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Recommendation RequestFiction books with *only* female characters AND written by women?
Hi! I was thinking today that I've never read a book that only features female characters and I thought I'd look for some, but the only ones I've found are the ones in this list, which isn't very promising https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/115171.Books_With_0_Male_Characters
Can someone here recommend me books? There are only these requirements:
Any genre and any time period are fine
Thanks for all these suggestions! Added many to my list. I am (slowly) working on a book that fits these criteria. Hope more women are doing the same.
I'm writing a book but it does have male characters 🥲 I'm making sure to avoid male defaultism with secondary characters tho. Every character is female unless it's necessary to make him male for plot reasons. So far that's only one male character and another one who is only mentioned because he died years ago
Men exist in my world, because they caused the harm that launches the story, but I don't think I'll ever introduce them or give them any action. She'll just be haunted and be dealing with the consequences of the violence.
No male characters at all, or just no male main characters?
I expect you will get very few recommendations for non-fantasy books if the former - it would have to be set in a convent or a girls' school or similar.
But as for fantasy: Try the Celaeno series by Jane Fletcher. 100% female characters thanks to sci-fi. (I would say the genre is fantasy, as the sci-fi is mostly just to explain the reproductive issues, the aesthetic is more fantasy.)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2076149.Shadow_of_the_Knife
No male characters at all, I know it's very restrictive but since there are plenty of books with 0 female characters it's only fair to read some like this in my opinion
Thank you!
All female sci-fi:
The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley. Set in a series of planets populated entirely by an all-female race of aliens.
The "planets" are actually biological starships that the women live on and care for. They go to war to feed the starships. It's very weird and very cool.
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling: there are only two characters: the cave explorer and her handler who is hundreds of miles away, in contact with her caving suit. The cave is extremely dangerous but both the caver and her handler have hidden their pasts from each other. You never know who to trust. Extremely claustrophobic and surprisingly tense.
The Luminous Dead sounds incredible! I love tense interpersonal dramas like this. There's a television phrase for it, something that describes an episode of a series that takes place in a single room with two or more characters in conflict in the room. I can't remember the phrase, but it's appropriate for this kind of story!
I think Ammonite by Nicole Griffeth might cover it. I honestly can’t remember if there are men in it but the premise is that humans colonized a planet that killed the males and the women developed female only reproduction.
I love that book. What I found really interesting was the author's commentary after the book, explaining her rationale about how she wrote her characters. That book is a keeper, for sure!
When I was a kid I really loved the Avalon: Web of Magic book series. It’s a magical fantasy following three girls and their adventures. It is written by a woman and I can’t remember a single human male character, but it’s been a long time since I read them. I highly recommend this series for any teens or middle schoolers in your life.
Mallory Towers, The worst witch - but they are books for kids.
This is what it feels like, YA, I think there might be male characters, but the book focuses mainly on girls and their friendship.
Women Talking by Miriam Toews. It’s been a while, and there might be a male character very briefly, but it is 99 percent women taking control of their lives. Highly recommended!
The reviews say that the narrator is a man?
The movie starred a Very Special Boy who is Different you see, and therefore Entitled to the Woman he Wants. Likely that’s the narrator. Hated that part of the movie.
No, not movie (even though it still sucks). See for example this top-rated review: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40046077-women-talking?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=AIsKSBgyoa&rank=1
I also don't understand why this supposedly feminist story was given to a male narrator. I've seen some others argue that it is because the book is framed as meeting minutes, which must be kept by August Epp because the women are illiterate. This might make sense in theory, but I have no idea why the author decided to use meeting minutes at all, when this book is written in a style unlike any meeting minutes I have ever seen in my life. It doesn't read like meeting minutes; it reads like a regular first-person narration from a man's point-of-view. An odd choice.
I clicked on that GR list link - oh my, that disclaimer. Of course noone will want to add to that list.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett. If I recall, there are mentions of husbands/boyfriends but no man has a significant speaking part or affects the plot in any meaningful way.
Not 100% but Waking Beauty by Dawn K Lake. There are two male characters in very minor roles who main protagonists meet in passing, while all important roles are taken by women.
I don't know about 0 men but The Woman's Room is one of the most important feminist novels ever written. Maybe The Women of Brewster Place, too.
What about the novels of Charlotte Perkins Gilman? Herland and The Yellow Wallpaper are essential reads!
Picnic at Hanging Rock.
I think a good feminist novel requires a male character to understand women's lives.
Herland and The Yellow Wallpaper are both excellent, but feature male characters. In Herland, they serve the reader as an introductory point of view into the society, and in The Yellow Wallpaper, the husband haunts every scene. Essential reading, yes, but doesn't quite fulfil the brief here.
Agreed --I did say this but I think they are needed to see how women resist their oppression.
Does the Worst Witch have men?
The Witch Family does not.
Down a Dark Hall by Lois Duncan… there may be a dad dropping off a kid at boarding school in the beginning but nothing else though male artists are mentioned.
Thanks, I'll add those to my tbr!
There’s technically male presence, but “I Who Have Never Known Men” by Jacqueline Harpman doesn’t have any male characters that speak, and their presence at all is in like 25% of the book or less, and then there’s not a single male in sight or even spoken of for the rest of the book. And their involvement is so little that they can hardly be called characters. It’s the closest I can think of, and it’s one of my favorite books of all time
I'll take it, thank you!
Wow, I went to put it on hold at the library: