As it’s Halloween we’re getting into everything witchy; exploring famous witches, covens and all-female communities in fiction. We discuss how witches are making a comeback and their role within modern day feminism, as well as talking about how we bring magic into own own lives (including a deep dive into our star signs - sorry not sorry).

We discuss Hocus Pocus, TV show Yellowjackets, Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Hermione in Harry Potter, Naomi Alderman’s novel The Power, Mariana Enriquez short story collection The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés and Robert Egger’s film The Witch. Plus our latest cultural recommendations!

If you liked the podcast don't forget to share, rate and review - it helps the podcast reach more people! Thanks for listening ♥️ If you want to find out more about Feminist Fiction or join one of our online or in-person clubs in Manchester, London, Liverpool, Belfast, Leipzig and Halle (yes, in Germany!) - visit us on Instagram at @feminist.fiction.

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In our tenth episode we get into mothers and motherhood! We explore our own feelings about having children with a very big disclaimer that as two non-mothers who aren’t planning on having children any time soon, our perspectives are of course, limited.

We look at how mothers and motherhood is represented in books including The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson, A Life's Work by Rachel Cusk, Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh, An Excellent Choice by Emma Brockes and The Mothers by Brit Bennett.

We delve into the charmed mother daughter relationships in Netflix’s The Duchess and our fave show Gilmore Girls, as well as NOW TV’s dark new show The Baby, which looks at women forced into motherhood.

Plus as always, we answer listener questions and give our latest recommendations. If you liked the podcast don't forget to share, rate and review - it helps the podcast reach more people! Thanks for listening ♥️ If you want to find out more about Feminist Fiction or join one of our online or in-person clubs in Manchester, London, Liverpool, Belfast in the UK or Halle and Leipzig in Germany - visit us on Instagram at @feminist.fiction.

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In our first ever deep dive episode, we get into the epic saga that is the Twilight series. Love it or hate it, the impact of the Twilight books and films were huge; selling over 100 million copies and making over 400 million dollars at the box office.

We get into why the story of ordinary gal Bella caught in a love triangle with a vampire and a werewolf gripped a generation of teenagers (we were two of them), discussing if we’re Team Edward or Team Jacob, exploring the story’s increasingly bizarre plot line, debating whether or not it’s feminist and looking at the series’ deeply concerning racist undertones.

There will be spoilers, but we doubt you’re here if you weren’t - at some point - a Twihard. Enjoy 🧛🏻‍♀️🩸🐺

Plus as always, we answer a listener question and give our latest recommendations. If you liked the podcast don't forget to share, rate and review - it helps the podcast reach more people! Thanks for listening ♥️ If you want to find out more about Feminist Fiction or join one of our online or in-person clubs in Manchester, London, Liverpool, Belfast and Halle (yes, in Germany!) - visit us on Instagram at @feminist.fiction.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode we’re talking all about the daily grind! Reflecting on our own experience of work and how it’s portrayed in fiction, we explore what a better world of work might look like. We talk about TV shows The Bold Type, The Office (US version) and Parks and Recreation, and books Careering by Daisy Buchanan and Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata.

Plus we answer listener questions and give our latest cultural recommendations. If you liked the podcast don't forget to share, rate and review - it helps the podcast reach more people! Thanks for listening ♥️ If you want to find out more about Feminist Fiction or join one of our online or in-person clubs in Manchester, London, Liverpool, Belfast and Halle (yes, in Germany!) - visit us on Instagram at @feminist.fiction.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Content warning: the work we are discussing in this episode includes references to violence and sexual assault, which may be difficult for some listeners.

This episode we’re discussing our favourite fictional Femme Fatales! We get into why it’s so enjoyable to watch women breaking the law, discussing tv show Killing Eve, film Promising Young Woman and novels Boy Parts and My Sister the Serial Killer. Warning up top that there will be SPOILERS for all of these examples.

We explore the fantasy of the femme fatale, looking at works of fiction that explore how women use it to wield power and establish control in a patriarchal world.

Plus, we answer listener questions and give our latest recommendations. If you liked the podcast don't forget to share, rate and review - it helps the podcast reach more people! Thanks for listening ♥️ If you want to find out more about Feminist Fiction or join one of our online or in-person clubs in Manchester, London, Liverpool, Belfast and Halle (yes, in Germany!) - visit us on Instagram at @feminist.fiction.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Feminist Fiction (coming to you later because of technical difficulties again sorry sorry) is all about body image. We get into our own sticky feelings around our bodies and look at how age, class and body size are represented in culture. This is a HUGE topic with many aspects, so a note up top that we’re by no means experts, are just covering a slice of this issue and have our own privileges when it comes to body image.

