There’s a good reason why female rage is such a predominant trope in literature and film: women have internalized and normalized daily aggressions based on gender stereotypes, reason why they can't even begin to explain why they're so angry.
In Animal, Lisa Taddeo writes “The world had set me up to believe it was women who went mad. It was simply women’s pain that manifested as madness.” This so-called madness has inspired several female archetypes specific to the source of anger: the “crazy party girl” portrays a woman who embraces a carefree lifestyle characterized by partying, impulsiveness, and a deep desire to forget her past; the “femme fatale” portrays a seductive and manipulative femme who uses her physique and sexuality with ulterior motives; the “woman in love” often lives and dies at the hand of her lover, and her entire identity often revolves around the romantic attention she receives due to her beauty; the "asylum babe" locked behind bars for murdering her attacker. You see where I'm going with this, right?
Regardless of the kind of woman someone is, there’s one thing they all have in common and its their transparency and how they always break societal norms, reason why they’re often called “wild” and “out of control.” Below you’ll find several recommendations that were either written by wild angry women breaking societal norms, or books about wild angry women.
On Our Best Behavior: The Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to be Good by Elise Loehnen
This is an interesting one: Loehnen goes way back to the 17th century when the Seven Deadly Sins were coined and traces back our female impulse of inhibition, how we self-restrict in order to stay within societal norms, and how we exist in a culture that reaps the benefits of women holding back. “seeing sloth as sinful leads women to deny themselves rest; a fear of gluttony drives them to ignore their appetites; and an aversion to greed prevents them from negotiating for themselves and contributes to the 55 percent gender wealth gap.” This isn’t a novel but a deep analysis on how female behavior is delineated by what “good” means and how we’ve come to internalize, and perpetuate, patriarchal ideals. \
Genre: Non-Fiction, Feminism, Psychology, Womens History
Page Number: 371
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Girlhood by Melissa Febos
This book is gripping: to put it simply, Febos deconstructs how women are told what it means to be a “female” and how this definition has caged us from the moment in childhood we start understanding ourselves as “girls.” I know, long sentence, but this book is a charged one. It’s a mix of investigative reporting, journalism, and memoir; Febos begins from the moment she turns eleven when her own “meaning” to other people began changing; it suddenly became sexual and full of expectation. She dives deep into the values that define women through her own personal experience, and demonstrates how these values don’t prioritize personal safety, real happiness, nor self-expression.
Genre: Non-Fiction, Autobiography
Page Number: 336
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The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish
Yes *sighs* I realize this is an odd recommendation, but it's here for two great reasons: 1) while it was written in the 17th century during the Scientific Revolution, as a woman, it is surprising that Cavendish made the decision to delve deeply into scientific thought, and that she was educated enough to do so; and 2) this is a book about a feminist utopia; not only does she include long passages filled with questions about how the world works, but she also uses a female protagonist to do so. Blazing Wrold is a satirical sci-fi novel that depicts a utopian kingdom accessed somewhere through the North Pole. The book follows a young woman who is kidnapped and dragged into another world populated by talking animals, who suddenly decide to make her their Empress. After being granted unlimited power to rule as she pleases, made possible by Cavendish’s creation of a world unlimited by gender stereotypes, the Empress calls together each species on the Blazing-World and divides them into the societies for which they are most suited. Through her discourse with each species, the Empress explores philosophy, astronomy, chemistry, politics, mathematics, and religion, among other things. This book is infinitely interesting, and it's certainly one of a kind.
Genre: Science fiction, utopian, feminist novel
Page Number: 272
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The Guest by Emma Cline
While it received mixed reviews, we're including The Guest because Cline's main character checks all of our boxes: she's unhinged, she takes advantage of people, and she's essentially a gold digger. In this new book we meet Alex, a girl who spent the summer in the East end of Long Island (aka a super luxurious retreat for the elite) with her older rich semi-boyfriend, who quickly dismisses her after one awkward encounter during a dinner party. Left homeless and without her phone, Alex figures out a way of prolonging her stay by navigating the desires of the close-knit group of rich vacationers, and for the whole week before Labor Day she hops from one house to the next leaving destruction and chaos in her wake. This book is similar to Lisa Taddeo's Animal but without the gore and the excessive violence, but it's still very intense and interesting in the most delicious yet disgusting way.
"That’s what they all wanted, wasn’t it? To see, in the face of another, pure acceptance. Simple, really, but still rare enough that people didn’t get it from their families, didn’t get it from their partners, had to seek it out from someone like Alex."
