My favorite books about troubled women struggling to hold it together

Scarred by a manipulative and narcissistic mother Flynn’s brilliantly drawn protagonist Camille Preaker is a lonely, disturbed, alcoholic, self-harming mess.

But her spiky resilience and Flynn’s wonderful prose, fearless exploration of intergenerational trauma, and depictions of small-town American life drew me into Camille’s inner and outer struggles and made this book strangely uplifting. The novel drips with dirt, blood, grime, and brutality, so beautifully and unflinchingly described I devoured it in one gulp.

This book is a dark study of chronic agoraphobia brought on by guilt, tragedy, and loss.

Medicated by alcohol and prescription drugs Anna’s only real links with the outside world are via her computer screen and the view from her window. As is so often the case for damaged women the world doubts her sanity and so, at times, does she. When she witnesses a terrible crime Finn traps us inside Anna’s head and forces us to share every shred of her fear, frustration, and doubt as she battles her demons and fights to be believed.

I was with her for every lung-crushing, pulse-quickening, heart-stopping step of the way.

In her character Emma, Lane paints a painfully relatable picture of a career woman trapped by the daily grind of motherhood.

Emma takes entry-level anti-depressants to get through the day (been there, done that) and yearns for a spark of intellectual and emotional stimulation to make herself feel validated. This makes her easy prey for glamorous, predatory artist, Nina. I was silently screaming at Emma to back away before it was too late while revelling in Lane’s exquisite descriptions of middle-class suburbia and the casual sleights inflicted by Emma’s thoughtless, selfish husband.

This is domestic noir at its darkest and most devastating best. 

My long-held obsession with Victorian sensationalist fiction is probably why I write psychological thrillers.

The Woman in White has always been an inspiration and for me one of its most intriguing characters is Laura Fairlie, whose emotional frailty, like that of so many women, makes her prey to the hideous machinations of abusers who seek to control her. Unlike modern women however, she is not merely at the mercy of people, she is at the mercy of the restrictive laws of the society in which she lives.

And yet, with the help of determined friends, her extraordinary stoicism, and some pretty outlandish coincidences she manages to survive against the odds. Hurrah!

I love everything about this book but especially the skillfully crafted inner journey of its emotionally insecure heroine.

When she marries dashing Maxim de Winter she is young, naïve, alone in the world and so self-effacing that we never even learn her name. After their arrival at his ancient family seat, she is thwarted and undermined by his housekeeper and she plunges into fear and self-doubt, constantly measuring herself against the beauty and accomplishments of his glamorous first wife.

Slowly however she begins to find an inner strength and when secrets from Maxim’s past threaten to destroy him it is her quiet sense of self that rescues him from the emotional rubble and enables them both to survive.