Wednesday, December 07, 2022

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]

 - Good Omens [DVD]

Katie Killian is a librarian in the Fond du Lac Public Library's information and outreach services department.