“Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders… but her father isn’t a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has loaned out most of his wife’s dowry and left the family on the edge of poverty–until Miryem steps in. Hardening her heart against her fellow villagers’ pleas, she sets out to collect what is owed–and finds herself more than up to the task. When her grandfather loans her a pouch of silver pennies, she brings it back full of gold.
But having the reputation of being able to change silver to gold can be more trouble than it’s worth–especially when her fate becomes tangled with the cold creatures that haunt the wood, and whose king has learned of her reputation and wants to exploit it for reasons Miryem cannot understand.“ GOODREADS
This is the best book I read in 2018. It’s eerie, fairy-tale like and romantic. Naomi Novik is definitely one of my all-time favorite writers. I love love love her portrayal of girls and women and their relationships with each other. Both her main and supporting characters are fleshed out and equally engaging to read about.
The story revolves around two heroines whose fates intertwine more and more as the plot unfolds. Their male love interests (one is the king of some kind of ice elves, the other the tsar who’s possessed by a fire demon) learn to appreciate and love them for their characters, skills and actions.
Spinning Silver features almost every trope I love:
The heroine is certainly not as attractive as her beautiful best
friend who gets her own interesting plot line.
The
Darkangel (the Darkangel Trilogy, #1) – Meredith Ann Pierce
The protagonist starts out as unattractive, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development.
This book has lots of female characters of all shapes and sizes.
The main heroine is plain and a bit overweight. Another important
famale character is dead and looks the part. Both have very
attractive love interests.
This heroine is actually very attractive by human standards.
Unfortunately the male protagonist isn’t human and he finds her
appalling and he’s just as ugly to her. The like each other from the
start.
Stolen
Songbird (The Malediction Trilogy, #1) – Danielle L. Jensen
The heroine spends her time around
(mostly) human looking and extremely attractive trolls. She’s not
quite up to their standards.
The heroine is almost a cyborg. Her extremities were replaced by
completely overpowered prosthetics after a horrific assault while
working as a government agent. She’s traumatized, in pain, doesn’t
have full control of her new body and hasn’t come to terms with her
new menacing look. The rock star demon elf protagonist is very much
into her. Yes, really. This book uses and often subverts every trope
known to fantasy and science fiction.
Herb-Witch (Lord
Alchemist Duology, #1) – Elizabeth McCoy
Within the world described in this book the heroine’s look is not only considered
ugly but also shameful as it reveals her barbarian heritage.
The protagonist starts out as rather plain, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development.
The heroine is fat. She does lose weight while trying to survive
on a hostile alien planet though. The lizard man protagonist is
interested in her either way. All kinds of trigger warnings for this
book: violence, rape, gore, death. It’s also over 900 pages long.
Crazy.
This one stands out as it’s the only book written by a man. It’s
also one of my earliest conscious encounters with an unattractive
female protagonist. For me that was a formative experience. Rather on
the hard side of science fiction the narrative follows the good
looking male protagonist who is a kind of emissary from a culture that values
aesthetics to the extreme coming to a planet where people live by a
more practical approach to life. The female protagonist assigned to him as his assistant is so ugly to him that he can’t
stop staring. After some culture clashing they get married.
I’m always looking for more of my beloved ugly heroines. They are quite difficult to find. So if you know of a book or a movie, please let me know! Reblog this with your suggestions, chat me up, ask or submit. All suggestions are welcome.
TAG: On my blog I use the “unconventional looking / conventionally unattractive heroine” tag.
suggested for Brienne and Jaime (I haven’t read ASOIAF, so I don’t know how they are described in the book but Brienne and Aria from the TV series are certainly great unconventional looking female characters.)
I can’t believe I forgot this book the first time around. The heroine is plain and capable and has a sexy voice but not when she sings. It’s weird. Great book.
I haven’t read this one yet but Tanith Lee is always highly recommended.
Aaaaaaaaaaaand another addition…
Older Women Getting the Hot Guy in Fantasy and Science Fiction
I have thought long and hard if I should make a separate post or just add it to this one. I decided to do the latter because the list for older heroines is so ridiculously short (as of yet) I wouldn’t even call it a list.
Ok, first let’s define “older woman”. According to who gets storylines that center around personal growth, getting it on with a desirable love interest AND saving the day, thirty is the onset of old-age in genre fiction. Very, very seldom have I read a book where all those good things happen to a woman older than twenty-nine. Oh and BTW I’m practically a crone by these standards. So if any of you are offended by this just remember that this post is written by the most offended old hag aka ME.
“But,” some of you might say, “there are plenty of BAMF woman over thirty in fantasy and science fiction.” Yeah, true but they get different kind of stories than woman below that magic age ESPECIALLY in books.
