fiction Archives - The F-Word

Sex, smut and shape-shifting

Sophie Whitehead2 July 2019

Sophie Whitehead reviews Andrea Lawlor’s debut novel, Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl and enjoys a dive into the queer worlds of the early 1990s...

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Warmth, wit and ugliness

Emma Chan21 June 2019

Emma Chan reviews Juno Dawson’s latest novel, Meat Market...

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Writing a world without gender

Florianne Humphrey31 May 2018

Florianne Humphrey is impressed with the socio-political issues explored in the steampunk fantasy novel Galleon...

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A tale of unlikeable women

Sarah Tinsley20 July 2017

Sarah Tinsley applauds Helen McClory’s Flesh of the Peach for refusing to shy away from women’s less palatable traits and experiences ...

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Strange Love

Ali Cocksworth6 July 2017

Ali Cocksworth finds Strange Heart Beating to be an interesting study of grief and relationships, but feels that at points the novel privileges craft over emotional depth...

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Down the rabbit hole

Lauren Hossack26 June 2017

Lauren Hossack finds Sympathy an insightful and compelling exploration of our increasingly digital lives...

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Getting to the heart of the matter

Jemma Morgan10 May 2017

Jemma Morgan finds Susan Hill’s From the Heart to be a poignant exploration of a woman’s experience in the 1950s, but urges us to tackle issues of inequality in the present, rather than simply looking back at the past...

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The problem with ‘manning up’

Joanna Whitehead4 May 2017

Jo Whitehead enjoys the YA novel Girl Mans Up, but is somewhat disappointed at the lack of critical examination of sexist language and internalised misogyny...

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Gone, but not forgotten

Harriet Kilikita22 April 2017

Harriet Kilikita finds Amy Gentry’s Good as Gone to be a gripping thriller with a sensitive and intelligent heart...

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Paradise Lost

Sonya Lalli30 March 2017

Sonya Lalli finds Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn to be a compelling depiction of three women's lives on the fringes of paradise...

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A fever you can’t sweat out

Sarah Tinsley3 March 2017

Sarah Tinsley reviews Fever Dream by Samantha Schweblin and finds it to be a powerful and haunting novel which grips to the very end...

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A voice that refuses to be silenced

Charlie Morris8 September 2016

Charlie Morris reviews Manuela Salvi’s controversial novel Girl Detached, and finds it to be a bold and unflinching exploration of grooming and rape culture...

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Riot, don’t diet!

Joanna Whitehead24 May 2016

Joanna Whitehead reviews the new feminist revenge fantasy Dietland and chats with its author, Sarai Walker...

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A fiery feminist awakening

Martha Salhotra9 May 2016

Martha Salhotra reviews Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman and finds it so much more than a traditional coming-of-age story ...

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Can love conquer all – even the genre snobs?

Nick Beard19 November 2015

If there are clichés and poorly-written books in every genre, Nick Beard asks, why is romance always singled out for derision?...

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Pankhearst: pixels into knives

Andie Berryman7 October 2015

Andie Berryman talks to Evangeline Jennings of indie writing collective Pankhearst about the publishing process, America’s ‘war on women’ and the fury that drives her to write...

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Is this the most important book of 2015?

Gemma Fraser3 September 2015

Consent and victim-blaming in the age of the smartphone: we should all be talking about Louise O'Neill's Asking For It, says Gemma Fraser...

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Be good. Be pretty. Be chosen

Gemma Fraser8 July 2015

As a new adult edition of Louise O'Neill's dystopian debut hits the bookshops, Gemma Fraser explains why every feminist should pick up a copy of Only Ever Yours...

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