Wednesday, May 04, 2022

Ten of the most captivating literary antiheroes

Sascha Rothchild is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter, who has written and produced lauded shows such as GLOW, The Bold Type, The Babysitters Club, and The Carrie Diaries. In 2015, she was named one of Variety‘s “10 TV Writers to Watch.” Rothchild has written for LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, ELLE, and the Miami Herald, and adapted her article, “How To Get Divorced By 30” into both a memoir and a screenplay for Universal Studios. She graduated from the honors program of Boston College summa cum laude, with a major in theater.

Blood Sugar is her debut novel.

At Publishers Weekly Rothchild tagged ten favorite literary antiheroes, including:
Circe: Circe by Madeline Miller

I grew up learning the basics of Greek mythology and it wasn’t until I read this incredible novel that I questioned the fact that like so many other things, Greek myths are all told through a male lens. Madeline Miller gives this historically maligned lesser goddess an origin story and a voice and a painful, worthy struggle. The girl she accidentally turned into a monster had it coming! Those men she turned into pigs had it coming! Of course, the songs men have sung for thousands of years, the sagas they’ve written, are exaggerations and misrepresentations of Circe’s evil deeds. Once you hear from Circe herself, she is a strong, sympathetic survivor doing all she can to stop being a victim. She is glorious and my absolute favorite of all antiheroes!
Read about another entry on the list.

Circe is among Rachel Kapelke-Dale's eleven top unexpected thrillers about female rage, Kat Sarfas's thirteen enchanted reads for spooky season, Fire Lyte's nine current classics in magic and covens and spellsElodie Harper's six top novels set in the ancient world, Kiran Millwood Hargrave's seven best books about islands, Zen Cho's six SFF titles about gods and pantheons, Jennifer Saint's ten top books inspired by Greek myth, Adrienne Westenfeld's fifteen feminist books that will inspire, enrage, & educate you, Ali Benjamin's top ten classic stories retold, Lucile Scott's eight books about hexing the patriarchy, E. Foley and B. Coates's top ten goddesses in fiction, Jordan Ifueko's five fantasy titles driven by traumatic family bonds, Eleanor Porter's top ten books about witch-hunts, Emily B. Martin's six stunning fantasies for nature lovers, Allison Pataki's top six books that feature strong female voices, Pam Grossman's thirteen stories about strong women with magical powers, Kris Waldherr's nine top books inspired by mythology, Katharine Duckett's eight novels that reexamine literature from the margins, and Steph Posts's thirteen top novels set in the world of myth.

--Marshal Zeringue