In honor of Women’s History Month, I’m celebrating the growing genre of “Good for Her.”
Good for Her stories have a female main character that fights against an unjust power or system. She often subverts the expected rules to obtain her justice and doesn’t feel bad about it. Good for Her stories present systemically oppressed people with dreams come true. We love seeing a woman triumph, whether it’s against an abusive lover, a rigged contest, the school bullies, or the patriarchy. There is so much we can’t control in life, from the families we are born into to the potentially toxic teachers, classmates, and coworkers with whom we must get along in order to survive. This is why witnessing other unseen, underestimated, and exploited women win feels so, so good.
So if you’re craving some righteous, delicious feminine retribution, peruse the titles below.
And for some more options, including movies, check out this list.
A Consuming Fire by Laura E. Weymouth
Once every eighteen years, the village of Weatherell is asked to send one girl to the god of the mountain to give a sacrifice before returning home. Twins Anya and Ilva are raised with this destiny in mind and spirited Ilva volunteers to go. Anya is left at home to pray for Ilva’s safe return, but her prayers are denied. With her sister dead, Anya volunteers to make a journey of her own to visit the god of the mountain. But sacrifice is the furthest thing from Anya’s mind. Anya has no intention of giving anything more to the god, or of letting any other girl do so ever again. Anya Astraea has not set out to placate a god. She’s set out to kill one.
Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado
For over a year, the Bronx has been plagued by sudden disappearances that no one can explain. Raquel does her best to ignore it and the police only look for the white kids. But when her crush Charlize’s cousin goes missing, Raquel starts to pay attention—especially when her own mom comes down with a mysterious illness that seems linked to the disappearances. Raquel and Charlize team up to investigate, but they soon discover that everything is tied to a terrifying urban legend called the Echo Game. The game is rumored to trap people in a sinister world underneath the city, and the rules are based on a particularly dark chapter in New York’s past. And if the friends want to save their home and everyone they love, they will have to play the game and destroy the evil at its heart.
We Can Be Heroes by Kyrie McCauley
Beck and Vivian never could stand each other, but they always tried for their mutual friend, Cassie. After the teen heir to the Bell Firearm’s fortune took his father’s guns to school and killed Cassie and the town moves on too fast, Beck and Vivian finally find common ground: vengeance. They memorialize Cassie by secretly painting murals of her around town, a message to the world that Cassie won’t be forgotten. When their murals catch the attention of a podcaster covering Cassie’s case and law enforcement closing in on them, Beck and Vivian hurry to give Cassie the closure she needs—by delivering justice to those responsible for her death.
Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand
Three reluctant friends — Marion, Zoey, and Val — come together at camp on the island of Sawkill Rock, where gleaming horses graze in rolling pastures and cold waves crash against black cliffs. Where kids whisper the legend of an insidious monster at parties and around campfires. Where girls have been disappearing for decades, stolen away by a ravenous evil no one has dared to fight… until now.
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
When Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it’s to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But when she gets her vengeance, it becomes clear that she is an Iron Widow, a rare kind of female pilot who can sacrifice males to power up Chrysalises instead. She decides to leverage her strength to force her society to stop failing its women and girls. Or die trying.
Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust
Soraya, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch, has lived eighteen years in the shadows, apart from her family. As the day of her twin brother’s wedding approaches, Soraya must decide if she’s willing to step outside of the shadows for the first time. Below in the dungeon is a demon who holds the answer to her freedom. And above is a young man whose eyes linger not with fear, but with an understanding of who she is beneath the poison.
Soraya thought she knew her place in the world, but when her choices lead to consequences she never imagined, she begins to question who she is and who she is becoming…human or demon. Princess or monster.
