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The Natural Way of Things

Charlotte Wood

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Similar in characterization + relationships

These books are ranked using the characterization + relationships labels extracted for The Natural Way of Things. Books rank higher when they are close on every selected axis.

Characterization labels used: young women, female ensemble, survivors, captors, sadistic guards, inept authority, female alliance, resourceful heroine, dehumanized victims

Relationships labels used: female friendship, alliance, bonding, group conflict, power imbalance, guard-prisoner, female rivalry, solidarity, betrayal, dependency

This does not mean the books share the same plot, setting, quality, or difficulty. It means their characterization + relationships embeddings are close.

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The Year of the Flood

Margaret Atwood · 2009 · MaddAddam

Two women survive a man-made apocalypse while moving through a world of eco-faith, corporations, and engineered life.

Why this is here

Characterization labels: female protagonists · survivors · eco-activists · cult members · religious adherents · resilient women · resourceful · naive youth · mature survivor · moral ambiguity · antagonistic survivors

Relationships labels: friendship · female friendship · romantic breakup · lover loss · stepfamily · community bonds · cult belonging · power imbalance · betrayal · loyalty

Semantic match: ranked by characterization + relationships

Distance: 0.1292

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The Girl and the Moon

Mark Lawrence · 2022 · Book of the Ice

An outcast from the ice reaches the Corridor and must survive trials, enemies, and a world-saving secret.

Why this is here

Characterization labels: young outcast · heroine · complicated heroine · strong women · nuns · novices · friends group · enemies ahead · resilient protagonist

Relationships labels: friendship · female friendship · companionship · camaraderie · rivalry · enemy pursuit · authority conflict · convent hierarchy · group loyalty

Semantic match: ranked by characterization + relationships

Distance: 0.1506

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I Who Have Never Known Men

Jacqueline Harpman · 2022

Forty women are trapped underground with no answers; one nameless girl must make sense of freedom, loss, and survival.

Why this is here

Characterization labels: unnamed protagonist · young girl narrator · curious narrator · courageous narrator · outsider · female community · male guards · survivor identity

Relationships labels: female friendship · female intimacy · sisterhood · community bonds · power imbalance · captor captive · companionship · isolation

Semantic match: ranked by characterization + relationships

Distance: 0.1510

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The Unworthy

Agustina Bazterrica · 2025

A woman records life inside a brutal post-apocalyptic convent, where faith, fear, and hidden desire shape survival.

Why this is here

Characterization labels: unnamed protagonist · novice · lower-ranking · female-led community · sadistic leader · mysterious leader · oppressed women · survivor

Relationships labels: sisterhood · female friendship · mentor abuse · power imbalance · hierarchical control · cult dependency · romantic bond · sapphic desire · rivalry · coercive community

Semantic match: ranked by characterization + relationships

Distance: 0.1528

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The Last Girl

Joe Hart · 2016 · The Dominion Trilogy

A captive young woman in a dystopia of vanishing girls discovers the truth behind her prison and fights to escape.

Why this is here

Characterization labels: defiant heroine · female protagonist · captive survivor · brainwashed youth · badass heroine · strong female lead · test subject · rebellious protagonist · violent survivor · flawed heroine · protective guard · rebel allies · female friendships · disabled character · male guard

Relationships labels: guard and captive · friendship · sisterhood · found family · rivalry · parent separation · betrayal · romantic tension · power imbalance

Semantic match: ranked by characterization + relationships

Distance: 0.1600

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Girls with Razor Hearts

Suzanne Young · 2020 · Girls with Sharp Sticks

Escaped girls infiltrate a new school to destroy the corporation behind them, but freedom brings new threats.

Why this is here

Characterization labels: female ensemble · female friendship · strong women · traumatized protagonist · feminist heroine · double agent · rogue investor · love interest · rogue girl

Relationships labels: sisterhood · female solidarity · friendship · romance · power imbalance · manipulation · betrayal · dependency · protective bond

Semantic match: ranked by characterization + relationships

Distance: 0.1601

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Into the Mist

P.C. Cast · 2022 · Into the Mist

After a deadly green mist ravages the U.S., a group of women with new powers must survive and build a new world.

