While many people still see fiction and non-fiction books beyond textbooks as entertainment, storytelling is and can be a vehicle for framing, reinforcing and transmitting culture and beliefs. More than that, stories have the power to fire the imagination and inspire new thoughts and ideas and thus to shape – or reshape – the perspective of individuals, communities and cultures about everything from tradition to gender.
In recognition of the power of storytelling to catalyse change, The Pixel Project has curated our seventh annual selection of 16 books that tackle the issue of violence against women and girls. Some of these are popular genre fiction novels while others are hard-hitting non-fiction books. All of them will educate the reader in some way about sexism, misogyny and violence against women in the past, present and sometimes even the future.
Our 2024 recommendations feature books with courageous female protagonists who have experienced VAW, women whose stories show the aftermath of the violence in their lives and how they cope with it, and insightful explorations of our world’s societies and how they treat women. This year’s list is a mix of autobiography, academic and general non-fiction, contemporary feminist YA, children’s fiction, science fiction, horror, supernatural thrillers, and contemporary women’s fiction.
This list is by no means complete as there are hundreds of books out there that deal with violence against women in its various forms. However, we hope that these 16 books and series will be a starting point for you, as they have for others over the years, to push for change in your community and culture.
Introduction by Regina Yau; Written and compiled by Anushia Kandasivam and Regina Yau
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Book Selection #1: Bright Red Fruit (2024) by Safia Elhillo
This coming-of-age novel from award-winning poet and author Elhillo is written in verse, reflecting the personality of 16-year-old protagonist Samira, who is a budding slam poet. Labelled a “bad girl” because of sex-shaming and untrue rumours spread by a former crush and placed under house arrest by her strict mother, her only comfort is attending a poetry workshop every week. Craving a connection to the outside world, she turns to a message board where she meets an older, charismatic poet called Horus. But as the relationship develops, Horus starts to become controlling and she finds herself keeping secrets to protect what is left of her reputation. As Samira makes new friends in her poetry classes and discovers her identity as a poet, she starts to understand what Horus is doing. Elhillo skillfully depicts how humans crave connection and understanding, the pangs of naive first love, the potential for exploitation in moments of vulnerability – from peers and older people – and the subtle ways in which grooming occurs.
Book Selection #2:Chup: Breaking the Silence About India’s Women (2018) by Deepa Narayan
Based on 600 detailed interviews with women and some men across India’s metros, this book identifies seven key behaviours of Indian women that dominate their everyday lives despite their varying levels of education, success, financial status, and family background. What these seven habits stem from, she discovered, is that Indian culture “trains women not to exist” – they should not be seen or heard, not have desires, always be accommodative and dependent. Dr Narayan, a social scientist, was inspired to research and write the book after the Nirbhaya rape case, deciding to explore Indian culture by asking what it means to be a good woman or good man. She “couldn’t believe the answers of highly educated students from India’s best colleges”, and was motivated to “break the silence about the lives of women in modern middle and upper class India, about what is happening in our families.” After examining each of the seven habits, Dr Narayan offers her suggestions on how individuals and society can change behaviours and mindsets, and encourages introspection of the reader’s conscious and unconscious biases.
Book Selection #3: Dreamland (2000) by Sarah Dessen
Dreamland by New York Times bestselling author Sarah Dessen was published in 2000 and almost a quarter of a century later, it remains one of the most widely-read Young Adult novels about teen dating violence and certainly one that does not pull its punches with depicting the cycles of abuse within a relationship, the red flags of abusive male behaviour, and how violence in relationships affect teen girls. The story centres around 16-year-old Caitlin who battles low self-esteem growing up in her brilliant older sister’s shadow. When her sister runs away to join her boyfriend even though she has been accepted into Yale, their ambitious parents shift their expectations to Caitlin who ends up finding solace with a boy named Rogerson Briscoe. Thus begins Caitlin’s descent into a nightmare of dealing with an abusive boyfriend. What makes Dreamland an especially emotionally harrowing read is not only the raw depiction of dating violence, but also an ending that is less than happy.
