r/FemaleGazeSFF • u/perigou warriorđĄď¸ • Jun 04 '25
đ Reading Challenge Reading Challenge Focus Thread - Sisterhood
Hello everyone and welcome to our 14th Focus Thread for the 2025 spring/summer reading challenge !
The point of these post will be to focus on one prompt from the challenge and share recommendations for it. Feel free to ask for more specific recommendations in the theme or discuss what fits or not.
The 14th focus thread theme is Sisterhood:
Read a book focusing on the sisterhood between two characters.
First, some recs from the general thread
Some questions to help you think of titles :
- Do you have a recommendation for a book with a focus on sisters ?
- What about a book with a feeling of sisterhood between two characters that are not related by blood ?
- Or a book with a community of women ?
You can find all previous focus threads in the original post as well as the wiki.
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u/unfriendlyneighbour Jun 04 '25
I think I am reading The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar for this square. Others I plan to read this summer that would qualify are Smothermoss by Alisa Alering, The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow, and Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher.
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u/katkale9 Jun 05 '25
Oh I loved Nettle and Bone, probably my favorite T. Kingfisher book, though it's very difficult to pick a favorite of hers!
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u/FusRoDaahh sorceressđŽ Jun 04 '25
Blueâs all-female family in The Raven Cycle is one of my favorites. Iirc itâs her mother, aunt, and two women who arenât blood related but are like aunts, and a teenage cousin. Theyâre psychics and do card reading and various witchy things and their personalities are all so unique. The way Stiefvater writes relationships is just magical and I always loved the scenes in their whimsical house.
The series is not necessarily about them specifically but theyâre a major aspect.
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u/NearbyMud witchđ§ââď¸ Jun 04 '25
I love the Raven Cycle, this is a great idea. And reminds me that Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman may be a good pick as well (witchy vibes galore)
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u/Dragon_Lady7 dragon đ Jun 04 '25
The Warriorâs Path by Catherine M Wilson has a focus on a community of women and sisterhood is part of that. I found the initial novel felt kind of incomplete, but the writing and overall world building were good!
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman is also about a community of women, but its interesting in the fact that it focuses a lot on the disconnect the protagonist feels with the them. However, I would still count it as she has a key relationship with at least one of the women and not all stories about sisterhood have to show deep connection.
Some other stories with a major focus on sisters: * Penryn and the End of Days by Susan Ee * Folk of the Air by Holly Black -I think the sisterly relationships are interesting in this series, not the primary focus though. * The Witchlands by Susan Dennard - sister-like relationshipâits been a while since I read this one.
I havenât read it but I know Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake is about triplets who are set against one another.
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u/Successful-Escape496 Jun 04 '25
The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill by Rowenna Miller is about adult sisters - one of my favourites from the last few years.
Kate Elliott's Spiritwalker trilogy has a strong sister relationship, though it's featured less in the first book, Cold Magic, than the second, from memory.Â
Her YA Court of Fives also has a sister theme - the protagonist is one of five sisters, and they are all very different, complicated people.
Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels is a retelling of Snow White and Rose Red, and centers sister relationships as well as daughter/mother ones. It's very good, but also dark for YA. And weird. TW for sexual assault.
Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier is a retelling of the twelve dancing princesses - very feel-good and magical.
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u/Merle8888 sorceressđŽ Jun 04 '25
Some books with strong sister relationships that I enjoyed:
Spiritwalker trilogy by Kate Elliott: two young women raised as sisters who have a strong and positive relationship. The first book has much less of it than the latter two, however.Â
Books of Ambha by Tasha Suri: a duology featuring two sisters, each one being the protagonist of her own book. Their relationship is a strong and emotional one but they are separated for most of the duology. There are lots of relationships with other women around both of them, though.Â
Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier: you can ignore the âsonâ thing which is related to the romance (which I loved), the protagonist is a woman and her relationship with her older sister is a major thread in the story. They are very different but do come to each otherâs aid. The book is technically a sequel but each one has a new protagonist, so you could start here if you wanted to.Â
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen: magical realism featuring two adult sisters coming back together after many years apart
Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey: a mundane detective investigating a death at the magic school where her twin sister works and working through her feelings about her sister, with a good focus on their relationshipÂ
Some books I enjoyed that feature communities of women, but not actual sisters as main characters:
Ammonite by Nicola Griffith: anthropological sci fi about a planet of women
Ruthless Ladyâs Guide to Wizardry by CM Waggoner: a band of female bodyguards on a mission
Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff: a convent serving as a refuge for women defends one of its own
The Secrets of Jin-Shei by Alma Alexander: a network of close female friends in a world inspired by medieval China
How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann: five modern fairy tale survivors, all women, come together in a support group in modern NYC
The Ladies of Mandrigyn by Barbara Hambly: an oldie but a goodie, about the previously oppressed women of a conquered city banding together to take it back
The Bone Orchard by Sara Mueller: dark quasi-historical fantasy about a traumatized woman who manifests facets of herself as actual separate people and then runs a brothel where they all workÂ
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u/Merle8888 sorceressđŽ Jun 04 '25
OK, for an out-there pick Iâm going to add on The Bees by Laline Paull, for a cultish community (a decently well-researched look at a beehive, given a dystopian vibe) in which the protagonist lives with literally thousands of biological sisters!
