Rape culture is a concept with a lot of nuance, but at its bones, it’s “a society or environment whose prevailing social attitudes have the effect of normalising or trivialising sexual assault and abuse”. With the growth of the #MeToo movement, interest has surged in books that reflect and interrogate the pervasiveness of rape culture in our real world. Here are eleven books about rape culture that shine a light on its impact.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
We must start with a classic of the category, the book about rape myths that informs all books about rape myths that come after it: The Handmaid’s Tale. Margaret Atwood imagines a dystopian future (that becomes all-the-more real by the day), where women are divided and effectively enslaved according to their reproductive potential. Widespread infertility relegates most women to roles of domestic servitude, while a privileged few are elevated to Wife status. Those who are still able to bear children become Handmaids, baby-makers for the wealthy and powerful. Any woman who dares step outside these strictly defined roles will be demonised, cast out and tortured. Read my full review of The Handmaid’s Tale here.
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Fans of Fredrik Backman were probably a bit taken aback when they read Beartown for the first time – I sure was! Backman is known for writing cozy stories about lovable-if-flawed characters who undertake a journey of personal growth, with an uplifting ending. This book appears the same on its face – a small town’s hopes rest on the success of the local amateur hockey team – but soon the reader discovers it’s not a feel good sports novel, but a searing examination of rape culture and the structures of power that support it, playing out in miniature. Read my full review of Beartown here.
True Story by Kate Reed Petty
Rape culture is insidious, and it begins young. That reality is reflected in True Story, a novel that traces the fallout of a high-school rumour as it reverberates throughout the lives of the subject, the perpetrators, and the onlookers. It sounds simple enough, but it’s actually a brilliant and complex interrogation of who gets to tell stories about sexual abuse and assault and who gets to decide if they are true. The ‘truth’ of a story almost doesn’t matter in the shadow of a more powerful story that fulfills our preconceived expectations. Read my full review of True Story here.
The Power by Naomi Alderman
A lot of books about rape culture tackle the issue by exaggerating the disempowerment and oppression of women on the page – but Naomi Alderman takes the opposite approach in The Power. In this feminist dystopia (or utopia, depending how you look at it), women and girls suddenly develop the ability to deliver severe electric shocks with their hands. This physical change revolutionises gender roles, as it gives women a physical advantage in defending themselves against the men who would exploit them. Read my full review of The Power here.
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
The #MeToo movement has forced many women to revisit their pasts, and re-evaluate interactions that they once wrote off as harmless or convinced themselves were consensual. My Dark Vanessa depicts that experience, and how unsettling it is to realise that the story you tell yourself about your life might not be true. When a high-school English teacher is accused of sexual abuse by a student, the protagonist is faced with a choice: to stay silent about the affair she had with him as a fifteen year old that she believed was bilateral, or to redefine it as an abuse of power and come forth to support his other victim(s). This novel will make you think hard about complicity and agency. Read my full review of My Dark Vanessa here.
Whisper Network by Chandler Baker
For most of modern history, women have protected themselves and each other by secretly sharing information about dangers in the environment and staying safe. Whisper Network places this long informal tradition in the contemporary workplace. Four women, working for the same company, each have a different relationship with the presumptive new CEO. Rather than continuing to whisper about their new boss, they come forward with their truth – a decision that has catastrophic ramifications for all involved.
Anatomy Of A Scandal by Sarah Vaughn
Much has been made of allegations of sexual abuse and assault ‘ruining’ the lives of ‘fundamentally decent’ men – but those men aren’t islands. What about the women in their lives? Their wives, their children, their employees? In Anatomy Of A Scandal, the perspective of one such woman is explored. Sophie Whitehouse’s apparently-perfect life of privilege is upended when her successful husband James confesses an indiscretion, and is accused of a terrible crime. The prosecutor is out for blood, and Sophie is left wondering if she ever really knew the man she married.
Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill
In the real world, women’s bodies are a battleground, objectified and commodified and used as currency in the culture wars. Only Ever Yours takes this idea to the Nth degree. Baby girls are no longer born naturally, they are bred and reared with specific training in the art of pleasing men. At ‘graduation’, the best performers are designated highly sought-after roles as ‘companions’ for husbands (breeding boys until they are no longer reproductively useful), while the rest are relegated to lives as concubines or teachers for the next generation of girls. It might feel like the only choice the girls have is to fight each other for the best spots – but what if they fought the system instead?
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
At a highly-competitive performing arts school in the 1980s, David and Sarah fall head-over-heels in love with each other, an affair of great interest to their charismatic acting teacher, Mr Kingsley. You might think you know this story, but Trust Exercise will lull you into a false sense of security – as it does with its characters – before revealing the shocking truth… or a version of it. It draws into question our common understanding of the power of adolescents, and the responsibilities of adults. You won’t truly see the full picture until the final piece falls into place, and maybe even not then. Read my full review of Trust Exercise here.
The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh
The patriarchy would have us believe that the role of a man is to protect the women and children from the dangers of the world, while they cater to his every domestic need. In The Water Cure, the patriarch of the family tries to do just that – only when he disappears, and two men and a boy wash ashore the isolated island where the family lives, the system quickly disintegrates and things begin to unravel. The strangers are undoubtedly a threat to the lives this family have carefully constructed – but perhaps the hope that comes with the taste of freedom is the biggest danger of all.
The Natural Way Of Things by Charlotte Wood
Nothing is more problematic than a woman who refuses to play by the rules; a woman who speaks up threatens the whole system perpetuated by rape culture. In The Natural Way Of Things, Charlotte Wood imagines a world where such women are imprisoned, kept ‘out of sight and out of mind’, to protect the privileged men whose positions are threatened by the truths they could reveal. At first, the women – and their guards, come to that – hold onto hope that this is a temporary situation. Eventually, though, they realise that there’s no white knight coming to save them. Read my full review of The Natural Way Of Things here.
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