Shadow and Bone (Compare the life of the main character to your or a friend's life)

[SPOILERS]

[Well, sort of.]

  I recently finished a book named "Shadow and Bone", by Leigh Bardugo. I have a feeling it's supposed to be for young adults due to a couple of scenes (that aren't exactly to my taste), but it's a well written book, with words that describe wondrous settings clearly and vividly. The human characters acted as if they were real humans from the actions they were depicted of doing—well, except for one human character, and it was deliberate that he was so.

  While reading the book, the main character, Alina Starkov, had an attitude towards her crush that caused me to be reminded of someone I know. I'll use that resemblance as an opportunity to use one prompt: to compare the life of the main character to your or a friend's life. The only part I know about my friend's name is her last name, Blanco, so I'll be using that to refer to her.

  Both have a crush on someone of a higher status, with Alina's crush, Mal, being a high-class tracker, and Blanco's crush (name not known) being a year or two above her in high school.

  Both have a love-hate relationship with their crushes. Alina hates that he has a big reputation among the ladies, with his good looks and confidence. But because of those two characteristics, she loves him as well. Blanco has a love triangle problem, in which she has a crush on someone, but that someone currently crushes on another person. The fact that Blanco keeps seeing her crush interact with his crush makes her heart shatter. Or so she tells me on Twitter. It confuses why she likes him, and even more so about why she still won't give up on him, so I won't mention that.

  Now, to compare their life excluding love-life. During the beginning of the story, Alina was but a mere cartographer, with no special talents. Until something happened that would trigger her "talent"—better called an ability—and she had no idea it would happen. She proved, unwillingly, that she was special.

  A sudden change had the opposite effect for my friend Blanco. She was aiming for 7th in an examination encompassing around 50 schools, and over a thousand students. The examination awarded students up to 7th place in previous years, but this year it had been changed to 4th place. So Blanco came prepared, only to fail because of the unannounced change.