In light of beka’s post about Twilight and the fishy ‘independence’ of it’s heroine and the fact that the movie is making wheelbarrows full of cash , I wanted to pass on some recommendations for good feminist-friendly YA books. They would make good stocking stuffers for any teen girls or boys in your life, Twilight obsessed or not, that enjoy reading and that you would like to indoctrinate/influence with feminist leanings. And yes Virginia, you can read them too because these are some awesome stories.
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray is a wonderful book for anyone who liked the magical worlds and supernatural romance of Twilight , but prefers that it’s heroine to be stronger and have more of her own voice. It is the first in a trilogy, with Rebel Angels and Sweet Far Thing being the other volumes. The story starts in 1895 when Gemma Doyle has a vision of her mother being murdered, a vision that comes true. She must leave India, the only home she has ever known, to attend a stuffy boarding school in England. She slowly begins to learn about herself and her powers, eventually making three unique friends that she is able to take into ‘the realms’, a land of magical enchantment. She meets a boy and starts to fall for him (of course), but he is Indian and a member of a secret society determined to stop her from exercising her powers.
Themes of matriarchy vs. patriarchy are all over this book, and it doesn’t shy away from racism and classism (though it is from a white POV). It showcases the historical repression of women in Victorian England, and couples it with strong heroines who must balance their powerlessness in the real world with a supernatural world that hands them nearly unlimited power. Plus, the interracial and intercultural romance between Gemma and Kartik is pretty hot (but just as chaste as the first three books of Twlight ), and there is some surprising queer content in the last book.
Speaking of queer content, I can’t recommend Down to the Bone by Mayra Lazara Dole enough. It is this beautiful coming of age story about a lesbian Cuban-American girl in Miami who suddenly finds herself kicked out of her school and home when her secret is exposed. First, this is one of those “finally a good book about queer young women of color!” books. The story is enmeshed in Cuban American and Latino/a culture, including the racism, machismo, food, language, religion, geography, immigration, underemployment, and cultural expectations. When the main character Laura finds tortillera subculture, she is so cautious because they are so like her and so unlike her that the reader is just sucked into this world and her struggles. This book also gets super feminist QPOC bonus points for Tazer - the first genderqueer boi Latino I’ve ever seen in YA fic – who is an exceptionally well-written secondary character. But beyond the setting or the characters, it is just a great book. It is a heartbreaking and beautiful look at coming out and coming of age, of being 17 and not knowing what you want or what you could do. The quick pace of the book lures you in to the larger fundamental questions about what parts of our identity that are permanent or flexible and the process by which anyone comes to be an adult.
Big Fat Manifesto by Susan Vaught is that novel I dreamed of reading as a fat teen. I have never seen such blatant fat acceptance (personally and politically) in YA lit before EVER. The main character Jamie is fat and she is not afraid to say so. She is so unafraid that she starts a column in her school newspaper about all the bullshit and oppression that fat people face. She goes into skinny stores and demands to be treated equally even though she weighs about 300lbs and then writes about it for the paper. She understands her genetic predispositions towards fat and gets that skinny =/= healthy. She doesn’t see her fat as a moral failure! She has a fat boyfriend and weighs the pros and cons of gastric bypass surgery among social pressure and the looming questions about her future. She is this strong funny outspoken activist, but she constantly has to try not to let herself be crumbled by a society that wants to tear her down. I think Susan Vaught deserves a huge pat on the back for writing a book that will help young fat women feel confident and help other teens think about the way they treat their fat peers.
If you have a manga fan and you want to show him/her a strong female protagonist, I adore the series Miki Falls . It is four books (Miki Falls : Spring , Summer , Autumn , and Winter ) and it is written by Japanese-American manga author Mark Crilley. The main character Miki is everything that Bella in Twilight isn’t. She really is strong and independent, from the first book and growing more so towards the end. While her romance with Hiro is just as star-crossed as Edward and Bella, the difference is that Miki doesn’t put up with Hiro’s “I’m going to break up with you for your own good” or “I’ll make all the decisions to keep you safe” bullshit. Over the series, they face challenges as a couple stemming from the supernatural work he does (I’m not going to spoil it for you, but lets just say that it is a creative and unique look at the superhuman guy/normal girl pairing) but they work through these challenges together and she fights for herself and her relationship instead of just pining. And I love love love the ending because she is finds this inner strength even when she should be whittled down to nothing. She doesn’t win at the end just because she loves her man, but because the trials they endured have made her the kind of woman who doesn’t let others (especially her supernatural ‘betters’) dictate her destiny.
