The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Tampa chapter.
Recently, for one of my education classes, we had to pick a young adult book to read and do an assignment for class surrounding that book. My project partner and I picked The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes after a debate when I advocated to read The Inheritance Games as it sounded the most interesting. This turned out to be the best decision I’ve ever made (in my opinion). I ended up buying the rest of the books in the series and am patiently waiting for Book 5 to come out next year. In The Inheritance Games series, Avery Grambs, who is a high schooler whose guardian is her sister because her mom died and her dad isn’t around, inherits the fortune of the late billionaire Tobias Hawthorne. Tobias Hawthorne is a man who loved to play games and raised his grandsons to play them. Tobias throws Avery into the game after his death when he gives her almost his entire fortune and disinherits his own family, including the grandsons whom he loves. I loved this series and read it in about a week. I will be ranking some of the characters in the novels based on how much I loved them. These characters will be across the 4 books, and there will be 16 characters that I have picked. And there will be spoilers.
Eve Laughlin and Emily Laughlin
The worst characters in the novel, and that’s saying something because Skye Hawthorne is in the book. Both characters are extremely manipulative, especially when it comes to Grayson, which is awful.
Skye Hawthorne
Skye is a money and power-hungry person, and not in a good way. She will hurt anyone who stands in her way, no matter if it hurts someone close to her, such as her own sons. I’m not sure how those wonderful human beings are related to her.
Thea Calligaris
Thea is a great character, but I have my issues in the first book when it comes to her. She got better as time went on and started to be a better person, especially for Bex and Xander, which was very sweet.
Alisa Ortega
Alisa is an extremely strong character. She’s a headstrong lawyer who is tasked with dealing with Avery’s inheritance and her newfound fame. There were some parts in the book where I was like you need to calm down and let Avery be a teenager but other than that, she was a great character.
Rebecca ‘Bex’ Laughlin
‘Bex’ is an amazing character, and it was awesome to see her growth from this shy character who was the shadow of her dead sister to this strong woman. She’s an amazing friend to Xander and really cares about her family and friends.
Maxine ‘Max’ Liu
Max is one of the funniest side characters in this novel. She is extremely witty and is such a great friend to Avery, even with all of the issues. She also says whatever is on her mind and is extremely honest, which I am personally a fan of. She’s a great overall character.
Juliet ‘GiGi” and Savannah Grayson
The Grayson twins were introduced in The Brothers Hawthorne as the half-sisters to Grayson Hawthorne (yeah, it’s a little confusing), and they were amazing. Gigi was hilarious and such an understanding and forgiving character. She’s a great sister to Grayson, which makes me smile so hard because that boy needs it. Savannah is another headstrong character who wants to care for and protect her family, which is always appreciated. Grayson now has two amazing little sisters, and Eve better not ruin it.
Oren
This man deserves so much. He was previously Tobias Hawthorne’s head of security and is now Avery’s. He did everything for Avery, the boys, and Tobias. He put up with so much and genuinely cared for Avery and asked for nothing in return. He deserves the world.
Libby Grambs
The best older sister in this book. She took in her half-sister, Avery, when her mother died and has sacrificed so much to give her sister a good life. She is also a people pleaser, which can be an issue sometimes, but she has Avery and Nash to balance her out.
Alexander ‘Xander’ Hawthorne
Xander is a ball of sunshine, even on his worst days. He is the 4th son of Skye and 4th grandson of Tobias Hawthorne. Tobias left Xander with the instructions to get his brothers and Avery to play his game and was extremely close with his grandfather as he would tell Xander most of his secrets. Xander is always caring about his brothers and trying to use humor to make situations better.
Nash Hawthorne
The big brother. He cared so much about his little brothers, and even when he did not want to play the game, he was still involved to help and protect his brothers. Even when they were younger, he was always looking out for them as Skye wasn’t around that much, so he essentially raised them with his grandfather. He takes Avery in as his little sister during the books and protects and cares for her like he does his brothers. Grayson and his interactions in The Brothers Hawthorne have my heart.
Honorable Mention
Tobias Hawthorne
I am iffy iffy with Tobias Hawthorne. He threw Avery into the deep end with everything and used her as a cover, and he has his bad moments from what we have learned. His redeeming quality is that he loves his family. He loved his grandsons and did not want them to deal with his enemies or the corruption of power so he gave them it all to Avery and orchestrated the games to bring the boys back together again.
Avery Grambs
The girl who started everything. Avery is such an amazing lead character. She’s a logical thinker and a very competitive player. She genuinely cares about everyone close to her, and she is so practical-minded about everything. She did not really resent Tobias when it was revealed why he chose her, which was surprising. In the end, she sets a plan to donate most of her inheritance to charity and creates a gameshow to give away some of the remaining money. She also has an underlying romance triangle with Jameson and Grayson, which does not really affect how much she cares for them.
Jameson Hawthorne
Jameson is such a good character, and learning parts of his backstory in The Brothers Hawthorne is amazing and adds so much depth to his character. After the four books, I can see honestly he and Avery work amazingly together, even if I prefer Grayson. Jameson is rebellious and has some self-destructive tendencies, but he does care for everyone, even if he is sometimes insensitive.
Grayson Hawthorne
Grayson Hawthorne may be my new favorite book boy. This boy has made me go through all the feels over the course of the four books so far. He seems very self-assured in most other books, but as the series goes on, we learn all about his doubts and certain self-esteem issues. From book one, his main goal is Family First; he cares so much about family and wants to protect them from page one. He was very suspicious about Avery at first because he thought she was a threat to his family, but he eventually considered her his family and only wanted to protect her. Now, in book three, people define him as naive, and his character got ruined because of Eve showing up and allowing her to manipulate him because she looks like Emily, aka his dead ex-girlfriend, but he was going through it, and I think that just added more to his character because we see the troubles he is actually going through and he seems like a hurt teenager who just wanted to be chosen by someone. This man has my heart, and I feel for him.
The characters in this book were so good, even the ones that are portrayed as the villains. Each character played the role they were supposed to play and brought depth to this series and will continue to because we have not seen the last of some of these characters. I cannot wait for 2024 when the new book The Grandest Game comes out because I cannot wait to see my favorite characters again.