Deviant Young Womanhood: Liminal Queerness, Mad Femininity, and Spectral Subjectivity

The last chapter addresses Victorian conventions and restrictions on historical youth, particularly unconventional young women’s bodies, and minds. Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle trilogy (2003, 3005, 2007), Jane Eagland’s Wildthorn (2009), Cat Winters’ The Cure for Dreaming (2014), and Mindy McGuiness’ A Madness So Discreet (2014) all feature the trials and tribulations of young adult women who live their lives outside of normative conceptions of gender, sexuality, or politics. This chapter suggests that, while young adult fiction’s inclusion of these women highlights many of the obstacles faced by queer people and othered subjects of the past, these texts also figure their female characters as liminal subjects who are in a period of transition—between spaces and places, as well as between rules and rebellion—as they pursue autonomy and selfhood independent of their social circumstances.