Some honorable mentions : City of Bones by Cassandra Clare is often praised for being like Twilight with a better heroine, however I’ve never read it because it is always checked out! Likewise, Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins stars a strong female heroine in a dystopian future and is probably going to win a couple book awards this year for being great sci-fi for teens. Hunger Games is also a good one to give boys who usually don’t read books about girls and feelings.
The First Part Last by Angela Johnson is this beautiful lyrical love story about an unexperianced young black father and his daughter, great for anyone who really likes sappy family stories and wants something that encourages men to take an active role in child rearing. And I’m a huge fan of Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (the first in a series containing Uglies , Pretties , Specials , and Extras ) because the futuristic setting allows him to bluntly and critically question fascist beauty standards in ways that many teens don’t accept from fiction written in contemporary times. Nobody's Princess (and it's sequel Nobody's Prize ) by Esther Friesner are retellings of the myth of Helen of Troy. Only instead of just being beautiful, this Helen learns swordsmanship and runs off to have her own adventures. It is a great reclaiming of a character whose worth has always been based on her looks.
These are just some of the great YA books out there with explicitly or implicitly feminist characters, themes, and settings. While I'm still looking for a teen novel where the protagonist says "I'm a feminist", there is definitely more out there then just Twilight .
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This is great. I still love YA fiction but always feel embarrassed when looking through the shelves at the local library.
I read the Gemma Doyle trilogy. A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels were a pretty good pair of books, but my complaint comes with A Sweet, Far Thing. I like stories that are first and foremost about stories. While this is true about A Sweet, Far Thing, it feels dragged down by trying too hard to be a novel about social wrongs. The other two books suffer under Libra Bray trying to make everything about social consciousness, but the storylines in those two books is the driving factor. I know, I'm probably going to get marked as a troll for this comment. However, the best fantasy stories are ones that tend to walk a more 'neutral' ground. Okay, nothing is neutral and everything is in a cultural context.
What I mean is that the best stories are the ones where the story comes first. Maybe I don't agree with the morals that the story is based upon (Twilight saga goes here), but first and foremost, I do want a piece of fiction to be about the narrative. Some fiction is more socially conscious, of course, and that's usually preferable, but when the story is weighed down by the author trying to push a moral agend over and around their narrative (aka the story becomes too allegorical), then I have problems with it.
Anything by Tamora Pierce is great. My favorite may actually be Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen. The heroine is strong, opinionated, and funny.She ends up finding her own path in the world and working as a spymaster to help overthrow a racist, corrupt regime.Her love interest is a crow/man shapeshifter. They do have sex( it's not graphic at all)using birth control, which makes it a nice positive lesson.
I gave this to my niece,I really like the ideas on sexuality, colonialism,and independence. Plus, it's just a wonderful fantasy story.
I swear, Tamora Pierce's books are what made me a feminist. I started reading them when I was 10. Her heroines were so inspiring to me. She also has a young queer woman of color in one of her series (Daja in Circle of Magic.)
I recommend Ratha's Creature and its sequels, a series of books about a tribe of sentient big cats in the mid-Cenozoic. The heroine (the titular Ratha) is a strong and well-developed character, the story is pretty compelling, and the setting is wonderful (I love the cameos by various prehistoric creatures, this may be the only depiction of desmostylians and Enaliarctos in fiction) and feels appropriate (like if cats were intelligent, this is the sort of society they could plausibly have).
I also really like the Mediator series by Meg Cabot/Jenny Carroll as well as the last few Princess Diaries books where Mia really starts to come into her own and deal with pretty serious issues.
Thanks so much for this post! I love reading YA lit myself and I want to reccommend good books to my younger cousins and girls in my church.