Book Selection #4: Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea’s Feminist Movement and What It Means for Women’s Rights Worldwide (2023) by Hawon Jung
This non-fiction book does exactly what it says on the tin – it gives the reader a compelling exploration of South Korea’s trailblazing feminist resistance, charting the frustration of women emboldened by the #MeToo movement who have come forward to protest against ingrained and institutionalised patriarchy in the social, justice and government systems in one of the most developed economies in the world and to share their stories and support each other. Jung, a former journalist, explores the history of the movement, examines culturally-specific patriarchal norms (such as Korean beauty standards) and acts of violence (spy cameras in female bathrooms), and explores where Korean feminism sits in the global context.
Book Selection #5: Girl On The Brink (2016) by Christina Hoag
Christina Hoag’s debut teen novel Girl On The Brink belongs to a growing sub-genre of Young Adult books that examine the issue of male violence against women and girls through the lens of teen relationships. When 17-year-old Chloe Quinn starts an internship at a local newspaper the summer before her senior year of high school, she meets Kieran Dubrowski, an aspiring actor, while on assignment. With her dysfunctional family on the brink of breaking apart through her parents’ impending divorce, dating Kieran seemed to be an escape from it all until his behaviour becomes ever more erratic and possessive and ultimately violent. What makes Girl On The Brink such a powerful read for both teens and adults is Hoag’s depiction of how the cycle of abusive relationships begins, how it progresses, and how it can happen to anyone – even those who outwardly seem educated and smart enough to recognise red flags.
Book Selection #6: Grown (2020) by Tiffany D. Jackson
Grown is New York Times bestselling Young Adult author Tiffany D. Jackson’s novel about how predatory men groom, abuse, and exploit vulnerable girls and young women. The book opens at the murder scene of Korey Fields, a famous R&B artist. All signs point to Enchanted Jones, a teenaged Black girl from a poor background whom Korey discovered auditioning at a talent show and lured into his orbit through promises of fame and love. However, as the story unfolds, Jackson expertly peels back the case layer by layer to show exactly why this bloody comeuppance is exactly what Fields deserved. She shows us how Korey (who is 28) groomed and love-bombed Enchanted (who is 17), eventually isolating her from her friends and family, abusing her on every level and using every abusive tactic in the book from gaslighting to sexual assault. The parallels to R. Kelly are unmistakable. This is a difficult book to read because Jackson unflinchingly shows the depths of brutality that an abuser can sink to. Yet this is precisely why it is an excellent springboard for sparking discussions about violence against women and girls for everyone from teen readers in schools to after-work book clubs.
Book Selection #7: If I Had Your Face (2020) by Frances Cha
Set in contemporary Seoul, If I Had Your Face is a novel that tells the individual stories of a group of four Korean women who are connected through friendship. Each of their stories tackles a different aspect of sexism, misogyny, and gender-based violence, be it the state of modern Korea, the stringent beauty standards, sex work, the heavier costs that women incur when navigating the strict hierarchical class-based culture, or the economic worries of motherhood. Frances Cha’s book is not a traditionally structured plot-driven novel. Instead, she writes each story as a character study that delves into the complexities of 21st century Korean womanhood. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea but for those looking for a literary feminist read, this is a thought-provoking read about the complexities and challenges of Korean women today.
Book Selection #8: New Ways of Solidarity with Korean Comfort Women: Comfort Women and What Remains (2023), Edited by Ñusta Carranza Ko
Edited by Nusta Carranza Ko, an Associate Professor at the University of Baltimore’s School of Public and International Affairs, this is one of the very few English language academic collections that focuses on and engages with the testimonies, memories, and experiences of Korean comfort women. This book takes an intersectional approach to examining the redress movement and evaluating policies related to Korean comfort women as victims and survivors from the international, domestic, and bilateral realms. its focus extends from the voices of the comfort women themselves to social movement efforts on comfort women to the related role of government, governance, and society. For those who are interested in Korean women’s history and why the remaining comfort women and their allies are fighting so hard for reparations from Japan, this book is invaluable.
Book Selection #9: Nobody’s Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs and Trolls (2020) by Carrie Goldberg
Brooklyn-based Carrie Goldberg is the owner of the Brooklyn victims’ rights law firm C.A. Goldberg, PLLC, which litigates for targets of harassment, sexual assault, blackmail, and revenge porn. In Nobody’s Victim, Goldberg writes about why she decided to focus on fighting for victim’s rights and she shares her hard-won insights from many years at the legal front lines of a war on sexual predators (both online and offline), stalkers, and extortionists. Through stories of cases that she took on and the victims she helped, Goldberg shows what can be done to win justice for victims. The key to her success? Offenders are highly predictable and the four types she encounters most often are: assholes, psychos, pervs, and trolls. “If we recognise the patterns of these perpetrators,” she explains, “we know how to fight back.”
