt is immortal committing himself to the, at best, capricious feelings of a fourteen year old girl who will most likely change her mind.

-Carter’s one dumb line about how could Sadie complain when she gets both of the boys she’s liked will be stricken from the record. As if having two guys in one is a totally normal and good thing. I’m sure Sadie would love if Walt or Anubis got to be with her in some other girls body…

This ending was basically a cop out. Rick Riordan didn’t want to do a real tear jerking, heart ripping triangle, so he did a female empowered fantasy where everybody wins and nobody has to choose. Cute, in theory, but a choice implies picking one thing over another. You can’t do a Love Triangle where everybody wins. Well, you could…but it’s not a real Love Triangle .

-Hannah