Grumpy/Sunshine Duos
by Katie Killian
One of the best tropes, in my humble opinion, is the grumpy/sunshine pairing. Recently, this has been portrayed on the Netflix series Wednesday - a new take on the Addams family’s most woeful child. In the series, Wednesday is sent to a boarding school for unusual students, where she is paired up with a new roommate Enid - her true antithesis, full of bright colours and happy tunes - to indoctrinate her into the school’s community.
Just like with Wednesday and Enid, I’m a big fan of unlikely pairings; I enjoy relationships that stem from wildly different circumstances, personalities, or backgrounds. Though they can lead to somewhat expected “trope-y” stories, these can be really fun reads (or viewings). Each one brings its own twist, however, and that’s the real reason to dig in!
Here are some tried and true titles I recommend:
Books
- Good Omens | Neil, Gaiman; Prachett, Terry
- House in the Cerulean Sea | Klune, TJ
- Gideon the Ninth | Muir, Tamsyn
- The Love Hypothesis | Hazelwood, Ali
- Battle Royal | Parker, Lucy
- 50 Shades of Grey | James, E. L.
- Red White & Royal Blue | McQuiston, Casey
- Written in the Stars | Bellefleur, Alexandria
- Take a Hint, Dani Brown | Hibbert, Talia
- It Happened One Summer | Bailey, Tessa
eBooks
- I'm So Not Over You [eBook] | Jackson, Kosoko
- Wicked [eBook] | Maguire, Gregory
- Everything for You [eBook] | Liese, Chloe
DVDs
- Pride and Prejudice (1995) [DVD]
- Pride and Prejudice (2005) [DVD]
Katie Killian is a librarian in the Fond du Lac Public Library's information and outreach services department.