Book Selection #10: Rose Madder (1995) by Stephen King
Stephen King, the maestro of Horror, takes on the issue of domestic violence in his 1995 novel Rose Madder which tells the tale of Rosie, a woman fleeing from her violent husband Norman who is a cop specialising in tracking down missing persons. While this is not the most famous of King’s novels, it is one of the most harrowing ones because in spite of the Horror Fantasy elements woven through it, it does not sugarcoat the realities of escaping an abusive relationship. Through the story of Rosie’s efforts to rebuild her life after escaping Norman, King shows the reader how the support of a community is invaluable for survivors, whether it’s the services of a women’s shelter or the kindness of strangers and neighbours or a rage-filled woman from a magical painting. King’s depiction of Norman’s hunt for Rosie is also an accurate portrayal of how the most dangerous period of time for a domestic abuse survivor is the 6 to 9 months after her escape; it also shows how the violence of abusive men ultimately always spills out to affect everybody around them. In this novel, the true horror comes from real life monsters, not from supernatural ones. And that is what makes it supremely frightening.
Book Selection #11: Sarah, Susanne et l’écrivain (2023) by Éric Reinhardt
Sarah, Susanne et l’écrivain (Sarah, Susanne and the Writer) is a French-language novel that tells a complex and interwoven tale of women fighting to free themselves of mediocre, domineering husbands. One is Sarah, a housewife, who finds her marriage crumbling and gets in contact with her favourite writer whom she wants to turn the story of her life into a novel. Susanne is her fictional double, a reflection created by the writer, who leads a similar life to Sarah but who is striving to restore balance in her marriage practically and emotionally by getting her husband to redistribute their assets so she owns a fair share and to pay more attention to her. Reality and fiction blur while both women fight against social norms, to find their rightful place in their relationships and to live free from control.
Book Selection #12: Some Days He Growled: A Picture Book Introduction to the Cycle of Domestic Violence, Bullying, Abuse, and Unhealthy Relationships (2022) by N. Kimball Ostrowski
In this award-winning children’s book, Wolf and Ghost meet on Halloween night and start a fun and exciting relationship. But Wolf’s behaviour suddenly changes; he becomes mean and controlling, and some days he growls at Ghost for the smallest things. He manipulates Ghost into staying with gifts and kind words but every mean action causes Ghost to fade a little. The cycle continues until one day Ghost decides that this is not the life it planned on living and must decide what to do next. The story is told in child-safe language and depicts easy-to-understand situations, with bold and colourful pictures. The book serves as an introduction to the cycle of abuse to young children, in situations with family, friends or other relationship dynamics. The book focuses on self-love and personal strength, aiming to teach the reader to understand the dynamics of an unhealthy relationship, and to trust themselves and understand the validity of their feelings.
Book Selection #13: The Power of Women: A Doctor’s Journey of Hope and Healing (2021) by Dr Denis Mukwege
Nobel Peace laureate Denis Mukwege is a gynaecologist renowned for dedicating his life to treating Rwandan women who have suffered from wartime rape in Rwanda’s ongoing civil war. Dr Mukwege wrote this book as a clarion call for the world to address the pandemic of sexual violence against women in war as well as a call to everyone to learn from the resilience, strength, and power of women. Through his book, Dr Mukwege examines how wartime sexual violence is often overlooked, the importance of eliminating taboos surrounding sexual assault, and how we can build a system that supports female victims/survivors when they come forward. Additionally, Dr Mukwege weaves his own incredible life story around his discussions, showing how he became one of the world’s foremost male allies for women’s human rights and giving the reader insight into how boys and men might circumvent toxic masculinity, misogyny, and sexism to participate is stopping violence against women and girls.
