Bethany Sanderson

Bethany appears on the cover of Story Thieves: Worlds Apart

### Abilities

Travelling between fictional and nonfictional worlds; Shifting into inanimate objects; Rewriting herself

## Family

### Other Relatives

Orion (adopted brother), Mason Black, Murray Chase

## Appearances

### Appears In

Story Thieves, Story Thieves: The Stolen Chapters, Story Thieves: Secret Origins, Story Thieves: Pick the Plot, Story Thieves: Worlds Apart

> ***"Be more fictional? THAT'S your advice? When the Magister is about to toss all of humanity into stories that will probably kill them, and release every fictional character ever out into our world? Be more fictional?"***
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> ---- Bethany to Kiel in *Story Thieves*
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**Bethany Sanderson** is, along with Owen Conners, the main protagonist and narrator of the Story Thieves series. She lives in a small town with her mother, Catherine Sanderson, and spent most of her childhood searching for her father, Christian Sanderson. She is half-fictional, which gives her the ability to "jump" into books.

## History

### Pre-series

At Bethany's fourth birthday party, Nobody- her father's nemesis, and the series' antagonist - disguised himself as a child and used Bethany in order to trap her father in the fictional world.

As a birthday present, he gave Bethany a copy of *The Giving Tree* disguised as a fairy tale book*.* The four-year-old then jumped herself, her father, and her entire party into the book. Nobody attacked Christian, then disguised himself as her father to convince Bethany to return home. It worked.

After returning to the non-fictional world without her dad, Catherine heavily restricted books from her household and homeschooled Bethany until she could trust her daughter with books unsupervised. Little did Catherine know that as soon she turned her back, 8-year-old Bethany began searching every book at the library for her father.

### *Story Thieves*

Bethany, 12-years-old, meets Owen Conners when he caught her eating chocolate out of *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory*. She stormed away and leaped inside the book, which Owen found and decided to return to his mom's library. Understandable, since she had a rough day, but it only became worse when Owen caught her jumping *out* of the book.

Thus the plot begins.

## Personality

In the first book, Bethany mostly keeps to herself, spending all of her time on finding her father instead of having a normal middle school experience. Because of this, she is seen having no friends until Owen, who later becomes her best friend. She is easily-annoyed, and it doesn’t take much for her to get distressed or worried. She often blames herself for her father‘s disappearance, feeling beyond guilty for what happened. She is very conflicted by her emotions, and often didn’t push herself out of her comforting zone, instead sticking to her rules. Through meeting Kiel, he helped her start to embrace her fictional side, and she learned how to take things a little less seriously.

In Secret Origins, after she swore off jumping into books, Bethany became more reckless and impatient. While before she’d been holding herself back too much, she started throwing herself into reckless situations, especially once she discovered her dad might be Doc Twilight. Bethany doesn’t open up to people easily, as shown with Owen and Kiel, since she takes a long time to warm up to them. Once she does, she is very protective of her friends and family. She is usually determined in everything she does, not willing to give up on her goals until she’s succeeded, such as with finding her dad. Her confidence and bravery also grows throughout the series.

In Worlds Apart, she is split into two halves. Her fictional side is reckless, impatient, brave, and imaginative, while her nonfictional side is the exact opposite, being much more hesitant and lacking in imagination.

She is bisexual.

## Appearance

Bethany is described with waist-length, bronze-colored hair. Her eye color is not specified in the books, but it is drawn blue on the covers.

## Special Abilities

* Bethany’s ***Bold***, unlike any other individual in the *Story Thieves* series, is half-fictional, giving her power
* As of *Secret Origins*, she can turn into inanimate objects.
* In *Worlds Apart*, her fictional self improves her power to turn into both animate and inanimate objects along with the ability to rewrite herself.
* In Worlds Apart she convinced Kiel to give her a wand, and began learning magic

## Relationships

### Kiel Gnomenfoot

Kiel and Bethany are very close. Kiel calls Bethany "Beth". In *The Stolen Chapters*, Owen lets Bethany and Kiel be alone to say goodbye. In *Worlds Apart*, Kiel and Bethany are happy to see each other again, and at the end of the book, Kiel teaches Bethany magic, though he is hesitant as he wants her father to like him.

James Riley confirmed that she has a crush on him, and that he likes her back.

### Owen Conners

Owen and Bethany are at odds with each other at first, though they end up on good terms by the end of *Story Thieves*. Bethany knows about Owens crush on Charm. They are like siblings.

### Orion Sanderson

Orion is Bethany's adoptive brother. She dislikes him at first, though she becomes fond of him later.

### Gwen (Earth Girl)

Gwen makes Bethany very happy, and she inspires her to be a better person. In turn, Bethany reminds Gwen that she's not alone, and gives her hope.

They are confirmed to have feelings for each other.