8 complex literary heroines you want in your life
Resilient, flawed women you wish were real… or remind you of someone that is
Late last night, I was in Poppy Meadows. It was a misty winter morning, and I was walking barefoot in the damp grass, listening to my friend Sadie talk about heartbreak. As she described her latent feelings for her first love, who had just returned to town (and her life), I felt an immediate tug at my heartstrings. I resonated deeply with her take on second chances and regrets.
Confession time.
Neither Poppy Meadows nor Sadie are ‘real’. Sadie is the narrator of Breanne Randall’s The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic. Pegged as Practical Magic meets Gilmore Girls, it’s a tale of filial and familial love with a side of sorcery. Somehow, it manages to pack in both, a gut-punch and a warm hug.
While reading the novel, I was seemingly plucked out of my present reality, and transported to Sadie’s quaint town. At times, I identified with her actions, other times, I was appalled at them. I yearn for complicated protagonists like Sadie, who are not just pawns for plot twists or half-baked supporting characters. Luckily, there are plenty of novels that feature complex, divisive and resilient female leads, who might remind you of real women in your life.
In the past, we’ve shared a booklist about women, by women. And I’m using this Women’s Day as a springboard to write about my favourite thing—new novels featuring female leads (although, women should be celebrated every day). So whether you were born a woman, identify as one, are transitioning, or want to celebrate the ladies in your life, Happy Women’s Day to you.
You may not be an ex-spy or a squash-playing preteen, but you’re about to meet nuanced and diverse female leads across a range of recently published novels you will feel kinship with or be intrigued by. Women we’d love to have in our lives to remind us to love, embrace and forgive ourselves.
8 novels featuring fierce, flawed female leads
Molly Gray from The Maid and The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose
Molly Gray works as a maid at The Regency Grand Hotel, and delights in her job. The awkward 25-year-old protagonist struggles to ‘fit in’ and read social cues, relying on her old Gran to interpret the world for her. In The Maid, Molly faces life after Gran, and struggles to find her place in the world without her beloved anchor. She finds herself at the centre of a controversy when an infamous rich businessman is found dead at the hotel. As the lead suspect, her quiet, neat little life is upended.
In the sequel, The Mystery Guest, a famous writer drops dead at the hotel, setting afoot a brand new mystery which requires Gray to delve deep into her past. We uncover her buried trauma, celebrate her naiveté, as well as her resilience against all odds.
Yeongju from Welcome to The Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum
Who amongst us hasn’t had the simmering desire to throw caution to the wind and embark upon a stark new beginning. Yeongju, the novel’s female lead, does just that when she quits her demanding job, divorces her husband and opens a bookshop in a quiet residential neighbourhood in Seoul. As she comes to terms with her new life, over the course of the novel, we witness her uncover new parts of herself.
This translation of the Korean bestseller features a memorable ensemble of characters, including customers and employees chasing fresh starts, acceptance and community. Read it for its relatable heroines, inspiring new beginnings and languid depictions of everyday life.
Elizabeth Best from Thursday Murder Club Series by Richard Osman
Elizabeth Best is the ringleader of ‘The Thursday Murder Club’, comprising four pensioners living in a quaint retirement community in Kent, England. The septuagenarians are also amateur detectives who get together to solve a series of unsolved mysteries (mostly murders) in the region.
Best is strong, fiery, and wilful. A devoted wife and former spy, she regularly channels skills from her former job to outpace authorities. She is joined in her investigations by the amiable ex-nurse Joyce Meadowcroft, the brash but loveable former union activist Ron Ritchie, and the soft-spoken retired psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif.
This series consists of four books so far, and Best remains intimidating across them all. But she also reminds us that no matter how strong you are, life is best lived when we let people into our lives, and hearts. In the latest book, The Last Devil to Die, we see her evolution as a leader and human being, as she learns to relinquish control and give in to grief.
Lucy Hart from The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
Hart is scarred by a lonely childhood; she was neglected by her parents, who focused on raising her immunocompromised sister. But Hart found solace in books, a particular obsession being the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. Now, at age 26, she works as a teacher’s aide in California, sharing the transportive power of books with young readers. She’s even willing to enter a competition that takes place on the real Clock Island, hosted by her beloved author Masterson, to win the only copy of his new book.
The competition drives the plot along (which takes some dark turns), while Hart also harbours a desperate desire to adopt her orphaned seven-year-old student. Smart, endearing and ridden with self-doubt, Hart shows us just how deep-rooted our childhood traumas are and how they shape our adult lives, for better or worse.
Sally Milz from Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
In her late 30s and divorced, Milz is a sketch writer at ‘Night Owls’, an SNL-like TV show. But she’s not LOL-ing through life. She’s sad and unable to get out of her own head to further her romance with Noah Brewster, a pop sensation she meets on set.
The novel, an homage to romcoms, gives us a character that debates what women want, what we really don’t want, and perhaps what we’re not ‘allowed’ to have. As she ruminates over her connection with Brewster, Milz wonders whether someone as ordinary as her can land a rich, great-looking celebrity. Doesn’t this well-worn movie trope usually involve a gender-reversal, where a gorgeous, accomplished woman chooses an ‘average’ man with a ‘heart of gold’?
A complicated and endearing protagonist, Milz deserves a rom-com of her own. According to an NYT review, “Sally’s worst quality has nothing to do with her looks; it’s her inability to get out of her own way.” If you are nodding along sheepishly, that makes two of us.
Gopi from Western Lane by Chetna Maroo
Eleven-year-old Gopi, who belongs to a Gujarati family, has just lost her mother. She and her two sisters are now in their stoic and distracted father’s care. Shy and quiet, Gopi plays squash every day at the titular Western Lane, a sports centre just outside London.
Maroo’s debut is a tender, confident, coming-of-age story. It follows a young leading lady’s journey through loss, grief (both in solitude and as a family) and resilience. As Gopi seeks refuge in her passion, also a portal to companionship, the novel illustrates how you can find your centre in the most curious of ways.
7. Thomas/Emily from Transitioning Home by Heather K O’Malley
The book follows Thomas, a military vet who returns home to the US after suffering a war injury in Iraq. Slowly, he comes to terms with his PTSD while still harbouring a gnawing feeling that he isn’t really who he thinks he is. As he seeks therapy to work through these struggles, Thomas confronts the heartbreaking after-effects of trauma and his gender dysphoria.
The novel reveals the turmoil and triumphs of transgender individuals as Thomas transitions into Emily and makes the gradual journey towards self-acceptance. As the author sharply chronicles the inner conflicts and invisible struggles of her protagonist and the societal stressors she’s faced with, we get one of the most resilient female leads one might come across in recent novels.
Mariamma or Big Ammachi from The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Mariamma is one of the primary characters in this evocative, multi-generational novel; while Parambil, a village in Kerala where the novel is set, emerges as its unlikely protagonist. The story’s matriarch, or ‘Big Ammachi’, who first appears as a child bride married to a 40-year-old widower, is stoic, accepting of her lot in life, and the picture of resilience.
The sweeping saga illustrates how medical revelations can upend generations of beliefs. As Mariamma loses some of her bloodlines to the family ‘curse’ (several members die from drowning), the novel follows her transformation from an unsure child to a steadfast matriarch.
An ode to the strong, weathered women in our lives, the sacrifices of our ancestors, and above all, the crests and troughs of life.