Book Selection #14: The Seawomen (2022) by Chloe Timms
In this supernatural thriller, young Esta lives an isolated life on an island with her grandmother, part of a highly-religious and patriarchal society led by a charismatic male leader. Women must be pure and obedient and are blamed for every misfortune, from storms to crop failure. The island’s inhabitants believe that the only way they can protect themselves from the Seawomen – creatures from the sea that come to the island to corrupt Man – is to remain virtuous and for the women of the island to conceive a child within 12 months of their appointed “motheryear”. If they fail, they are cast into the sea as a sacrifice. When Esta is married off and her motheryear declared, she realises she must fight against the prohibitive nature of her culture to survive. Timms explores the groupthink of a cult-like society and the rebellion of young women struggling to find their individuality and place in the world and to break free from a culture that resorts to violence to control women’s bodies and thoughts.
Book Selection #15: The White Queen (1994) by Gwyneth Jones
This novel won the very first James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award for SF about gender issues in 1994. The premise is classic Science Fiction – in the future where countries have been destroyed by geological catastrophe and global economic chaos, young cyberjournliast Johnny Guglioli is investigating a group of aliens who have landed in West Africa. The aliens are unsettling and their behaviour confusing, cleverly reflected in the allusive narrative. They do baffling things, like love humans enough to rape one. The author uses the aliens to explore how assumptions (ours and the aliens’) about humanity, individuality and gender lead to a tragic series of miscommunications and misunderstandings that have enormous consequences for both peoples, inadvertently fuelling the conflict between the exploited women of the third world and the patriarchal men in power in the West into a full-blown Gender War. Because of the way it is written, the reader is required to make their own assumptions and confront their own prejudices about aliens, i.e. anyone different from their normality.
Book Selection #16: Woman, Life, Freedom (2024) by Marjane Satrapi
This “urgent, groundbreaking and visually stunning” book is a collection of stories about the historic uprising and protests against the government of Iran associated with the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini. The title adopts the demonstrators’ slogan: Woman, Life, Freedom. Author and filmmaker Satrapi coordinated with more than 20 artists, journalists and activists for this book, which she also contributed to. The stories use art and words to depict the civil disobedience and pushback against the Iranian government and the patriarchal culture that refuses women some of their most basic rights as well as the context behind it – there are stories about how the revolution was born and about the “Aghazadeh” or the rich kids of the regime leaders partying it up in Europe while other women in their homeland are fighting and dying for freedom. Published in Iranian, French and English, the book is meant to explain the economic, political and social contexts of the protests through everyday stories of the young women (and men) fighting for freedom and equality.
The Top Photo is a Creative Commons image by Min An from Pexels
Book Cover Credits
- Bright Red Fruit – From Bright Red Fruit (Amazon.com)
- Chup: Breaking the Silence About India’s Women – From “Chup: Breaking the Silence About India’s Women ” (Goodreads.com)
- Dreamland – “Dreamland” (Goodreads.com)
- Flowers of Fire – From “Flowers of Fire” (Amazon.com)
- Girl On The Brink – From “Girl On The Brink” (Goodreads.com)
- Grown – From “Grown” (Goodreads.com)
- If I Had Your Face – From “If I Had Your Face” (Goodreads.com)
- New Ways of Solidarity with Korean Comfort Women: Comfort Women and What Remains – From “New Ways of Solidarity with Korean Comfort Women: Comfort Women and What Remains” (Amazon.com)
- Nobody’s Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs and Trolls – From “Nobody’s Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs and Trolls” (Goodreads.com)
- Rose Madder – From “Rose Madder” (Goodreads.com)
- Sarah, Susanne et l’écrivain – From “Sarah, Susanne et l’écrivain” (Amazon.com)
- Some Days He Growled: A Picture Book Introduction to the Cycle of Domestic Violence, Bullying, Abuse, and Unhealthy Relationships – From “Some Days He Growled: A Picture Book Introduction to the Cycle of Domestic Violence, Bullying, Abuse, and Unhealthy Relationships” (Amazon.com)
- The Power of Women: A Doctor’s Journey of Hope and Healing – From “The Power of Women: A Doctor’s Journey of Hope and Healing” (Amazon.com)
- The Seawomen – From “The Seawomen” (Amazon.com)
- The White Queen – From “The White Queen” (Amazon.com)
- Woman, Life, Freedom – From “Woman, Life, Freedom” (Amazon.com)