5 Books With Fiery Female Protagonists You Need To Read This Year

We love a female led book here at STELLAR, and today is all about those incredible female main characters that we can all live vicariously through to make our lives that bit more exciting.

Everyone wants to lead their life with the energy of a female protagonist, but sometimes everyday life just isn’t that exciting. We love to insert ourselves into the pages of books, we feel with the characters, we understand with them but most of all we love with them.

If you’re looking to fill your life with some serious female main character energy then this is the round-up for you. We’ve got everything from romance to thriller and mystery to historical. You’ll get your fix of female leads to read for International Women’s Day and the rest of the year.

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

 

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All The Light We Cannot See showcases Anthony Doerr’s incredible imagination and ability to interweave characters and their lives. The story follows two young people during World War Two, living two very separate lives, until life circumstances draw them together to the same town. Marie Laure, a young blind girl from Paris has memorised the streets around her thanks to her father’s help. Later the Nazis occupy Paris and both father and daughter flee with an incredibly rare and valuable artefact.

Meanwhile in Germany, Werner grows up as an orphan and takes care of his younger sister. Intrigued by a radio he finds, he discovers a talent for putting them back together, something that catches the eye of a dangerous school for Nazi youth. Increasingly aware of what his mind means for other people he travels to a small town where his and Marie-Laure’s lives intertwine.

The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R Carey

 

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The Girl With All The Gifts is a science fiction novel based on the zombie apocalypse, a truly gripping yet heartbreaking read about love, heartache and terror. Melanie is no ordinary girl and attends a special school for her kind where she is locked inside a cell the rest of the day that she is escorted to and from class at gunpoint. The heart of the story revolves around Melanie and her relationship with one of her teachers, the only person to ever treat her with kindness.

After escaping an attack on the school Melanie and five faculty members race towards the city without thinking about the other dangerous factors they may come in contact with. As they make their way each person develops in their own way showing us their relationship with people, how they view each other and how they deal with the downfall of the living as they know it.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

 

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We all remember The Hunger Games, it would be considered by many to be as iconic as Harry Potter or Twilight for its dystopian world depicted perfectly by Suzanne Collins. The story follows a young woman Katniss Everdeen as she embarks on a journey of survival. The Hunger Games were created by the nation’s capital 100’s of years prior to the novel’s present day after a revolution toppled the existing government. A competition where two children from each of the twelve districts compete till the death for fame and fortune.

Katniss’s strength is evident from the start as she scavenges for food for her family in the woods and then proceeds to take the place of her little sister in the games when her name is drawn from the bowl. Throughout the book we see her calculate, understand and win her way through the games while forming some unexpected bonds with other contestants. A truly gripping Young Adult novel that adults will get just as much enjoyment from.

Just. Got. Real by Jane Fallon

 

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We love a plot surrounding a beautiful friendship but mix in a bit of revenge and you will have us hooked. Just Got Real follows Joni as she embarks on the turbulent journey of online dating. With the help and encouragement of her grown-up daughter she signs up to a dating app despite her reluctance. Joni quickly hits it off with the lovely Ant and guiltily acknowledges her involvement in cat fishing the guy.

Later on it transpires Ant hasn’t been so truthful regarding his dating status himself which leads Joni to two unlikely friendships with a common goal – get revenge on Ant at all costs, we love an all women power play!

A Ruined Girl by Kate Simants

 

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A Ruined Girl is dark and twisty in all the right places, with the psychological aspect to the thrill factor it’s more of a whydunnit instead of whodunnit. Surrounding the life and death of a foster child, Paige A Ruined Girl dives into Paige’s last few hours prior to her disappearance. After herself and her boyfriend committed a felony, beating a family whose home they broke into, Rob gets a prison cell with his name on it while Paige disappears without a trace – but having lived in the system everyone just presumes she’s dead all except one.

Wren Reynolds has been tasked with rehabilitating Rob following his release from prison but her reasons for taking him on aren’t as sweet and wholesome as they seem. It appears Wren knows exactly what she’s doing and what she wants – answers from Rob about Paige’s disappearance. She’ll stop at nothing to find out what happened to Paige even at the expense of losing her family.

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• books
• Female Main Characters
• IWD2023