can you please tell more about lira from daggermouth? 👀 i usually don't go for dystopia, but a good traumatized character could change my mind
in all honesty, lira isn't in the story very much, but pretty much all of the main characters have trauma that is explicitly stated or alluded to in one way or another.
!!!!!! MAJOR SPOILERS FOR DAGGERMOUTH BELOW !!!!!!
for lira specifically, she was sold by her father when she was fourteen to the men loyal to him to ensure their loyalty (me me me me me me ME!!!!!!!) and she's also physically abused by her father regularly if she steps out of line and just because she's a woman.
greyson, her older brother and one of the two main characters, is regularly beaten and tortured by his father. he's been shot by him more than once and got beaten so badly before the start of the story that he had internal bleeding and organs rupturing. it's also implied that his father did wayyyy worse than that too.
their mother is also physically abused by their father and gets regularly hit/beaten when she speaks without her husband's express permission. there's even one scene where her husband locks her face in a scold's bride and has it hanging from the ceiling in such a way that if she isn't standing, the chain its connect to will strangle her.
the other main character, shadera (pronounced sha-deer-uh), grew up in the poorest part of the city they live in and had to watch greyson and lira's father execute her parents because they were both from different classes and marrying someone outside of your class is illegal. it's also implied she's been through torture of some kind too, but they haven't specified what that is as of yet in the story. the same goes for the boy (jameson) who starts out as her love interest tho it changes to greyson about halfway through the story.
i definitely recommend this book btw!! it's very good and i'm already upset i have to wait until next year for book two in this duology bc i Know i'm going to want to read the rest of the story right Now.
