Oooh, it’s been over a week! There goes my goal to post every week. Before I start, I changed my theme you guys! The last one I had, I liked well enough but the heading was huge and it started bothering me.
Diverse Characters Mondays is my self hosted weekly meme celebrating my favorite diverse characters. This meme was created to get myself to post more frequently with a topic I am interested in. Posting memes always help me get out of a blogging slump, especially since I haven’t been posting Diversity Spotlight Thursday posts as frequently anymore.
If you’re not familiar with “diverse” characters (which I’m sure most of you are), they are basically a character who is not a white allocishet and able person (note that this is in no way a definite definition of a diverse character and feel free to comment or email me if you think I need to add/change anything).
If anyone wants to participate, please do! If you do decide to do this, leave the link to your post down below and I’d love to check it out! Your post can be as long or as short as you like.
Samirah Al-Abbas
The Magnus Chase trilogy by Rick Riordan
Rick Riordan has been really good at writing some strong and wonderful diverse characters. Samirah al-Abbas from the Magnus Chase trilogy is brown (Arab-American), a Muslim hijabi, and betrothed (and very happily so). She’s also an axe wielding Valkrye, a shapeshifter and her hijab acts as an invisibility cloak.
I always love seeing Muslim main characters in mainstream books, especially ones who are well developed. Samirah is raised by her grandparents and she respects them immensely and always feels guilty when lying to them about being a Valkrye.
She has faced prejudice from her peers almost all her life, in the real world for being Muslim and in the Norse world for being a child of Loki. But despite that, she’s kind and always tries to do the right thing.
Riordan also explores a healthy and happy arranged marriage through Samirah and Amir Fadlan. They’re both adorable as a couple and are both on the same page when it comes to getting married. Because arranged marriages are usually considered a stigma in western society, I think it’s important for kids to understand that they aren’t always forced.
Have you read the Magnus Chase trilogy? What do you think of Samirah?
Through the Book Portal 
Oooh, I like this tag. It’s cool! I haven’t read the Magnus Chase books yet. I am waiting for the final book to come out before I pick them up. October seems so far away!!!
I also love the header resizing. It’s a good look for your site!
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Thank you! 🙂 Two more months! We can do it!
And yay! Thank you again! 😀 The huge heading was starting to bother me and I like this theme a lot more.
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OH MY GOD! I still need to read his other books! This has made me more excited about my goal to read as many of Rick Riordan’s books as possible this year.
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I didn’t start up liking Magnus Chase but the second book surprised me. I like this trilogy a lot more than the Trials of Apollo series. Good luck on your goal!!! I love Riordan books!
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This is such a great post, and I think the feature is wonderful! I’m gonna admit that past the Percy Jackson series, I’m not the biggest fan of Rick Riordan’s writing, but Samirah is one reason I’m ~really~ drawn to the Magnus Chase series. I didn’t know she was hijabi and betrothed, though! That sounds SO cool, and she sounds bad-ass!
~ Aimal @ Bookshelves & Paperbacks
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Thank you Aimal!! (This was low key inspired by your Diversity Spotlight Thursdays feature 😀 ). I understand that, all of Riordan’s books have similar plots and the same predicable writing. I just go into his books not expecting not to be surprised. I wasn’t a huge fan of the first Magnus Chase book but I liked the second one a lot! Samirah is awesome! I hope you like the books if you decide to read them!
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I haven’t read this series yet– I’m desperately waiting for the whole series to be published before I pick it up. I adore Riordan’s writing and I can’t wait to get into this world. Samirah sounds like quite a complicated character– does she have a prominent role in the series?
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It’s a great series! I wasn’t a huge fan of the first book but the sequel won me over. Yes, Samirah is a main character and she is the reason I continued reading the trilogy and I’m glad I did 😄 . I hope you read the series soon Jackie!
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I bet you’ll also like Magnus’s sword “Jack” similar to your name.
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Thanks for the tip, Sadat! I’ll have to keep an eye out for that. I love it when weapons are named; when they have personalities.
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I am so glad that the Muslim community was fairly represented in Riordan’s books. Samirah is my favourite character!
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