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.
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