With The Handmaid's Tale on everyone's radar, now seems like a good time to start talking about the other great, feminist novels that should be on TV. There's always room for one more good story on TV, and both streaming services and premium channels have picked up on the bankability of bringing great books to the small screen.
In fact, you can't change the channel without running into a book-to-TV adaptation these days. It seems as if every premium channel or streaming service has at least one book-based series available for our viewing pleasure. HBO has Game of Thrones and Big Little Lies, and Starz has Outlander and American Gods. Showtime wrapped up Dexter and Penny Dreadful in the last few years. You can watch A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix, The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu, and The Man in the High Castle on Amazon. That's not to mention Wolf Hall, Poldark, Justified, Under the Dome, About a Boy, Hannibal . . .
The last few years have stoked readers' hopes of seeing their favorite novels on-screen. So, showrunners, if you're reading, these are the titles you should look to next. Check out the 15 feminist novels I think deserve their own TV series, and share your favorite woman-powered reads with me on Twitter!
'Kindred' by Octavia E. Butler
Kindred centers on Dana, a young black woman living in 1970s California, who is mysteriously transported to antebellum Maryland, to the plantation where her ancestors reigned and were enslaved.
'The Ladies of Managua' by Eleni N. Gage
Brought together by the death of their husband, father, and grandfather, three Nicaraguan women struggle to connect and move forward with their lives.
'After the Bloom' by Leslie Shimotakahara
When Lily Takemitsu goes missing, her daughter Rita must piece together the fragments of her mother's memory, including her time in an internment camp for Japanese-Americans, which Lily has forced herself to forget.
The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
As a catastrophic seismic event changes the world around her, Essun, a woman born with the much-feared ability to control and shape the movements of the earth, sets off on a quest for vengeance against her husband, who has killed their son and kidnapped their daughter.
'Daughter of Fortune' by Isabel Allende
After her lover abandons Chile to hunt for gold in California, Eliza Sommers leaves her home country and disguises herself as a man in order to track him down.
'Ravensong' by Lee Maracle
Growing up on a reservation in the 1950s, Salish teenager Stacey attends an all-white high school and dreams of becoming the first First Nations woman to graduate from the University of British Columbia as a teacher.
'Midnight Robber' by Nalo Hopkinson
Following a duel with his wife's lover, young Tan-Tan's father takes her to New Half-Way Tree — a parallel version of their home planet, the Carib-colonized Toussaint — where convicts and others live in exile.
'In the Time of the Butterflies' by Julia Alvarez
In the mid-20th century, four sisters founded an underground resistance movement to overthrow Dominican dictator Rafael "El Jefe" Trujillo. Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies offers a fictionalized account of their story.
'Empress Orchid' by Anchee Min
Anchee Min's Empress Orchid tells the story of Empress Dowager Cixi from her own point of view, beginning with her childhood and competition for the title of "Imperial consort."
'Girl at War' by Sara Nović
Ten years after the bombings began, Ana Jurić travels from New York City to Zagreb, where she was used as a child soldier in the Croatian War of Independence.
'Shanghai Girls' by Lisa See
When their father's wealth disappears, and bombs begin to fall on bustling 1930s Shanghai, Pearl and May leave China for Los Angeles, where they are to wed men they do not love.
'Salvage the Bones' by Jesmyn Ward
On the brink of Hurricane Katrina, a pregnant teen in Bois Sauvage, Mississippi prepares to weather out the storm with her father and brothers.
'Trail of Broken Wings' by Sejal Badani
When their father lapses into a coma, three sisters reunite with their mother and evaluate both their dark pasts and the bright possibilities of the future.
'Pushing the Bear' by Diane Glancy
Two novels, both titled Pushing the Bear, explore the horrors of the Trail of Tears and its aftermath, as the Cherokee families at center attempt to construct a new life in an utterly hostile environment.
'Black Wave' by Michelle Tea
With only a year before the world ends for good, Michelle — a queer bohemian with an addiction problem — squats in an L.A. bookstore and tries to get sober while everything falls apart around her.