Mercedes Lackey. Especially her trilogy "Magic's Pawn", "Magic's Promise" and Magic's Price" (dealing with a coming of age and into adulthood of a young gay man, with a family who's overall everything you would not want to deal with if you were him), the set "Oathbound", "Oathbreakers", and "Oathblood" (very strong women as the main characters), and "By The Sword", (another very strong woman as the main character), though I'll admit, I love anything by her. Also, by Juliet Marillier, "Daughter of the Forest," "Son of the Shadows," and "Child of the Prophecy". By Jacqueline Carey (much edgier), "Kushiel's Dart", "Kushiel's Chosen", "Kushiel's Avatar", Kushiel's Scion", "Kushiel's Justice", and "Kushiel's Mercy" (the last one I'm assuming will be just as good as the others, and I'm just itching to get my hands on it!). By Elizabeth Moon, "The Deed of Paksenarrion" (which is actually three books, but is sold as one now). By Anne McCaffrey, "Freedom's Landing", "Freedom's Choice", "Freedom's Challenge", "Freedom's Ransom"; "Sassinak", "The Death of Sleep", "Generation Warriors"; "Dragonsong", "Dragonsinger" (those last two fall into YA easily, the others are probably a little more adult, excepting the Kushiel set, which is definitely adult). I love Tamora Pierce, and her "Wild Magic" quartet (which my younger sister keeps cleptoing from me...), which is also YA. "A College of Magics" by Caroline Stevermer is also a good read. Less on the magical front and a bit on the supernatural instead is "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold, about a young girl who is raped and murdered, and then watches her murderer and her family and friends from heaven as they cope with the loss, the not knowing, the suspicion, and eventually with letting go (her perspective throughout). For manga, I'd recommend "Fruits Basket" by Natsuki Takaya (YA)... the heroine is admittedly a very traditional caretaking type of girl, but she's faced with some difficult circumstances and ends up being the definite source of strength and confidence for nearly everyone you meet in the series, and is about the most accepting of other people you can get. They're up to book 21 now, with 22 due out in March. Ditto for "Chibi Vampire" by Yuna Kagesaki, about a young girl vampire who is sort of a backwards vampire in a family of normal ones. Lots of her balancing her family with a normal school life, but my favorite is the interactions with her and her younger sister (who takes care of her just as much as the other way around). They're up to number 11.
I'm pretty sure that's most of my favorite books and all of my favorite authors by now... Sorry this got so long, but I'm a readaholic.
If we're talking about YA lit, Jaqueline Carey's Kushiel books are most definitely not meant for tweens/young teens. They're fucking fabulous, but very adult.
I've read City of Bones, really good book, but I would never have thought it YA. We read it in my Sci-Fi Past, Present, and Future (college classes ftw!). It is a fairly decent feminist novel now that I think on it. However there is only one female main character and she shares the lime light with a couple of men. There is some interesting discussion about gender and class and she is never (from my recollections) really treated 'like a girl'.
We also read Left Hand of Darkness by Usula K. Le Guin. While most definitely a sci-fi novel (and not YA) and has no definitive female characters it centers on a race of humans that are truly hermaphrodites and switch from male to female several times throughout their life. FASCINATING.
And...if you want a good vamp novel, read the first five or so Anita Blake novels by Laurel Hamilton. Damn, I love those books, but most assuredly not YA. Especially after book 6 or so, they become very sexually explicit. Anita kicks undead and lupine ass and it makes me happy.
For me, nothing could beat the Circle of Three series at that age (I'm not that far from it).
I read Mists of Avalon when I was about 12, though it would take a pretty mature person to do that. That book gave me my first strong female characters, and it will always be very close to my heart. Lord of the Rings was great too.
Bitten by Kelley Armstrong is also really good, I'd consider it mildly sexually explicit with a good bit of language (no more than the Fri Feminist Fuck You), though. It has werewolfy goodness, along with Elena the main character who kicks some serious ass.
Dhampir and all of it's sequels are also great. I don't remember a lot of language or heavy sex in them, and I had my entire middle school reading the books.
I'll hunt through the rest of my books later and will probably add another comment. I am writing down everyone's suggestions for the YA's I know, thanks!
I love Dhampir! I wouldn't have even classified it as feminist until now...just cause I'd never thought of it like that.
Also Doppelganger, which has a wonderfully twisted plot and a rebel feminist protagonist.
And the earlier Artemis Fowl books.
Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely is wonderful, the main character has a strong personality and still remains realistically vulnerable.
