Feminine rage is a hot term as of late. While it may seem like a timely publishing trend, there’s nothing new or trendy about the concept—except perhaps the prevalence of novels continuing to explore the topic, for which I am very grateful. The brutality of the female experience—the undoing and eventual reclamation of women who have been figuratively crushed under societal pressures, or who face literal harm simply for existing and then respond in kind—is as evergreen as the struggles themselves. My debut novel, Saint Delilah, has a strong dose of female rage. It’s a good for her revenge story that follows a young woman who was tragically murdered by a man who believed a girl like her would never be missed. Delilah returns as a ghost to reclaim what is rightfully hers—an afterlife—and the story does not shy away from the very real danger of being a woman subject to the male gaze. Here are five novels that tell the stories of women who refuse to back down, who go a little rightfully crazy, and who find themselves enraged.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
This is one of the greats, and as such, it cannot go unmentioned. Several of Margaret Atwood’s other works could also be included on this list, such as The Edible Woman, Surfacing and The Robber Bride. The Handmaid’s Tale, set in the dystopian society of Gilead—where women are stripped of their rights and reduced to reproductive vessels—follows Offred, a handmaid forced to bear the child of her commander. We experience daily life with Offred and her oppression, along with that of the other handmaids and even the wives of the men in charge, is visceral, unsettling and, worst of all, achingly plausible. When forbidden relationships emerge and Offred is drawn into covert resistance efforts the simmering rage of her position begins to boil over. This is a brilliant novel about female rage, resilience, and exposing the flaws of the patriarchy.
The Eyes are The Best Part by Monika Kim
This book is for the femgore fans. If you enjoy hanging out inside the brain of a young woman with an insatiable appetite for revenge and…eyeballs, this story is for you. Female rage drives the narrative in many ways, but the story equally addresses issues of race, misogyny, fetishism, and grief. We meet Ji-Won at a tumultuous point in her life: her father has left after having an affair and her mother falls apart without him. When Ji-Won’s mother brings a new boyfriend into their family apartment—a middle-aged white man obsessed with Korean women—it pushes Ji-Won over the edge, and her nightly ideations become a gory reality, told in excruciating detail. For how serious a read this is, it’s also really fun.
The Unmothers by Leslie J. Anderson
A more recent discovery for me, this novel is as bizarre as it is emotional, but where it most succeeds is in its examination of bodily autonomy and the generational trauma that women face. A journalist named Marshall is sent on assignment to the small town of Raeford to investigate a far-fetched rumor of a horse giving birth to a human baby. What at first seems like a tabloid-tinged supernatural mystery unravels into a smattering of folk horror, smart commentary on reproductive care—especially in rural areas—weaponized misogyny, and…you guessed it, female rage!
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
I’m going to add another heavy hitter to this list because it’s an excellent novel, yes, but also because I’m always rooting for stories about feminine rage to reach the masses. Flynn excels at writing complicated female characters that don’t fall in line, characters we love to hate and we hate to love, women who need no explanation for their faults and shortcomings. She is truly the master of the unlikeable female main character. In Sharp Objects, Camille Preaker is no exception, nor are her mother or half-sister, around whom the story revolves. Set in small-town America, this murder mystery is a deep investigation not only into the killings, but also into the repression of the female characters—and how that repression turns into something truly dangerous.
Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.
Enough said. Okay…so this isn’t a novel. Ariel is a poetry collection, and the poems were written in the final months of Sylvia Plath’s life. There is a raw urgency to the writing that is unlike Plath’s other works. She examines the pain of failed love, motherhood, artistic ambition and of a woman’s brilliance cracking under the pressures of society. The female rage within these poems is at once subtle and not-so-quietly profound—a scream pressed into a whisper and forced straight into the ear canal— it’s somehow louder, more commanding, and frightening. The poem Lady Lazarus, quoted above, is my favorite of the collection but they are all heartbreakingly enlightening.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Isabelle Spotts is the writer and narrator of two award-winning audio dramas, Night Faces and Middle West. She attended Madison College, where she was awarded Literary Arts Student of the Year and had multiple poems published in the Yahara Journal. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband, two children, and two black cats.