Feminist Dystopia Book Roundup

Back in early 2019, I found myself in an interesting situation. I had written a book, and I was super proud of myself. I also knew the book was terrible (as all first drafts are) and I needed help making it less terrible.

I found a resource where I could meet with a bookish-type person who could review the manuscript, give me feedback on marketability, and advise me on how I might go about getting my book baby out into the world. I chose someone from the list who looked kind and gentle, and I sent her an email.

We didn't end up working together (I ended up getting into the Ultimate Novel Writing Course, in which my tutor, Amanda, gave me exactly what I needed), but I did get a few useful nuggets out of our brief correspondence. Two words that stood out most strongly were feminist dystopia. I hadn't yet gotten to the point where I'd considered the genre into which my book would fit, but here it was, wrapped up in a neat little bow by someone who had only read a one-page synopsis of the 85,000-word book.

It's possible you haven't heard of feminist dystopia before. I hadn't either, but once the words were spoken it became pretty easy to backward-map them onto something with which I was already familiar: The Handmaid's Tale. I hadn't yet read this book, released in 1985 by Margaret Atwood, but I certainly had binged the series. Try as I might, though, I couldn't think of any more books in the genre.

After many searches, I've compiled a list of such books. I've read them all, for enjoyment as well as to educate myself in the feminist dystopia genre so I can know what makes my own novel stand out. It will be a bit still before The Other Women is on shelves, and so in the meantime I wanted to pass the list along to you. If you enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale, or if you’re one of my lucky beta readers* who read and enjoyed your advance copy of The Other Women, you will likely enjoy these as well. Just a note that these are affiliate links, so if you happen to click and buy one of these books, it won’t cost you any more but I may earn a small portion of the sale. 

1. The Power by Naomi Alderman. This book, told from multiple different points of view, describes a world that looks a lot like ours, but with one big difference - girls and women begin having a physical power no one has ever seen before. They can hurt people - even kill them - with a single touch. This book has a very dark, mysterious feel and the writing of each person's perspective is rich and submersive.
2. Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich. Digression: I came upon Louise Erdrich first through a recommendation for her middle-grade book series called The Birchbark House. My entire family loved this series, centering around an Anishinabe family in what we now call Michigan during the period of Westward Expansion. End digression. I was surprised to learn she also wrote in the feminist dystopia genre, and from the first page I could tell that her writing for an adult audience was just as gorgeous as her kids' writing. This one centers on a pregnant Ojibwa woman during a time when the government is confining pregnant woman due to some evolutionary complication that is affecting newborns.
3. The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison. Calling forth memories of the first episode of The Walking Dead, the midwife wakes from a sickness to find almost everyone dead. The few people she does come across are largely men, and nearly all of them are dangerous. She keeps a journal of the trials she encounters as she tries to survive and bring new life into this new world.
4. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. This one takes place beginning in 2024, after a climate disaster has left California, and presumably much of the U.S., ravaged. It centers on Lauren, a preacher's daughter in her late teens, who begins conceiving of her own religion. Butler has been praised for her prescience, and I always find it unnerving how possible these near-future dystopias seem.
5. Daughters of the North (U.S. Title) by Sarah Hall. Another unnamed yet strong female protagonist  leads this story, which takes place in dystopian England. She sets off on her own, seeking a group of women who may only exist in her memory - but who she's convinced will accept her into their army.
6. Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh. This book has its similarities to Daughters of the North, with its journal-like storytelling, survivalist bent, and the authoritarian dystopia in an unnamed country that resembles England. The focus, however, is on the main character's internal world and thus the story is largely one of isolation rather than sisterhood.
   
7. Yes, of course, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is on this list. An unnamed woman, kidnapped after a government coup and brought to the city of Gilead to bear children for the commander and his wife, tells her story. It's stark, sparse, and gripping. I read it after watching the first several seasons of the show, and there were a lot of similarities, but I really enjoyed reading the book anyway for the voice and mood set by Atwood.
   
8. The Testaments is the followup book by Atwood, released in 2019. Atwood told Laura Lynch in an interview that she wrote the sequel because "Instead of going away from Gilead, we turned around and started coming back towards Gilead." Which is pretty startling, and hopefully will become less true with the coming years. This book was told from three very distinct perspectives, which added dimension to the book.

There it is! These are the books I've been able to find in the feminist dystopia genre. Something I've noticed in my reading is that many of these books are written in the first person and are journal-like, if not written as actual journals or diaries. Often the name characters are nameless. This mechanic helps tell the story, particularly in The Handmaid's Tale, where women are stripped of their names and become property of their Commander, and in Book of the Unnamed Midwife, in which the main character takes on whatever name is suitable for the situation in which she finds herself.

I'm going to keep searching high and low for more feminist dystopian fiction, but it's hard to find these books out there - which is good news! This means there are plenty of stories left to tell.

Have you read any of these books? Do you know of any other feminist dystopia books that should be on the list? Let me know in the comments.

*VIPs get cool stuff like deleted scenes and the opportunity to beta-read my books, along with a wheelbarrow full of other cool stuff. If you're not a VIP yet, don't forget to snag your first deleted scene from The Other Women, my upcoming contribution to the feminist dystopia genre.