Genre: Fiction novel
Page Number: 294
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Black Swans by Eve Babitz
A collection of nine stories that reflect on the 1980s and 1990s California, and while it's filed as fiction, this book is 100% an autobiography with the names changed. To put it in the most simple way: this is a book written by a hot girl about hot girls doing hot girl sh*t. Period. Every single one of the nine short stories covers a different subject that reflects on the meaning of how we live, and while it focuses heavily on L.A. culture, it's written in such a way that everyone can relate, even if you're not from L.A. If you've read Sex and Rage, then you'll find this book to be a bit more mellow and sober, while still being humorous and deeply personal.
"It's only temporary: you either die, or get better.
Genre: Fiction
Page Number:
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The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
Like the title suggests, women have always been seen as an object of consumption, like a mouthwatering piece of buttery steak. Atwood's first book has Mad Men airs at its core, swirled in an eating disorder, a dash of consumer culture critique, and a touch of twisted fairy tale. Marian, our main focus of the novel, works at a marketing firm and lives with her college roommate Aisnley, who lives a life very different from Marian's perfect one. After getting engaged with her longtime lawyer boyfriend, Marian develops a sudden empathy towards food and becomes unable to eat. She begins feeling her body becoming something separate from her self, and that's when the book starts getting freakishly good. This book is an amazing expose on what happens when we lose our identities, and I can't recommend it enough.
“...she was afraid of losing her shape, spreading out, not being able to contain herself any longer, beginning (that would be worst of all) to talk a lot, to tell everybody, to cry.”
Genre: Fiction novel
Page Number: 320
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Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
The book is great, but the author's story makes it even more interesting. Jean Rhys published Good Morning, Midnight around 1939, and while the critics said the writing was amazing, the book was labeled "too depressing" which caused the sales to flop. Jean Rhys disappeared for decades, so much so that most people though her professional failure had actually killed her. That is until BBC made a radio adaptation of the book in 1957, which catapulted Rhys back into the spotlight. The plot follows Sasha Jansen, an English woman who moves back to Paris in the years between the Word Wars, and drowns herself in alcohol and empty conversations night after night. Abandoned by her husband and with a dead infant, Sasha is a cloud of self-destruction who does not know how to handle her emotions, as it was common during the years of the Depression. This book is inspired by the poem below by Emily Dickinson, and has the same airs of a Henry Miller novel.
Good morning, Midnight!
I'm coming home,
Day got tired of me –
How could I of him?
Sunshine was a sweet place,
I liked to stay –
But Morn didn't want me – now –
So good night, Day!
Genre: Fiction novel, 20th Century Literature
Page Number: 192
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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
Yes! The Marilyn Monroe movie has a book! It came before the movie, yes! The novel's written like a diary so it's very easily to follow, and it's dazzling like only the Jazz Age can dazzle. This comedy satirizes but also reveals the truth of the "working girls" and how they must perform psychological gimnastics in order to survive a world where sex is a weapon. Lorelai Lee (aka Miss Monroe) is a goodhearted blonde gold-digger trying to make a living off her looks; she's the embodiment of avarice and self-indulgence, and if that doesn't sound slightly similar to our modern times, I'm afraid to inform you you've been living under a rock. The book came out at the same time as Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and it shocked the world due to its critique of societal obsession, wealth, beauty, and the allure of blonde women. It also explores themes of femininity, class and power dynamics between men and women. Loos later came out with the sequel, But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, in 1927. Years later, when asked if there was a third book coming out, Loos responded the title would be Gentlemen prefer Gentlement, an answer which promptly ended the interview.
“Memory is more indelible than ink.”
Genre: Fiction novel, comedy, satire, diary fiction
Page Number: 160
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Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
Milk Fed follows Rachel, a 24 year-old woman struggling with her body image, her eating disorder, and her complicated relationship with her mother. In an attempt to regain control over her body and break free from her intense mother's influence, Rachel begins a restrictive diet that ultimately worsens her obsession with food. She then meets an Israeli nutritionist and that's when the book starts getting unconventional. The cool thing about the novel is that we get to explore how generational trauma and societal expectations can shape one's self-perception, and make it so distored we start living in a whole different reality.
“In their equation of thinness with goodness, my mother and Ana were so like-minded. My mother persuaded me to stay thin by insulting me. Ana did it by insulting everyone but me. This absence of rejection felt like an embrace.”
Genre: Fiction novel, comedy, coming-of-age
Page Number: 304
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