And that’s because these woman are so very mature that having adventures, falling madly in love and behaving accordingly is absolutely beneath them. Also there is no more character growth possible because the typical human woman is mentally complete by that age. Excitement, immature decisions and the use of sarcasm are also absolutely out of the question.
Have you read the last paragraph in a sarcastic voice? If not, try again.
“But,” I hear some of saying, “I know tons of really cool female characters over the age of thirty or at least played by actresses older than thirty on TV and in movies who fall in love, make mistakes and learn from them, save the day and go on great adventures.” Very true, I agree. And out of all these cool characters I will take Captain Janeway as example. She’s smart, capable, the hero of her own story, feminine AND strong, just a great character in short. She’s also physically attractive. I’m not holding that against her character but it’s just a perfect example how not being young anymore is not much of a problem if the female character in question is beautiful. Beauty trumps age in the visual medium. In genre books however any women above the age of thirty is “ewww old” apparantly.
End of rant. Here is my (very short) list of books with older women in genre fiction:
The heroine is 47(!). And she’s not even compensating it by being stunningly beautiful (for her age). How dare!!! AND the LI is an Orc. 🙂 If you want to know more @ever-hungry-aria has written a great review here.
Not sure if this one qualifies because the heroine is 37 or 38 if I remember correctly but ends up looking like 17. The character doesn’t change her behaviour. She continues to act believably like a woman closer to 40 than 20 which is sometimes hilarious. Great book, some LGBT themes and hard to pin down genre-wise.
“I want something better than this for women. Intelligence, compassion, integrity, persistence, the ability to look beyond oneself — these are qualities that we should encourage all genders to value and embrace, both in themselves and others, from a young age. But the assumption that heroines need to be good-looking creates a corresponding assumption about women who are not. Books have the power to combat the idea of appearance as defining currency. Books can show us that admirable and interesting women come in all shapes and sizes.“
Very good article on female beauty standards in genre fiction. This topic is very close to my heart and I agree with most of it. The author is unfortunately a bit dismissive of women having romantic plot lines and I get where she’s coming from. Still I don’t agree with her.
Of course we need to see heroines who have other worries besides their love interest but she makes it sound as if a romantic love diminishes the female protagonist and takes away from the realistic depiction of a character. Romantic love is for most people a very important part of our daily life and I love to read about it in my fantasy and science fiction novels.
That cover looked so amazing I instantly headed over to Amazon and YAWN.
Book descriptions that use “beautiful” as the defining descriptor of the heroine instantly sound so off-putting and boring to me. I’ve read and seen too many stories with that kind of character and NOPE. I have zero desire to hear more about the tragic condition of “too beautiful”. Yes, it’s possible to turn that into a plot device but never an interesting one.
Double YAWN if the beautiful heroine is destined for some destiny because she has the most magical magic in all the land.
I don’t want to be negative but I’m just tired of all these unbelievable beauties. I just wish there were more female characters who are ordinary women in extraordinary circumstances. You know, like their male counterparts…
THE DARKANGEL (DARKANGEL TRILOGY #1) by Meredith Ann Pierce
Aeriel is kidnapped by the darkangel, a black-winged vampyre of astounding beauty and youth. In his castle keep, she serves his 13 wives, wraiths whose souls he stole. She must kill him before his next marriage and comes into full power, but is captivated by his magnificent beauty and inner spark of goodness. Will she choose to save humanity or his soul?
You think this is your average YA novel? Think again! First published in 1982 it came long before the supernatural love interest was trending. I read this book as an adult and I never once had the feeling that I couldn’t relate to the young heroine. This trilogy features incredibly imaginative worldbuilding, a wealth of interesting secondary characters and universal themes including love, friendship and betrayal. I was crying by the end and I mean crying, like actual salt water leaking from my eyes.
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I finished reading The Sorceress’s Orc and I loved it! I didn’t expect some things in this book, especially not being it a fucking terato love story, I had a filthy grin on my face while reading some parts. I mean, I though the book just featured orcs, but along the way I was like “Hold on, wtf, it’s like every orc story on Tumblr I’ve read so far!!” (maybe not as NSFW but it’s not for minors as well ;D)
“At the beginning of the story, Vervain, Mistress of the Magical Sciences, is assigned an orc bodyguard, Riyu. She is less than happy that this is considered necessary, but soon finds out that the prejudices she had about orcs are not true, and Riyu is actually rather pleasant company. When the university where she teaches is attacked, she saves the live of her students, and is in turn saved by Riyu. When it is found that one of Vervain’s colleagues has gone missing, she insists to go on a mission to find him.
