I used to read all the time but fell out of it. I love strong female lead characters. Books I’ve enjoyed are dystopian books like The Handmaids Tale and Hunger Games as well as historical fiction like Clan of the Cave Bear and The Birth of Venus. Some other books I love were Where the Crawdads Sing, White Oleander, Like Water for Chocolate, and All the Ugly and Wonderful Things. Thanks for your suggestions in advance!
by Wonderful_Row8519
16 Comments
Maybe try The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
If a cyberpunk corporate espionage thriller trilogy sounds good, check out Inscape by Louise Carey
The traitor baru cormorant by dickinson. The broken earth trilogy by Jemisin.
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. Think Hogwarts if everyone hated Harry Potter and it was overrun with monsters trying to devour him for being a Wizard’s. Female main character as requested.
The Husbands by Chandler Baker
*Wish You Well* by Baldacci
The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis is a time travel novel, but it reads like historical fiction. The last third had me in the edge of my seat. It’s set during the Black Death, and stars a woman.
I loved 1Q84
The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustain. Beautifully written, reminded me of Where the Crawdads Sing.
Rage of Angles – Sydney Sheldon
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell has some similar themes to Where the Crawdads Sing
Elektra by Jennifer Saint has several compelling female characters
The Bear and the Nightingale series by Katherine Arden is fast-paced and exciting with a strong female lead
Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, Sharp Objects, and Dark Places.
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman was one of my favourite reads of this year AND now of all time.
Just adding the synopsis from goodreads as I’ll never be able to do it justice by trying to explain it myself:
“As far back as I can recall, I have been in the bunker.”
A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty-nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered… if indeed there were crimes.
The youngest of forty—a child with no name and no past—she survives for some purpose long forgotten in a world ravaged and wasted. In this reality where intimacy is forbidden—in the unrelenting sameness of the artificial days and nights—she knows nothing of books and time, of needs and feelings.
Then everything changes… and nothing changes.
A young woman who has never known men—a child who knows of no history before the bars and restraints—must now reinvent herself, piece by piece, in a place she has never been… and in the face of the most challenging and terrifying of unknowns: freedom
The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang is about a mother trying to protect her family from foreign invaders. It explores a lot of themes including motherhood, loss, grief etc. It’s a fantasy book and has a lot of magic involved but is still pretty grounded.
A vision of light by Judith merkle Riley, historical fiction set in the middle ages about a woman who can heal by laying on of hands. Margaret is delightful.
Nettle and bone by T kingfisher.