Your pile of books waiting to be read is missing some amazing feminist fiction stories. We’ve compiled a list of some great titles to help you out!
Like Animals by Eve Lemieux is the story of Philomena Flynn, a young woman who is living fast and hard with her best friend, Tania, in downtown Montreal. It’s a city where there is not enough work, but lots of parties, sex when and where they want it, and drugs of all kinds. Like Animals will take you on a journey of young people that are filled with self-doubt and are much more sensitive than they let on.
Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia's debut novel, The Son of the House, was shortlisted for the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize. It details the lives of Julie and Nwabulu who are kidnapped together and forced to await their fate in an underground location, where they tell their stories of pain, loss, and love. Themes of social class, inequality, and motherhood are set against a vibrant Nigeria, spanning decades.
Follow the story of Slaton, as she forms an unlikely companionship with an AI by the name of Julian in Autonomy by Victoria Hetherington. Readers are taken on a journey with them as they must face a mysterious plague that is spreading across the world. Julian learns about the human condition and what it means to fall in love, all while trying to protect Slaton from the impending societal collapse.
In Seven by Farzana Doctor, the main character Sharifa goes on a marriage-saving trip with her husband to India. Her trip coincides with a time of unrest within her conservative religious community, and no matter how much she tries to seek a middle ground in a cultural norm-breaking debate, ultimately, she must choose. This is an empowering, thought-provoking story of testing the balance between kinship, and fighting against customs that harm us.
The Petting Zoos by K.S. Covert is a story about a world that has survived a deadly virus. Sounds familiar, right? In this post-apocalyptic story, Lily has lived in fearful isolation for ten years and is afraid to rejoin the world. Like many others, she’s going crazy from skin hunger, and when she receives an invitation to a petting zoo — a highly illegal club where people go to touch and be touched — it may be just what she needs. The Petting Zoos is an erotic love story for an age of extreme caution.
Home of the Floating Lily by Silmy Abdullah takes readers on a journey of the complexities of migration, displacement, love, friendship, and familial conflict through eight captivating stories set in both Canada and Bangladesh. Each story paints a picture of the hardships everyday people face and you’ll be entranced as they search for love, dignity, and a sense of belonging.
Matrons and Madams by Sharon Johnston weaves a fascinating tale of two women whose lives are unexpectedly intertwined. Clara Durling, the superintended of the Lethbridge Hospital, establishes the first venereal disease clinic in the province with the help of Lily Parsons, a young, widowed schoolteacher managing a brothel called The Last Post. Together, they must confront the city’s conservative thinkers to bring help and compassion to wounded veterans.