“
The orcs in the book are awesome, they have very expressive, long and pointy ears, an honour codex, green skin and the main orc character, Riyu, is just so awesome, a fierce warrior, huuuuge, but so gentle and caring towards the main character, Vervain.
Although I recommended the book (because I knew it featured Orcs) I haven’t actually read it yet. Well, after this review it certainly moved up on my long list of books to read.😀
I remember I found this book while I was looking for fantasy and science fiction books that feature a strong romantic element, a heroine that doesn’t conform to established beauty standards (this one’s a bit older than the usual fantasy heroine) AND possibly an interspecies relationship.
…..yes, I’m picky and finding stuff that caters to my tastes is not easy.😉
BEAUTY by Robin McKinley
Beauty has never liked her nickname. She is thin and awkward; it is her two sisters who are the beautiful ones. But what she lacks in looks, she can perhaps make up for in courage.
When her father comes home with the tale of an enchanted castle in the forest and the terrible promise he had to make to the Beast who lives there, Beauty knows she must go to the castle, a prisoner of her own free will. Her father protests that he will not let her go, but she answers, “Cannot a Beast be tamed?”
Robin McKinley’s beloved telling illuminates the unusual love story of a most unlikely couple, Beauty and the Beast.
Check out this book on Goodreads: Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41424.Beauty
__________________________________________
One of the best retellings of BatB. Slow, cosy, the perfect winter read.
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Hello! It is true, the heroine of The Lady and the Bandit is overweight. But, to be honest, it wasn’t my intention to convey a message about body-positivity –not explicitly, at least.
It came out naturally. I only wanted a protagonist that didn’t look exactly like the hundreds I’ve found in the romance novels I’ve read; one with a different kind of beauty, but who wasn’t conventionally attractive. (I’d disagree, for her facial features are, to me, timeless and pretty. But that’s the mystery of beauty; everyone has their own tastes).
So I turned to classical statues from Ancient Greece and Rome and got her facial features from there. Old paintings from 2-3 centuries ago –specifically Ruben’s– were a great source of inspiration, if not for the period the novel’s set in, at least for Pepita’s aesthetics. She has black, curly hair, though, inherited from her Spanish mother, unlike Ruben’s golden-haired ladies.
I mean, these women must have been deemed desirable enough to be immortalized in works of art! 😀
(I think Pepita is a bit chubbier than these ladies, though)
Does this have effect on her personality? Well, she doesn’t consider herself very pretty. She knows that she’s overweight, perhaps a bit more than she’d like, but that doesn’t make her lose sleep. She has a group of close friends who support each other and tell her that her extra pounds make her look “healthy and classical”, so that’s fine by her.
Now, Rafael, the dashing hero of the story, finds her attractive for many reasons, and one of them is her body type. He doesn’t care much for girls’ sizes, but something about Pepita’s chubbyness just “clicks” with her overall look, and he likes her whole: the combination of her eyes, her hair, her skin, body and personality; and the sudden changes she brings into his life.
Some nasty people, of course, make jokes about her fatness, and that hurts her. Not because of the content of their words, but because they’re aimed to hurt and undermine her self-esteem, and Pepita can’t stand such vileness.
So, Pepita is overweight, indeed, but it’s not really a problem for her. She gets tired faster when running up a hill (who doesn’t?), feels the weather’s heat a wee bit more, and doesn’t really believe people when they tell her she’s beautiful, though she appreciates their well-meaning intentions.
I don’t know if this is the answer you were looking for, but thank you
so much for asking! If you have any more questions, feel free to ask 😀
Thank you for this great and detailed answer! That was exactly what I wanted to know. 😀 She sounds like a great character. Can’t wait to read the book!
Idea: Lesbian Hades and Persephone where Hades is a really awkward Nerdy Goth who falls in love with Butch Outdoorswoman Persephone, but she can’t work up the nerve to actually ask Persephone out, so instead she just kind of summons a portal to the Underworld and pretends like it was an accident for several months while she and Persephone flirt like mad but also keep assuming that it’s totally one-sided.
Until Demeter shows up and accuses Hades of stealing her daughter, at which point Hades tearfully confesses her crime and Persephone is just like ‘wait you like me?! Like romantically? This was a romantic kidnapping?!’ and when Hades manages a nod she just starts scarfing pomegranate seeds in front of her horrified mother so that she won’t have to leave.
Hello Blondetwist! If you mean The Lady and the Bandit, you can find it on Amazon, both in kindle and paperback.
Just yesterday, my bf and I uploaded an updated version (fixing translation mistakes and such) for the paperback. The outdated version was fine anyway, but if you’re very picky about translations, you might wanna wait until the kindle version is updated too, depending on the version you wanted to purchase.
However, if you get the book, I hope you have lots of fun with it!!
Monsters and Villains 