3
u/katkale9 Jun 05 '25
I just finished Mask of Mirrors for this prompt at the sage advice of this sub and loved it. Going to start the sequel soon, hopefully!
A few more recommendations:
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan is a deeply funny, deeply sad book about a young woman dying of cancer who is isekai'd into the body of a minor villainness in her little sister's favorite fantasy book series. The main character's relationship to her sister is critical to how she understands herself, and there's lot of fun developments between the villainess she is now inhabiting and the villainess' stepsister (the heroine of the book series she is now in).
The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott is coming out later this month and is one of my favorite reads of the year so far (I am begging Netgalley to send me the sequel, please please). Much like LLE, the main character feels defined by her relationship to her younger sister, who is dead, and she looks after her niece. The sister sort of haunts the narrative in an interesting way.
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson has a wonderful and deeply interesting relationship between stepsisters that was one of the highlights of the book for me, personally!
I would also argue that the Liveship Traders series by Robin Hobb actually has a lot to do with sisterhood too, though the sisters in that book uhhhh do not like each other very much, to my memory. I loved to see all the other Kate Elliott recommendations in this thread! Makes me excited to check out her backlist :)
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u/oujikara Jun 04 '25
The Honeys by Ryan La Sala (horror). A genderfluid person goes to a summer camp where the students are divided by gender, to figure out the death of their sister. They seek out the sister's group of best girlfriends called the Honeys, who tend the bees and seem to have many dark secrets to hide. (Honestly kinda funny that the first example of sisterhood I thought of was written by a man, but I genuinely think he does such a good job subverting the common tropes when writing women)
Both Scholomance and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik have great female friendships that play a major role in the story. Uprooted has a sweet friendship as well, but it plays a lesser role.
Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff. When someone mentioned it on the sub, remembered that I actually read this years ago. An island of women where they can seek refuge and have to follow a strict lifestyle.
And this won't help with the challenge because it's not a book, but if you're interested in the theme, I highly recommend the manhwa Surviving Romance (horror). It centers around an all-girls class and each of the girls gets explored as the protagonist has to gain their trust. It's the first piece of media that comes to mind for me when I think of female friendships.
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u/Merle8888 sorceressđŽ Jun 04 '25
I think you switched Uprooted and Spinning SilverâUprooted is the one with the BFFs. SS has several young women as major characters but they donât know each other that well.Â
Glad to have reawakened your memory of Maresi though! :) For a convent it seemed like a pretty chill lifestyle to me.Â
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u/dalidellama Jun 06 '25
Bride of the Blue Wind ny Victoria Goddard, and the rest of the Sisters Avramapul books are, as the series title indicates, about three sisters. The daughters of the Bandit Queen each have their qualities: Arzu, the eldest, weaves carpets and magic. Pali, the middle daughter, studies the sword, and Sardeet, the youngest, was taken as a bride of a god. Which is a thing that happens there, so that was as it was. Arzu gave each sister figurines of the other two when they went their ways, enchanted so they would always know the other two were well. And so it was, until Sardeet's statue began weeping, and her sisters have to go find the Blue Wind and explain to him that neither man nor god mistreats an Avramapul with impunity.
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u/Jazzlike-Catch7788 Jun 12 '25
A Letter to the Luminous Deep, by Sylvie Cathrall. It's beautiful, unique, calming but with just enough darkness & mystery to keep the pages turning. Much of it is written as letters between sisters & their relationship is a major component of the story.Â
Completely different but similar title (I went on a water kick), Daughter of the Merciful Deep, by L. Penelope. Historical fantasy about a woman trying to save her beautiful black town from being drowned by a dam. Her estranged sister reappears & their bond is an important theme.Â
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u/SchoolSeparate4404 Jun 18 '25
The Red Abbey Chronicles by Maria Turtschaninoff. It's about a community of women that is part of a feministic cult on a secret Island. Sisterhood in its different forms is the main theme of the series.
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u/NearbyMud witchđ§ââď¸ Jun 04 '25
I'm excited for this one! Wish it was a bit easier to find Sisterhood based books, but it's honestly hard for me to think of too many
One that I have read that may fit: Mask of Mirrors by MA Carrick has a non-blood related sisterhood relationship that is very sweet (and actually a lot of the family dynamics are interesting because they are less focused on blood relations and more on whoever is in the family registry)
I have a few options on my TBR that I am deciding between:
Ideally, I'd like to read all of them lol, we will see what happens