Lately, I see this term a lot. Probably because my debut, Our Gifted Hearts, is full of it. Before pitching and marketing began though, I hadn’t particularly thought about this aspect of the novel.

It would casually appear alongside a list of tropes describing the book:

• Haunted manor house
• Pet familiar
• Witches
• Feminine rage
• Slow burn

See how it just slots right in there? I had thought more about feminine power while writing, but I realise now that power is rooted in rage. They say to write what you know, and boy do I know rage.

My story is a common one. I’ll spare you the details, but it happens to millions of women around the globe. You thought you had a happy family unit with a future, but you didn’t, and you didn’t know it. Or maybe you did, but you never that small voice inside deep speak. People tell you how sorry they are and how brave you are for coping so well. But that is on the outside. On the inside things are very different.

Your entire life, your goals and dreams, the foundation you made every decision upon, has been blown to smithereens. And there was nothing you could do about it. You are left with a small child and a heap of responsibility to bear alone. The injustice of it! A white-hot searing wall of pain and anger take over. And it burns and burns. Eventually, the white changes to a simmering yellow, a slow-burn rage, and all future decisions are based on this.

It can start a new fire that makes you glow in its warmth, or you can let the bitter taste of ash consume you. Luckily for me, I chose the former, with a lot of help from family and friends.

Rage gives women power. Not every woman has to experience what I did to feel it. It’s the little things every day that build and build. Those interactions that remind you constantly that we live in a patriarchy. Men and women are supposed to be equal, but that’s not how it feels. We even internalise the patriarchy. It eats away at us.

I recently watched The Substance and felt the pain of Elisabeth refusing to accept and love her older self, instead clinging to an impossible ideal that breaks her. Literally.

It’s time to break free from tradition and expectations.

In Our Gifted Hearts I wanted every woman to see that they have power, even if they don’t feel it just yet, it’s there, waiting to come out. It took 36 years before I embraced my own power, and I wouldn’t wish for anyone to have to wait that long, to be forced into loving themselves through horrible circumstances.

And maybe that’s what feminine rage boils down to. Love. Because alongside the rage comes a respect for yourself, a willingness to fight for yourself, because you deserve someone in your corner. 

It’s time to let that inner voice shout. Loud!