By Women, About Women: Six Examples of Great Writing Across the Genres https://ift.tt/T6vKyAN
In the long list of injustices done against women in 2026, the one that, perhaps surprisingly, pushed me over the edge was a TikTok I scrolled past in July. In it, an Oxford University English Literature professor very controversially described Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree as romantasy.
I’ve recently read The Priory of the Orange Tree. It’s an 835-page epic fantasy with intricate geopolitical conflicts, religious world-building, dragons, a sprawling cast of characters, and really fantastic writing. To reduce a novel of that complexity to romantasy was an almost comically extreme miscategorization.
What made this particularly frustrating was that I’d also recently read my first Brandon Sanderson novel, Mistborn. I really enjoyed it, but I was honestly shocked by how much the writing style and plot points reminded me of a book by Sarah J. Maas or Rebecca Yarros.
I have absolutely nothing against romantasy (or Brandon Sanderson, for that matter; he’s great!). I just found it infuriating that an Oxford professor could look at a book like The Priory of the Orange Tree and give it a label that so completely misses what the book actually is, and possibly simply because its author is a woman. I’ve never heard Brandon Sanderson described as anything other than an epic fantasy writer.
So, in the spirit of giving women writers the credit they deserve, here are six books written by women, about women, and spanning just about every genre imaginable. There’s memoir, speculative fiction, literary criticism, epic fantasy, and yes, even a silly smutty fantasy (it’s a good time, I promise).
Emma Gannon’s Olive follows a close-knit group of friends who, in their twenties, could largely put the question of motherhood to the side. Now in their thirties, that question has become much harder to avoid. Some are mothers, some desperately want to be, and others are questioning whether they want children at all. As their lives and friendships evolve, the novel explores how motherhood, and even the decision not to become a mother, inevitably becomes something women have to reckon with.
It’s immigrant-mommy-trauma to the core, and as the daughter of a Colombian mother it hit close to home. In this memoir, Michelle Zauner writes about losing her Korean mother and the complicated relationship she has with her own identity as a Korean-American woman. Zauner so efficaciously describes her experience of feeling caught between two cultures, half and half, and therefore not entirely belonging to either. Her struggle to connect with her mother, both during her life and after her death, is refelcted in her struggle to understand and connect with the Korean part of herself. It shares very similar themes to one of my favorite movies, Past Lives, and it’s probably my favorite book on the list.
What if women suddenly developed the ability to generate electrical shocks powerful enough to kill? That’s the premise of Naomi Alderman’s The Power, a speculative novel that imagines how the world might change if women held the physical advantage over men. This new ability shifts the balance of power across politics, religion, and society. It’s a completely captivating novel. There’s something particularly gripping about feeling genuine fear for the men who suddenly find themselves alone in a dark alley with a woman.
Emily Van Duyne’s Loving Sylvia Plath: A Reclamation takes a hard look at the way Sylvia Plath’s life and work have been interpreted, particularly by the men who have written about her. Van Duyne challenges decades of biographical narratives that’ve reduced Plath to her mental illness, marriage, and death, and works to reclaim the poet as a writer in her own right. Read only if you are prepared to by infuriated by just how much injustice has been done to Plath and how thoroughly her work and legacy have been distorted.
I’ve already gone on a bit about The Priory of the Orange Tree, but truly, there is so much to say! Samantha Shannon’s novel is very long, and yet, almost not long enough. The story is expansive, following multiple plot lines and complex characters that take you through lands filled with rich detail and vibrant cultures. Most importantly, for me, though, the main narratives carrying you through the novel are all incredibly captivating, believable, and refreshingly woman-centric.
For something a little less serious, Kimberly Lemming’s That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon is exactly what it sounds like: a ridiculous, funny, and very sexy fantasy adventure. The story follows Cinnamon, a young woman who finds herself caught up in an unexpected adventure involving demons, magic, and a rather attractive demon named Fallon. It’s a great time, a short read, and I’d especially recommend it if you’re looking for something that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
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