We talk about new film Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, tv shows My Mad Fat Diary and Shrill, Melissa Broder’s novel Milk Fed, Emily Ratajkowski’s book My Body, and the damaging legacies of Fat Monica in Friends and the movie Shallow Hal. Plus recommendations of what we’ve been reading and watching ✨

If you liked the podcast don't forget to share, rate and review - it helps the podcast reach more people! Thanks for listening ♥️ If you want to find out more about Feminist Fiction or join one of our online or in-person clubs in Manchester, London, Liverpool, Belfast and Halle (yes, in Germany!) - visit us on Instagram at @feminist.fiction.

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In our fourth episode of the Feminist Fiction podcast we get into going OUT OUT!  💃🏻 Megan and Natalie discuss their recent big night out, the joys and the darkness of partying hard, and their favourite party films, TV and books.

We discuss women vs men partying on screen and in literature, with examples including Spring Breakers (film), Someone Great (film), How to Be Single (film), Booksmart (film), Animals (book and film), I May Destroy You (TV), Mood (TV), Eve Babitz books, The Wolf of Wall Street (film), The Hangover (film), The Great Gatsby (book and film) and Superbad (film) + more! It’s a big one…

N.B. we had some technical difficulties on this one so apologies for the Zoom recording audio on this episode.

If you liked the podcast don't forget to share, rate and review - it helps the podcast reach more people! Thanks for listening ♥️ If you want to find out more about Feminist Fiction or join one of our online or in-person clubs in Manchester, London, Liverpool, Belfast and Halle (yes, in Germany!) - visit us on Instagram at @feminist.fiction.

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This episode we do a deep dive into coming of age stories, comparing the adorable, queer phenomenon of Heartstopper (both graphic novel series & Netflix show) with the comparatively much darker (and less diverse) teenage stories we grew up with: Skins, Gossip Girl and Mean Girls.

We discuss the highs and lows of our own (deeply cringe) teen years and the stories and characters that informed them, questioning how our youth might have been different if we'd had different stories to engage with. We talk Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging (novels), Jacqueline Wilson, Laura Bates' YA novel The Burning, 13 Reasons Why (TV series), Sex Education (TV series), Never Have I Ever (TV Series) and The Summer I Turned Pretty (TV series).

If you liked the podcast don't forget to share, rate and review - it helps the podcast reach more people! Thanks for listening ♥️ If you want to find out more about Feminist Fiction or join one of our online or in-person clubs in Manchester, London, Liverpool, Belfast and Halle (yes, in Germany!) - visit us on Instagram at @feminist.fiction.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our second episode of the Feminist Fiction podcast, we get into the huge subject of friendship!

We discuss our favourite fictional friends, our own friendships, what makes a good friendship, how to navigate the friendship break up and problematic friendship tropes. 

This episode is packed full of recommendations: in TV we discuss new series from Dolly Alderton, Everything I Know About Love, as well as Issa Rae's Insecure and Sex and the City, in books we get into our recent book club read Coco Mellor’s novel Cleopatra and Frankenstein, Elena Ferrante’s Neopolitan Novels and Meg Wollitzer’s The Interestings and as well as discussing our fave film, the iconic Bridesmaids.

Other recommendations include:

The Bold Type (TV series)

It’s a Sin (TV series)

Heartstopper (Graphic Novels & TV series)

Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth (the film and the novel)

Queenie by Candice Carty Williams (Novel)

Emma by Jane Austen (Novel)

If you liked the podcast don't forget to share, rate and review - it helps the podcast reach more people! Thanks for listening ♥️ If you want to find out more about Feminist Fiction or join one of our online or in-person clubs in Manchester, London, Liverpool, Belfast and Halle (yes, in Germany!) - visit us on Instagram at @feminist.fiction.

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Welcome to the first ever episode of the Feminist Fiction podcast! Brought to you by Megan Sinclair and Natalie Beech who together run the Feminist Fiction book club collective, a series of book clubs up and down the UK, focused on reading with a feminist perspective.

In this first episode we delve into messy and "unfeminist" female characters and the response to them, investigating why some of our most famous fictional messy women are beloved, whilst others are despised. We discuss Cassie from Euphoria, Fleabag, Sally Rooney, Lisa Taddeo, Megan Nolan's Acts of Desperation and more. Plus, plenty of cultural recommendations!

If you want to find out more about Feminist Fiction or join one of our online or in-person clubs, visit us on Instagram at @feminist.fiction.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.