Why We Love . . . Lyla Garrity

by Jen Chaneyon Friday Night Lights

Lyla Garrity is a girl we should have hated. She was a cheerleader. She got straight A’s at Dillon High. She’s the epitome of the cute-meets-sexy female fantasy, the one every guy hopes to see naked in his bedroom as well as fully clothed, across the dinner table, when it’s time to introduce the girlfriend to the parents.

Maybe that’s why everyone at Dillon High was so unceasingly mean to her when word got out that she slept with Tim Riggins behind her paralyzed boyfriend Jason’s back. They’d all been waiting for Little Miss Perfect to screw up, and when that day came, it was the equivalent of a very schadenfreude Christmas.

But here’s the thing about Lyla: Yes, she’s kind of a prissy pants. Yes, she grits her teeth too much when she’s yelling at Tim for whatever absurd, thoughtless thing he’s recently … read more»

Recent Free Essays (Still Available!)

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Wed 8/28

Team Shay

by Diana Peterfreundon the Uglies series

“Team David or Team Zane?” was a popular question on Westerfansites and forums (and even an Amazon Poll) during the span of the Uglies series’s initial release. Readers enthusiastically debated whether Tally should be romantically linked with David, the self-sufficient, wild-born young man who first leads her into the Smoke, … read more»

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Tue 8/27

Lisbeth Salander and the "Truth" about Goths

by Lynne McDonald-Smith, Robert Young, Ph.D.on the Millennium Trilogy

One of the first things that we learn about Lisbeth Salander is that she stands out. Her dress and appearance are visually striking, and Stieg Larsson provides several vivid descriptions of her in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first book in the Millennium series. For example, we learn … read more»

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Mon 8/26

John Winchester and the Magic Bullet Theory

by Tracy S. Morrison Supernatural

Back in 1835, When Halley’s comet was overhead, same night those men died at the Alamo, they say Samuel Colt made a gun. A special gun. He made it for a hunter. A man like us, only on horseback. Story goes, he made thirteen bullets. This hunter used the … read more»

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Fri 8/23

Winning and Losing in Ender’s Game

by Hilari Bellon Ender's Game

Many years ago, during the Summer Olympic Games, Nike ran a series of ads that made me crazy. I forget most of the narrative, but the tagline was, “There’s only one winner,” followed by a clear implication that everybody else was just dust on the winner’s Nikes. I hated those … read more»