Women In SFF Trope Fridays – Found Families
The team has done a great job this month bringing you plenty of recommendations based on popular tropes in SFF, and we’ve absolutely loved seeing your responses through the photo challenge. Here are the previous posts from throughout the month:
For this final week, we’ll be looking at Found Families!
Nils: It has to be The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna. Here you will find the most wholesome and diverse found family and they all fit together perfectly. When you meet the inhabitants of Nowhere House; flamboyant Ian, calm and peaceful Ken, fiery Terracotta, bookish Rosetta, quiet Altamira, and then thorny Jamie, you along with Mika Moon can’t help but fall in love with each of them. They also do fun magic, so there’s a bonus right there!
Beth: This has been a massively popular trope lately with the rise of cosy fantasy but, as the genius that is Nils reminded me, it’s been around a while – Howl’s Moving Castle by Dianna Wynn Jones is the perfect example of it! If you don’t know this story, either from the original book or the hugely popular Ghibli adaptation, Sophie is cursed and so leaves home to find help. She finds, instead, Wizard Howl, his fire demon Calcifer, and his apprentice Michael. It’s an utterly enchanting story of how she turns their lives upside down, and how they rescue hers in turn.
Wyrd and Wonder Readalong | Available now
Kat: I love the way that the Found Family trope is handled in The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss. The story follows the women (both canon & fictional) in classic stories like Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, The Island of Doctor Moreau, and many others. They all find each other and unravel the mystery that their famous relatives or counterparts have left behind. It’s also told in a way where you get interjections and opinions from the different characters about the way that story is being told while it unfurls which really adds to the sibling vibes!
Cat: I know the author will be amazed that I picked her out of all the possibilities, but it’s got to be Ryann Fletcher’s Cricket Chronicles. Found family in space, a crew of misfits doing their best to fight the evil establishment while also navigating human relationships. I want to cosplay my favourite characters and adore how the books blossom as the series progresses. From the first book written with hope as an indie author to discovering an audience and a following of fans, the story of the books is as great a Found Family tale as that within its pages.
Jonathan: my favourite example of this trope is found in Roz Kaveney’s superlative Rhapsody of Blood series. Across five wonderful books we get to know Emma Jones, her ghostly lover Caroline, and Mara the Huntress, an eternal hunter tasked with stopping abuse of the Rituals of Blood, as they gather about them a wonderful cast of varied characters from mythology, literature, history, and Kaveney’s own imagination to team up and fight the forces of ultimate evil. The way that they all come together through various conflicts but learn to work together and support each other is beautifully handled. By the final book, Kaveney has expertly juggled all her characters, giving them all satisfying arcs and a way to contribute to the explosive climax. Wonderful stuff.
Jonathan’s review | Available now
What’s your favourite Found Family story? Let us know on socials using #WomenInSFF!
