I love messy women. I always have. There’s just something so compelling about a female character trying to fix her life when it, or she, is in shambles. When I wrote my debut novel Other People’s Secrets I had this kind of character in mind, but with a weirdo twist. The hero is a dumpster baby who grows up in a world struggling to understand who she should be. This lack of a family history helps enable her to become a bit of a booze-soaked disaster. A truly chaotic and messy person who is forced to confront herself before she can solve the mysteries that are eating away at her hometown.
I created my character, Baby, because I’ve always, always wanted to see more female characters like that out in the world. Characters who are a mess, who make bad decisions, who are full of rage and fear and hope and confusion, whose chaos is embodied not just by the aesthetics of their lives but by their deranged choices. And I’ve found that some of the most memorable, messy female characters exist in the world of crime fiction.
Here are some recent favorites:
Her Dying Day, by Mindy Carlson
Carlson’s hero is an unforgettable twenty-something named June who is on what one might call a Rumspringa, having escaped the structured confines of the hippie commune she grew up on to try to make it in New York City as a documentary filmmaker. When we first meet June, she’s hiding under the bed while the man she has an affair with sleeps with his wife. June’s spunkiness and bold naïveté will be recognizable to many of us who learned some tough lessons about emotional intelligence in our twenties. Anyone who strode out into the world determined to conquer it will enjoy June as she attempts to figure out love and her relationship to family while solving the mystery of the disappearance of Greer Larkin, an Agatha Christie-esque novelist. This book is fun, clever, and so, so, engaging, and contains a particularly unforgettable scene with a caesar salad cart that made me laugh out loud.
Kismet, by Amina Akhtar
When we first meet Roni, in Amina Akhtar’s darkly funny novel Kismet, she’s struggling through a hike in Sedona. Cheered on by her best friend/life coach, Marley, Roni’s questioning everything in her life. How did she end up in this sweaty, sandy hellhole, surrounded by bugs and blondes? As they continue on the hike, Roni and Marly happen upon a head. That’s right! A head, detached from a corpse, sitting out in the desert, roasting in the sun right next to a pair of hands and feet. And thus a story of murder and intrigue begins. While Roni isn’t as aesthetically messy as some of the other heroes on this list, she’s struggling to find a place in a racist world that treats her like trash. There’s a particularly memorable scene where she’s manhandled into giving blood for facials. (I had to look this treatment up and it’s real. Wild!) Of course, Roni’s solutions to her problems include sleeping on an air mattress in the back of a crystal shop and befriending the local raven population. Akhtar’s novel is the definition of propulsive and with some unforgettable twists, this story (and its lead character) is one I’ll be thinking about for a long time.
Florida Woman, by Deb Rogers
If you’ve ever seen a headline about a Florida Woman doing something unforgivable to a crocodile, you’ll understand the idea of a woman Rogers’ title is alluding to. The book unpacks the idea of the Florida Woman when we meet Jamie, who, on the heels of a public, viral scandal is sent to Atlas to do community service and atone for a crime so outrageous I won’t spoil it here. Atlas is an incredibly mysterious monkey refuge in the wild jungles of Florida where Jamie is determined to put her best foot forward. But of course, she becomes embroiled in a cult-like scandal. The writing of this novel is incredibly lush and beguiling, pulling you into Jamie’s fight to redefine herself and her reputation, and perhaps accept some of the messiness of her past in order to figure out what she’ll do next. If you love a literary, slow burn you’ll love getting to know Jamie.
Never Saw Me Coming, by Vera Kurian
Not only does this book have some excellent twists and turns, but Vera Kurian’s Never Saw Me Coming has an unforgettably messy character at the heart of it. I immediately felt for Chloe, then was entertained by her narration and stressed out by some of her choices. You learn, almost immediately that Chloe is a diagnosed psychopath who is apparently a genius. She’s part of a study for psychopaths at a University, lured there by a professor for a study where she has to simultaneously wear a smartwatch that tracks her location at all times, and is plotting to murder a fellow student who raped her. While Chloe is extremely confident about a lot of her decisions, she makes some extremely chaotic choices that had me on the edge of my seat. There are some great twists in this read and some scenes that made these psychopaths (there are more in the study that we get to meet) so chaotic and fascinating. They might be self-diagnosed geniuses but they’re also dopey college students and following them made for a heck of a ride.
One of Those Faces, by Elle Grawl
Harper Mallen, the protagonist of Elle Grawl’s One of Those Faces is another twenty-something hero I was rooting for from the moment I met her. She’s a typical twenty-something, trying to figure her life out while she copes with trauma from her past. As Harper struggles to make it as an artist, I really enjoyed the seat-of-her-pants way she lived her life, scrounging for laundry money, ducking her creepy landlord when she’s late paying the rent, and playing chicken with her hangovers. Harper’s judgement is the kind that I call sensibly poor. It makes sense but is oh-so-frustrating. Who hasn’t had a friend you’re constantly trying to reign in, only to have them follow their gut to all the wrong places? When a woman who looks disturbingly like Harper is killed, this thrilling, and at times terrifying book takes off like a rocket and doesn’t let up.
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