Why this is here

Characterization labels: teachers · middle-aged women · older women · teen healer · female ensemble · badass women · female empowerment · supportive group · competent survivors · strong women · teacher protagonists

Relationships labels: friendship · female friendship · sisterhood · found family · group loyalty · group conflict · parent-child · power imbalance

Semantic match: ranked by characterization + relationships

Distance: 0.1611

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The Birth Yard

Mallory Tater · 2020

In a present-day cult that controls women’s fertility, an eighteen-year-old begins to question the life she’s built.

Why this is here

Characterization labels: young woman · rebellious heroine · questioning protagonist · timid to defiant · female friendship · controlled women · male authority · cult leader · midwife

Relationships labels: female friendship · friend loyalty · family pressure · parental control · power imbalance · romantic pairing · forced match · community surveillance · betrayal suspicion

Semantic match: ranked by characterization + relationships

Distance: 0.1611

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Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 49, June 2014: Women Destroy Science Fiction!

Christie Yant · 2014

A women-made special issue of Lightspeed combines original SF, reprints, flash, essays, and interviews into one giant response.

Why this is here

Characterization labels: women protagonists · female soldiers · scientists · explorers · artists · detectives · robots · sentient ships · modified humans · mermaids · mythic reworking · strong women · working women · alien beings

Relationships labels: female friendship · romance · rivalry · mentor-mentee · mother-child · sisters · marriage · friend betrayal · power imbalance · government control · community bonds · professional hierarchy

Semantic match: ranked by characterization + relationships

Distance: 0.1665

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The Everlasting Rose

Dhonielle Clayton · 2019 · The Belles

A fugitive Belle races to stop a ruthless queen, rescue her sisters, and expose the dark system behind beauty magic.

Why this is here

Characterization labels: female protagonist · determined heroine · angry heroine · naive protagonist · headstrong · ambitious · powerful women · villainous queen · rebel leaders · guard companion · sister characters · ambiguous allies

Relationships labels: sisters · romance · guard and heroine · sibling loyalty · betrayal · resistance alliance · power struggle · rivalry · trust issues

Semantic match: ranked by characterization + relationships

Distance: 0.1677

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Grey Sister

Mark Lawrence · 2018 · Book of the Ancestor

A deadly novice must choose her path while enemies, politics, and buried truths close in on Sweet Mercy.

Why this is here

Characterization labels: female protagonist · powerful protagonist · angry protagonist · loyal protagonist · resourceful protagonist · cunning leader · mastermind · mischievous side character · secondary cast focus · mean girl antagonist · teen girls · novice trainees · assassin nun

Relationships labels: friendship · female friendship · sisterhood · loyalty · betrayal · rivalry · mentor-mentee · family conflict · power imbalance · community bonds · chosen family

Semantic match: ranked by characterization + relationships

Distance: 0.1679

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Nevertheless, She Persisted: Flash Fiction Project

Diana M. Pho, Charlie Jane Anders, Brooke Bolander, Amal El-Mohtar, Maria Dahvana Headley, Kameron Hurley, Seanan McGuire, Nisi Shawl, Catherynne M. Valente, Carrie Vaughn, Jo Walton, Alyssa Wong · 2020

Eleven SFF writers turn a famous act of silencing into flash fiction about women refusing to be محدود.

Why this is here

Characterization labels: determined women · defiant heroines · female protagonists · strong women · oppressed women · curious women · surviving women · women inventors · women seekers · women resisting · powerful women · moral ambiguity

Relationships labels: sisterhood · women's solidarity · mentor opposition · power imbalance · community resistance · female bonds · family tension · rivalry · dependency

Semantic match: ranked by characterization + relationships

Distance: 0.1710

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