I love media that focuses on complicated relationships between women (platonic, romantic or familial). Think: ideological rifts, abrasive personalities and strange dynamics. I dislike it when the tension is largely attributed to simple miscommunication. Ideally the relationship isn't sadistically negative or abusive (no torture porn) but instead feature characters that are magnetised to one another but are combative in some way. I like the dynamic between rivals who are obsessed with one another. Or people who love each other but struggle to understand why. I also like close, caring relationships between people who are very different. The relationship doesn't have to be the centre of the plot.
The book can be in any genre, though I don't usually particularly like horror or thrillers (I know that makes this request more difficult sorry). I like happy endings, though they aren't a necessity. Good world building and an engaging plot would be wonderful, though I also enjoy slow-paced slice-of-life books. Great writing is a must. I am not a big fan of fantasy YA (other kinds of fantasy are great). I also don't like the trend of recent releases which centre around a trite trope (e.g. a book that advertises itself as "enemies to lovers").
Two random examples of pieces of media that scratch this itch for me include the Devil Wears Prada film (Miranda and Andy's relationship) and Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (the unnamed protagonist and Rebecca's connection).
by margl_e
6 Comments
Long Bright River by Liz Moore
The Wedding People by Alison Espach – a depressed 40-year-old divorcee checks into a luxury hotel intending to take her own life, but instead forms an unlikely friendship with the 28-year-old bride throwing a million dollar wedding there that week
Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Sula by Toni Morrison
Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? by Lorrie Moore
A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence
I think you should definitely check out The Locked Tomb series. It’s fantasy/sci-fi, about a space empire of necromancers. It is chock-full of complicated female relationships. It is kind of experimental? The books have very different tones, depending on the narrator. It’s the kind of series where you re-read it and go, “Oh wait, that’s setting up [blank]!”
Maybe another book that would fit is *Clytemnestra* by Costanza Casati. Clytemnestra was Helen of Troy’s older sister, and in Homer’s *Odyssey*, it mentions that she murders her husband, the king Agamemnon, when he returns from the Trojan War (it was extremely valid of her). The book goes over her relationships with her mother, sisters, and daughters.
*The Once and Future Witches* by Alix E. Harrow is about three sister witches campaigning for the vote and building a network of female friends and empowering each other.
The Neapolitan Series by Elena Ferrante sounds exactly like what you’re looking for. It’s a series of four books about two girls growing up in mid 20th-century Italy. They have a very complicated friendship…I think you could definitely describe it as magnetized, but combative. It is somewhat slice of life, but I still found the plot to be very engaging, especially in the first two books. And I think the world building is great. It really immerses you into the setting.
The Girls From Corona Del Mar by Rufi Thorpe. It’s about two female best friends from teenage years through adulthood. They lead mostly separate lives but reconnect at a few points. I find myself thinking about this book a lot.