I want to... explore my feminine side
Novels of feminine rage are hardly a new phenomenon but the 2020s have seen an uptick in the intensity of the narrative and the passion with which women are fighting back. Here we have selected a few of our recent favourites.
A group of women in an isolated Mennonite colony come together after discovering they've been repeatedly drugged and raped by the community's men. Their "feminine rage" is a simmering, deeply felt indignation born from years of trauma and patriarchal oppression. It's not a violent outburst, but rather a fierce, intellectual, and desperate drive to determine their future. The women must grapple with faith, forgiveness, and the radical choice to stay and fight or leave their only known home, ultimately manifesting as a collective resolve to reclaim their dignity and safety.
Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy
Few events change us as much as new parenthood. In Soldier Sailor an unnamed narrator, a new mother, loves her baby while at the same time contemplates her own suicide. An utterly brutal and stark novel of motherhood and modern wifedom in the era of women having it all, it is depressing and haunting, but also powerful in its truthfulness.
Similar to Soldier Sailor, Nightbitch is another story of a mother who is also trying to retain her humanity in the face of screaming children and working partners. Nightbitch tips over into the horror territory as our main character evolves/devolves into a wolf/dog that prowls the neighbourhood eviscerating rabbits. Yoder captures the inner wolfness of all women who struggle to find themselves again after having children in a world that is not set up for it. Disturbing and very clever.
Irina, a volatile photographer obsessed with taking explicit photos of random men. When she is offered a London exhibition, her life spirals into self-destruction, drugs, and violence, involving her best friend and a shy supermarket worker. The novel brilliantly skewers gender roles and the art world, critiquing the male gaze by flipping it on its head in a bloody way.
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
In 1950s America where women, tired of being silenced and constrained, spontaneously "dragon." This "Mass Dragoning of 1955" is quickly repressed, and now society is erasing this fiery rebellion from history, deeming it "taboo" and "inappropriate." Through the eyes of protagonist Alex, whose aunt dragons, we see the profound impact of this suppressed anger, a defiant refusal to remain "small," and a violent, yet ultimately liberating, transformation born from the indignation of societal oppression and forgotten histories.
What would the world be like were women the dominant sex? Alderman presents a world where women suddenly develop the ability to unleash electric shocks, fundamentally flipping global power dynamics. Feminine rage, long suppressed and simmering under patriarchal oppression, explodes to the surface and It's not a gentle revolution. This "rage" is both cathartic and terrifying, exposing the cyclical nature of power and the corrupting influence it holds, regardless of gender.
A woman - artist, mother, wife - takes herself on a cross country road trip from Los Angeles to New York, but flounders a mere 20 minutes from her home, coming to rest in a roadside motel, and falling in lust with a young man she meets there. All Fours is in turns bizarre, insightful, hilarious, wild and thought provoking.
The Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill
Told through disjointed observations, philosophical musings, and wry humor, The Department of Speculation is a fragmented, poignant account of a marriage unraveling after an affair. Told through disjointed observations, philosophical musings, and wry humor, it delves into the unnamed narrator's interior life as a wife and mother. Her anger is not explosive, but rather a simmering disillusionment with societal expectations for women, particularly the tension between artistic ambition and the "mundane" realities of family life, leading to a profound sense of self-loss.
