5 Women’s Fiction Novels You Should Read

Women’s fiction is a very specific genre that has a hearts and flowers connotation, the equivalent of putting on The Hallmark Channel. It sometimes feels like a genre that you have to excuse as a guilty pleasure or one that you don’t have to take seriously. But there are a lot of great women’s fiction books out there that deal with deep and sometimes heavy topics, are unique and unformulaic, and yet are still page turners and books that you want to pass around to friends and family. Below are five women’s fiction novels that I recommend you read.

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Room by Emma Donoghue

What it’s about

For seven years, Joy has been locked in a shed in her captor’s backyard with nothing but a skylight to let in the sun and her five-year-old son Jack to care for and keep her going. But a sudden opportunity to escape brings Joy freedom and Jack a whole new perspective of the world which is so much larger and complex than the only room he’s only known. As Jack learns to adapt to the outside world, Joy struggles to adapt to her new freedom. And she relies on Jack again to pull her out of her new prison.

Why it’s great

I don’t recommend Room, the book or the movie that it’s based on, to a general male audience. I find that a lot of men have trouble swallowing stories about violence against women, despite its prevalence in the real world.

But stories about women who are abducted not only draw women in but are sought out. After being told our whole lives to carry mace in our purse and hold our keys between our fingers while walking through a dark parking garage, these stories feel like preparation and training in the rare but not impossible event that we end up in that situation.

The cleverness of this book, though, is that it’s told from Jack’s point of view. His innocent and confused yet insightful perspective of events helps you to better digest the events and to see it from someone who is not only ignorant to its horrors but also finds comfort in the horror as it’s all that he’s ever known.

At the same time, it’s not hard to figure out what’s going on with his “Ma,” both before and after their escape. The happy ending doesn’t come from the moment that Joy is freed but in the time it takes for her to come to terms with her years of abuse. She eventually realizes that her freedom doesn’t mean happily ever after but the opportunity to struggle, stumble, and eventually find peace and contentment, despite their horrific past.

Excerpt

“Today I’m five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the dark I’m changed to five, abracadabra. Before that I was three, then two, then one, then zero. ‘Was I minus numbers?’”

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The Girls by Lori Lansens

What it’s about

One night, as a tornado touches down on a small, rural town, a set of conjoined twins are born to a young mother who deserts them, leaving the nurse who delivered them to raise them as her girls, Rose and Ruby. Splitting narrating duties in half as they do all things in life, Rose and Ruby tell their life story. As two distinct personalities in two bodies joined together at the head, the girls navigate through their lives on their own terms with the other always at her side.

Why it’s great

One of the first news features that I ever followed was about a set of conjoined twin girls from Ireland who 20/20 followed as they underwent a procedure to separate them. And I’ve been fascinated by the topic ever since. As someone who values my privacy and the need for occasional solitude, I can’t imagine being joined together with another person and never truly getting that alone time that I crave.

The Girls humanizes this experience by telling it from the perspective of these two women. Their physical limitations are always apparent, but their emotions and intelligence make them relatable, interesting, and heroic.

The best parts of this book are the ordinary, everyday events that make up their lives, such as their adoptive parents, their work, and their sibling rivalry. All the while, tragedy looms in the distance as the girls face the reality of their condition and the limited time they have to accomplish all they wish to achieve in this life, from tiny, personal goals, to giant life missions.

Excerpt

“I sense that I’m naturally a right-handed person, but my right arm belongs to Ruby for all intents and purposes (when I was little I thought the term was ‘intensive purposes’), so I’m a reluctant lefty. My clumsiness annoys Ruby, who is both responsible and blameless.”

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The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

What it’s about

Hadley Richardson, a young woman coming of age in the 20’s, meets and falls in love with a young Ernest Hemingway and becomes his first wife, joining him on his quest to become one of the most celebrated American writers in history. But life with Ernest, while bold and interesting, is a lot for the shy, young wife to handle. And over time, their marriage dissolves as Hemingway’s career flourishes.

Why it’s great

In recent years, we’ve started to realize that the people behind great historical figures have just as interesting a story to tell as the historical figures themselves. Through their behind-the-scenes experiences, we get to see a more human side to these revered figures, warts and all. That’s what The Paris Wife seeks to, and does, accomplish.

