Passes the "Bechdel Test" Public

Created by Phil in SF

This list contains books that:

  • have at least two women in them,
  • who talk to each other,
  • about something other than a man.

Wikipedia has a decent intro on the origins of the metric: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test

Beware that this test is very limited in probative value. "The Bechdel test only indicates whether women are present in a work of fiction to a certain degree. A work may pass the test and still contain sexist content, and a work with prominent female characters may fail the test." This is just one thing a person may want to consider in their reading. There are many others.

I (@kingrat@sfba.club) track this in my reading as a check to make sure I am including reading that includes non-token female characters because American publishing often overly focuses on men's stories, and that is quite often reflected even more …

  1. Project Hail Mary by 

    Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission–and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will …

  2. The Nigerwife by 

    No rating

    Nicole Oruwari has the perfect life: a hand­some husband; a palatial house in the heart of glittering Lagos, Nigeria; and …

  3. Void by  (The Far Reaches Collection, #2)

  4. Dead Connection by  (Ellie Hatcher, #1)

    In Alafair Burke's electrifying thriller, Dead Connection, a rookie detective goes undercover on the Internet dating scene to draw out …

  5. Billy Boyle by  (A Billy Boyle WWII Mystery, #1)

    What’s a twenty-two-year-old Irish American cop who’s never been out of Massachusetts before doing at Beardsley Hall, an English country …

  6. Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me by  (Dark Lord Davi, #2)

    Dark Lord Davi rules the kingdom, but she must now break the time loop that binds her in this hilariously …

  7. The Guest by 

    “Alex drained her wineglass, then her water glass. The ocean looked calm, a black darker than the sky. A ripple …

  8. Money Shot by  (Angel Dare, #1)

    THEY THOUGHT SHE’D BE EASY. THEY THOUGHT WRONG.

    It all began with the phone call asking former porn star …

  9. San Diego 2014 by 

    A Newflesh novella from the New York Times bestselling author that brought you Feed, Mira Grant.

    It was the …

  10. Just Out of Jupiter's Reach by  (The Far Reaches Collection, #5)

    A revolutionary experiment in space opens a woman’s eyes to the meaning of solitude in a thought-provoking short story by …

  11. Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by 

    From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to …

    Phil in SF says:

    Babel is told from the perspective of a young man named Robin, so the narrative can only see the conversations of women when Robin is there for them. However, Robin does get to witness his friends Letty and Victoire discuss balls and translation and probably a few other things I haven't got to yet.

  12. The Unkillable Frank Lightning by 

    Catherine Coldbridge is a complicated woman: A doctor, an occultist, and, briefly, a widow.

    In 1879, Private Frank Humble, …

  13. Choke Hold by  (Angel Dare, #2)

    Angel Dare went into Witness Protection to escape her past—not as a porn star, but as a killer who took …

  14. The Get Off by  (Angel Dare, #3)

    Tagged as a cop killer when a mission of vengeance goes wrong, Angel Dare finds herself on the run, with …

  15. The Rose Code by 

    1940- As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley …

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