Speaking of Wicked: 9-ish Books to Get to Know Me - Kelis Rowe
These books are compulsive rereads for me. I was impacted by each one because they all revealed something to me about myself and helped me to know and understand myself in hindsight and in real time. They all star girls and women who are aware of how perpetually out of place in the world they are and accept it. They are socially awkward, chronically misunderstood and completely at home with/inside themselves. They need to help people out of an urge that feels like a calling and are only forced out of their comfort zones to that end, on large and small levels. They don’t need or want attention. They are solitary for different reasons, but when they choose to love and be loved, they do it deeply and completely. They come to rely on those connections, but not to depend on them. And if they’re not Virgos (like me 💁🏾♀️), they’re definitely Virgo vibes. Here are the nine-ish books to read to know me, in no particular order:
1 & 2. Wicked and the prequel, Elphie, by Gregory McGuire- They tell the complete story of the central character and are essential reading to understand Elphaba Throp, so I’m listing them as one. Don’t question it.
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Katniss Everdeen would much rather not, but she does out of an innate duty and she kills it.
4. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman - Eleanor is an odd bird, who is really good at her job and a kindhearted man inexplicably falls in love with her.
5. Sociopath by Partic Gagne, PhD - It’s a memoir and not what you think, but kind of also is?
6. The Viscount Who Loved Me (the book, not to be confused with Season 2 of The Bridgertons) - Kate and Lord Anthony are my favorite individual characters for similar reasons to each other and also to Eleanor Oliphant. Neither Kate, Anthony, nor Eleanor are looking for love, but the most life-changing love finds each of them. Kate and Anthony are also my favorite couple in the Bridgetons series so far— I’ve only read to book 6.
7. The Parable of The Sower by Octavia Butler - Lauren Olamina is a hyper-empathetic teen who is quiet, tall, “big and strong”, at home in her head, yet reluctantly called on to save people around her and also humanity. She starts a cult that I would actually join in real life and I have tattoos inspired by the cult and the author because that’s how much they have both impacted me, even though I’ve only been able to read this book twice due to the violence.
8. Finding Jupiter by Kelis Rowe, obviously. Jupiter Moon Ray Evans is a lot of me.
9-ish. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - I’m convinced that all girls and women who re-read this novel have all experienced some kind of personality or identity confusion and traced it back to a moment in childhood where their grownups failed them, and are ultimately still okay. Esther Greenwood is a tall, beautiful over-achieving teen who tries really hard to be okay. I relate to her in ways that are more edifying than damming, which is why she is the inspiration for my next YA novel (and technically the 10th book to know me) Yet to be titled, and announcing soon (I’ll edit this with a link after we announce.)
I hope this list inspires you to consider how art has and continues to shape you.
XO, Kel 🫶🏾