CELEBRATING STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS

Celebrating Strong Female Characters.

In light of the recent events in the USA concerning women’s rights, it seems more important than ever to recognise and celebrate female strength.

I’ve always loved novels with strong female characters, whether they’re physically strong, mentally strong or both. Whether they’re smart, resilient, determined, have high-powered jobs, high morals, or all of these things at once. Whether they’re battling for survival against the elements, wildlife or human enemies or battling the inequalities of their era. Basically I love them all!

Here are some of my favourite novels featuring strong females.

The Arctic Fury by Greer McCallister is part historical fiction, part legal thriller, about an 1854 all-female expedition from the USA to the Arctic – and the murder trial of the leader when not all of the party return. The characters are a fascinating and diverse bunch of women with different backgrounds and secrets. I was shocked and enraged by the treatment of women in this era, the unfairness they suffered, and the courage they showed in the face of it all. The women are completely ill-equipped to deal with the icy temperatures but they persevere. There are so many true stories of all-male explorers’ travels in this era so it was fantastic to read about an all-female one, even if only fictional. I adored this atmospheric, action-packed story!

Fast Girls by Elise Hooper is a historical fiction novel that weaves the stories of three very different young female sprinters training for the Olympics in 1930s America. The women must defy the expectations of their society and fight against injustice to reach for Olympic gold. The narrative is full of eye-opening historical detail about the inequalities women faced in that era. 

I went through all the emotions as I read this one: outrage, amusement, shock and fury. It amazes me to see how far women’s rights have moved on since that day. Then again, with today’s female athletes still fighting for the right to receive the same winnings as their male counterparts in many sports, clearly we still have a long way to go.

Christina Dalcher’s dystopian thriller Vox is set in a world that seems more terrifyingly possible by the minute. A new government is in power. Women have lost their bank accounts, passports and jobs, and are limited to saying just 100 words a day. Metal bracelets around their wrists count their words, and once they go over the limit, they receive powerful and potentially deadly electric shocks. Most disturbingly of all, bracelets are put on female babies at three months of age, preventing them from ever learning to talk, with the aim of silencing a whole gender forever, and forcing women to become obedient domestic slaves. But one brave female scientist will not be silenced. Enraging, thought-provoking and all-too-plausible.

The River at Night by Erica Ferencik is possibly my all-time favourite thriller about a group of female friends who go white-water rafting down a remote Maine river. Part survivalist thriller, part psychological, part horror, the story is an unpredictable, action-packed thrill ride! The four female friends have known each other for many years, and are aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They must put old slights behind them and work together to survive. The plot races along like a roaring river, and around each bend is a new twist!

The Huntress by Kate Quinn is a thrilling story featuring female pilots and Nazi hunters after the war. The story is an enthralling blend of fact and fiction, partly based on the two real women. When war breaks out, threatening her homeland, Nina Markova joins The Night Witches: the legendary all-female Soviet bomber regiment. I loved learning about the bravery and courage of this little-known group of women.

The female main character in Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is the ultimate underdog! Kya Clarke is abandoned by both parents when just a small child, and left to fend for herself in her ramshackle cabin surrounded by harsh, wild marshland. She endures heartbreaking physical and mental hardship over and over but never gives up. Her incredible resilience and resourcefulness is inspirational and kept me rooting for her from start to finish.  

Former barrister turned author, Harriet Tyce deserves a special mention! I love that all her novels feature female characters who are strong, ambitious, intelligent, have high-powered jobs – and enjoy sex! In her latest novel, It Ends at Midnight, the female main character is a barrister and district judge with ambitions of becoming a high court judge. But someone is intent on destroying her career.

Kayte Nunn’s new novel The Only Child (out 6 September in the US) is part historical fiction/mystery, part crime thriller. The novel has a dual timeline, switching between 1949 and 2013. In 1949, Brigid, a teenage American girl, falls pregnant by accident outside wedlock. To spare her and her family shame, she is sent off to a nunnery on a remote island to give birth in secret. As was the norm in that era, the baby will be forcibly taken from her and adopted. But as her pregnancy continues, Brigid becomes more and more determined to keep her baby. Over the coldest winter in history, she must fight for the lives of herself and her baby. In 2013, ex-cop Frankie travels to the remote island to joins her mother who is renovating a house there. The secrets of the past are surfacing, and lives will once again be at stake. The scenes set in the past, showing the appalling treatment of young unmarried pregnant women in that era make this novel particularly topical in the light of recent law changes.   

As an author, I love writing strong female characters. Female athletes are some of the strongest women I know – both mentally and physically – so you’ll often find them in my fiction. My debut thriller Shiver features female athletes competing at the extreme sport of freestyle snowboarding. And my new thriller The Swell features a tribe of reclusive surfers with a fearless female leader.

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Many years ago Allie Reynolds competed at snowboard halfpipe. These days she sticks to surfing – water doesn’t hurt as much as ice when you fall on it. Born and raised in the UK, Allie moved to Queensland, Australia in 2004. She lives near the beach with her two young boys. Allie’s debut thriller SHIVER sold in 24 territories and will be translated into 23 languages. Her second thriller, THE SWELL (USA) is out in North America on 19 July. The title is THE BAY in Australia and the UK where it’s already out.

THE SWELL

“Fast-paced, nail-bitingly tense and packed full of twists and turns. I found it unputdownable – loved it!”–Sarah Pearse, author of The Sanatorium

Point Break meets And Then There Were None in a pulse-pounding beach read that explores the dangerous ties between a group of elite surfers who are determined to find the perfect waves at any cost…even murder.

The waves are to die for.

Three years ago, passionate surfer Kenna Ward lost her two great loves—after her boyfriend drowned, she hung up her surfboard and swore off the water for good. But she is drawn back to the beach when her best friend, Mikki, announces her sudden engagement to a man Kenna has never met—a member of a tight-knit group of surfers. Kenna travels to a remote Australian beach, entering a dangerous world far from civilization where the waves, weather, and tides are all that matter. Kenna is tempted back into the surf, and drawn into the dazzling group and the beach they call their own.

But this coastal paradise has a dark side, and members of the group begin to go missing. Kenna realizes that in order to protect Mikki and learn more about the surfers, she must become one of them…without becoming one of their victims. What follows is an adrenaline-fueled thriller packed with twists and turns, exploring the dangerous edge between passion and obsession.

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Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing