You may have noticed a new TV series on Sky called Sweet Pea. What you might not realise is that there is a series of books by CJ Skuse. I recently read the first one (titled Sweet Pea) to see what all the fuss was about.
What I found was a wonderfully sardonic first hand account of a woman who has run out of f***s to give. Oh, and she’s also a psychopath. Or is she? Who knows, the narrator of our piece is far from reliable.
What we do know is that she enjoys killing people. Thoroughly enjoys it. In fact, she can’t go long between killings. But she has standards. She doesn’t kill just anyone (never children), she saves her evil deeds for the child molesters, rapists and school bullies of the world. They, in her world, are fair game.
How does she get away with it, quite simply, she’s a woman. And no one suspects a woman could be guilty of such heinous crimes. It’s funny really, to see the advantages of a male-centric world framed in this way. Almost like a warning.
There is more and more interest in the book world on the subject of female rage. Whether that be literal (as in the case with Sweet Pea) or if it is more subtle. The thing that makes Sweet Pea shocking is that she is a woman, normal appearing on the outside but a swirling, raging monster on the inside. These are behaviours women are told to swallow. Girls aren’t violent, they are sweet. But that’s not true is it? Women feel anger as much as men do. And sometimes that leads to aggression or violence.
So, is this becoming more acceptable? Is female anger being allowed to play out in the public psyche? Well, yes and no. Sweet Pea has reasons for her rage. She has been damaged (again, not sure how reliable her accounts are). She has a serious mental health condition at the very least.
With the huge increase in the number of books concerning witchcraft (mostly, but not exclusively, with a feminist tilt) and TV shows being made about angry women it seems the world is becoming a little more accepting of women and their complex range of emotions.
All we need now is to see a trend of books about men being in touch with their emotional side and we’ll have a much more balanced (literary) world.
Charlotte Wood is a feminist and writer of the macabre and sinister. She reads horror, fantasy, classic literature and historical fiction (with a preference for history from a woman’s perspective).
Charlotte’s debut novel Heather available for preorder now!
A compelling, frightening and heart-breaking tale of desperation, Heather is a ghost story spanning 100 years that will keep you guessing till the end.