And it's just as romance-y as Twilight.
You beat me to it! Wicked Lovely is one of my favorite YA books from the past couple of years. Holly Black's series of young adult urban fantasy novels (beginning with Tithe) also has some kick-ass heroines, queer characters, scary fae, and delicious romance. And finally, even though it's not specifically YA, I'd definite recommend Emma Bull's War for the Oaks for high-school age teens. There's a really sweet romance (yes, a couple of explicit, but tender, sex scenes) and an awesome rock musician heroine.
There's a lot of good YA fiction for girls. Certainly a lot more than good YA TV, movies, or music. To me, the most critical thing is the portrayal of girl-as-agent, because too much media aimed at girls sees them inhabiting a special, sexualized world in which little is ever done, but everything is very pretty. Some examples that I liked:
Patricia C. Wrede's Dealing With Dragons and
sequels. A merciless but totally child-understandable parody of the whole princess genre. Probably the first feminist thing I ever read, it totally deflates the romantic image of the lovely helpless female.
E.L. Konigsberg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Two children run away from home to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Preteen Claudia is cool-headed, competent, organized, and goal-driven, and her story was a big influence on me at that age.
A couple others, notable mostly for just having young women in them who take an active role: Sharon Shinn's The Truth-teller's Tale, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time, Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword, and Terry Pratchett's Wee Free Men and sequels.
Anything by Garth Nix, but especially Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen. Almost all of his books either have female main characters or strong female supporting characters (Ragwitch being the only exception that comes to mind).
Some of the Redwall books by Brian Jacques have female main characters, and the ones that don't generally have tough, smart, and proactive female secondary characters.
Seconding/Thirding/whatever Tamora Pierce and Terry Pratchett. Wee Free Men and it's sequels are the most feminist of his young adult books that I've read, but the Discworld series in general tends to be pretty feminist too. (especially the Witches of Lancre sub-series)
I posted this on a similar thread yesterday on pro-choice books, but it seems relevant so I'm gonna post here, too.
Borrowed Light, by Anna Fienberg, is about a 16 year old girl who has an abortion. Gingerbread, and its sequel, Shrimp, by Rachel Cohn, are about the same thing. Very good books. In Borrowed Light, the heroine is pregnant by her loser surfer boyfriend, who while never abusive, doesn't treat her with the respect she deserves, including mocking her intelligence and being condescending, calling her 'crazy' in faux-endearment when she talks about astronomy, which is a large part of the book. He also makes her lie on newspaper the first time they have sex, because she's a virgin and he doesn't want her to bleed on his bed or couch. Her grandmother is supportive and kind after her abortion. In Gingerbread, the heroine is a quirky girl who doesn't fit in with her wealthy family, and gets kicked out of her prep school after being caught having sex with her boyfriend. She chooses to have an abortion, and she befriends an older woman at a nursing home who tells her about her own back-alley abortion, and is firm in her lack of regret. Much of the novel is centered around her attempts to build a relationship with her absent father, who paid for her abortion. In the sequel, Shrimp, she tells her mother about the abortion and her mother is surprised, but tells her that 'when it comes to you health, don't be ashamed or embarrassed, you can trust me with that.' Her boyfriend proposes to her in the end of the second book, and she turns him down, deciding she's too young for marriage, even though she loves him. Great books, both of them, and no one ever mentions them! Neither of the girls are bad for enjoying or having sex, or for making the best choice for their futures. Definitely influenced my life, in positive ways. I'd say they're ok for girls as young as middle school.
Borrowed Light is darker and more serious in tone, more mature, while Gingerbread is a bit lighter, and the heroine is easier for younger girls to identify with, because she's a bit younger-sounding at times. It's worth noting that both girls have mixed feelings at times about their choices, but in the end, they ultimately know they made the right choice. They both express the desire to choose motherhood, when it's right for them. Both girls are independent, intellegent and resourceful, as well as funny and wise.
I would suggest Karen Marie Moning's "Fever" series. Where sci-fi books are concerned it's a great read. The main character starts out like a southern belle but by the end of the second book she is definitely not that girl anymore. She goods from a girl with rose colored glasses to a girl covered in blood and fighting of seriously sexual fae with nothing but her wits and a lance.