,

When I was growing up, I was shocked by the lack of strong, female leads in the type of books I liked to read. So here's a list of books with strong heroines who fight against stereotypes of women in the Fantasy and Science Fiction genres
1

by
3.60 avg rating — 42,332 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
2

by
4.35 avg rating — 9,712,879 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
3

by
4.35 avg rating — 8,594 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
3.91 avg rating — 13,093 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
5

by
4.26 avg rating — 7,781 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
6

by
4.30 avg rating — 18,015 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
7

by
4.22 avg rating — 2,625 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8

by
3.83 avg rating — 8,025 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
4.34 avg rating — 231,873 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
10

by
4.63 avg rating — 11,154 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
11

by
4.13 avg rating — 4,322,692 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
4.63 avg rating — 3,593 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
4.31 avg rating — 4,908 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
14

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3,207 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
4.46 avg rating — 2,320 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
16

by
3.87 avg rating — 5,372 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
17

by
4.20 avg rating — 2,009 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
3.97 avg rating — 28,785 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
19

by
4.30 avg rating — 27,636 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
20

by
4.11 avg rating — 5,074 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
21

by
4.25 avg rating — 20,709 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
3.84 avg rating — 14,438 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
23

by
3.94 avg rating — 88,452 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
24

by
4.23 avg rating — 71,404 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
3.56 avg rating — 6,056 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
26

by
4.04 avg rating — 14,870 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
27

by
4.28 avg rating — 26,646 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
28

by
3.71 avg rating — 1,977 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 6,936 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
30

by
4.02 avg rating — 13,784 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
31

by
3.78 avg rating — 11,135 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
32

by
4.35 avg rating — 78,058 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
33

by
4.06 avg rating — 267,128 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
34

by
4.36 avg rating — 95,374 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
35

by
4.14 avg rating — 43,415 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
36

by
3.83 avg rating — 13,501 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
37

by
3.78 avg rating — 35,996 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
4.12 avg rating — 310,607 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
39

by
4.12 avg rating — 156,587 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
40

by
4.06 avg rating — 478,273 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
3.58 avg rating — 2,654 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
4.05 avg rating — 46,031 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
43

by
4.08 avg rating — 3,168 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
4.30 avg rating — 18,015 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
45

by
4.05 avg rating — 73,842 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
46

by
3.97 avg rating — 373,934 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
4.05 avg rating — 398,284 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
48

by
3.81 avg rating — 121,757 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
49

by
3.85 avg rating — 146,043 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
50

by
3.46 avg rating — 102,943 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51

by
4.10 avg rating — 983,870 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
52

by
4.01 avg rating — 653,297 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
53

by
4.30 avg rating — 333,053 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
54

by
3.99 avg rating — 417,188 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
3.77 avg rating — 14,795 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
56

by
4.16 avg rating — 4,186 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
57

by
3.99 avg rating — 5,290 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
4.31 avg rating — 3,306 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
59

by
3.89 avg rating — 7,851 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
60

by
4.05 avg rating — 333,365 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
61

by
4.48 avg rating — 23,805 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
62

by
4.13 avg rating — 30,236 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
63

by
4.07 avg rating — 2,144,047 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
64

by
3.93 avg rating — 163,100 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
65

by
4.56 avg rating — 5,248 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
66

by
3.93 avg rating — 303,991 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
67

by
4.12 avg rating — 46,061 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
68

by
3.97 avg rating — 1,270,280 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
69

by
4.31 avg rating — 7,258 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
70

by
3.79 avg rating — 14,642 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
71

by
3.81 avg rating — 3,694 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
72

by
4.03 avg rating — 1,602,988 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
73

by
3.63 avg rating — 7,473 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
74

by
4.31 avg rating — 181,747 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
75

by
3.86 avg rating — 59,035 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
76

by
4.22 avg rating — 1,339 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
77

by
4.10 avg rating — 734,978 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
78

by
4.38 avg rating — 114,858 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
79

by
3.63 avg rating — 51,200 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
80

by
4.43 avg rating — 4,213 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
81

by
4.33 avg rating — 14,380 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
82

by
4.16 avg rating — 6,061 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
83

by
3.82 avg rating — 520,016 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
84

by
4.30 avg rating — 4,975 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
4.31 avg rating — 902 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
86

by
4.09 avg rating — 193,189 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
87

by
4.18 avg rating — 101,229 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
88

by
4.26 avg rating — 67,772 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
89

by
3.74 avg rating — 105,382 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
90

by
4.20 avg rating — 62,686 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
3.90 avg rating — 3,951 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
92

by
3.92 avg rating — 26,756 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
93

by
4.16 avg rating — 217,048 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
94

by
4.09 avg rating — 16,552 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
95

by
4.03 avg rating — 87,828 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
4.41 avg rating — 2,730 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
97

by
4.24 avg rating — 144,581 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
98

by
4.27 avg rating — 136,047 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
99

by
4.28 avg rating — 31,067 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
100

by
3.87 avg rating — 116,266 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
1,230 books · 1,259 voters · list created April 2nd, 2012 by Luna (votes) .
92 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Luna 378 books
11 friends
Julie 1103 books
1930 friends
Tez 3081 books
742 friends
Maud 2444 books
1008 friends
Elyse 1033 books
4432 friends
Soumya 1374 books
38 friends
Paige 8499 books
1447 friends
Alessandra 2196 books
62 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-4 of 4 (4 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Frank (new)

Frank Tar I'd like to add, The Adventures of Crazy Liddy. I've never read of a tougher female character and the book rocks.


message 2: by Kelley (new)

Kelley I love to browse through lists like this, but I always wonder about some of the choices. I've clicked on a number of titles and scrolled through reviews, only to find that not a single review mentions a female character by name. How strong can the female characters in a particular novel possibly be, if none of fifty-odd reviews even bother to name them?


message 3: by Emily (new)

Emily Fluke Can I add this to the list? Eve of Anarchy


message 4: by Micka22 (new)

Micka22 1166 skip


back to top



Related News

Here at Goodreads World Headquarters, we sort through a lot of books each month. Our monthly Readers' Most Anticipated Books feature is exactly...

Anyone can add books to this list.