Hadley is very relatable in her plain looks and shyness. She’s no Zelda Fitzgerald or other wild party girl of The Jazz Age. But that doesn’t make her weak or boring. When thrust into the craziness of life in Paris in the 20’s, it’s intriguing to watch Hadley wade through it and come out on the other end more confident, independent, and willing to break the ties of a crumbling marriage. Though she was in it for the long haul, Hadley eventually learns to recognize when enough is enough.

Excerpt

“His letters came crushed and strangled, full of deliciousness, sometimes two or three a day. I tried to be more reserved at first, vowing to write only once a week, but that fell apart immediately. Before long I found myself in a real bind. The letters were flying back and forth, but what did they mean? Kate’s voice often filled my head – he likes women – all women, apparently – and I debated over whether or not I should tell her about our quickly progressing friendship. I couldn’t imagine her not feeling hurt and angry; I was blatantly, willfully disregarding her advice after all. But If I confessed everything, she might give me more advice, and then I’d have to listen and perhaps act on it.”

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White Oleander by Janet Fitch

What it’s about

When her mother is sent to prison for the life for the murder of her boyfriend, Astrid is thrown into the foster care system where she endures a number of different and horrific circumstances that challenge her mother’s grip on her worldview. In each household, Astrid takes on a different identity in order to adapt to her environment, all the while caught in the hold of her upbringing as her manipulative mother continues to control her from behind the bars of her prison cell.

Why it’s great

If you’ve seen the movie starring Michell Pfeiffer an Alison Lohman, you’re still going to get a lot out of White Oleander. The film chronicles three of Astrid’s foster homes, but the book showcases several. And Astrid loses herself deeper in each one.

The book is so much more detailed, the narration less dreamy and more straightforward while still romanticizing youth and the idea of safety and stability. Over time, Astrid begins to realize never really existed in her life until she makes her own safe space by surrounding herself with the right people and cutting ties with the wrong ones. It’s a rough road with plenty of spills, but it’s also triumphant in the way that it shows what women can endure and survive.

Excerpt

“When they came to get me, they gave me fifteen minutes to make up my mind what to take from our apartment. We never had many things. I took her four books, a box of her journals, the white kimono, her tarot cards, and her folding knife.”

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The World Below by Sue Miller

What it’s about

When she comes down with tuberculosis, nineteen-year-old Georgia Rice is sent away to a sanitarium to recover. There, she meets a young man who is also suffering from the same disease. However, she also has a secret admirer in the doctor who is treating her.

At the same time, the story follows Georgia’s granddaughter, Catherine, who moves into her grandmother’s old house as she prepares for divorce. There, she uncovers Georgia’s history and recognizes the parallels between the two women’s lives.

Why it’s great

The World Below is a love story without the sappiness that I’ve been avoiding in this list. The sanitarium setting provides an isolated place for Georgia’s story to develop while providing a historical education about tuberculosis and its affect on the era and the lives of those who contracted it.

I read this book pre-pandemic, and it would be a good one to revisit as it deals with illness and how that illness disrupts lives. It’s also one of the few book recommendations that I offered to my mom that she actually read and that we both enjoyed.

This book makes the list because it’s girlie yet unique in how it tackles the classic love triangle along with the trope of a younger character learning the life story of an older character. It’s a refreshing and realistically told story that would make a great book club pick to discuss all of the choices that not only the characters but the author makes in shaping the lives of these two related protagonists.

Excerpt

“For several months in the third winter after her mother’s death, Georgia had a cold, with a cough that never seemed to ease. Finally her father insisted she go to the doctor, and, as he would be out of the town the day of the appointment, he arranged with a friend to drive her into Pittsfield. The doctor was their family doctor, the same man who’d cared for her mother. He knew Georgia well, of course, though he hadn’t seen her in three years. He welcomed her in; he invited her to sit down. His office smelled sharply of soap and disinfectant, and of something else, too, something more pleasant. Wintergreen, perhaps.”

What are your non-sappy women’s fiction book recommendations? Leave your answers in the comments below!

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