One of my favorite tropes of all time is when a girl disguises herself as a boy for the purposes of infiltration. It’s hard to articulate why I love this concept so very much, but I do. For me, a woman fooling the patriarchy has a feeling of justified espionage. I have always loved the idea of spying but been a little turned off by its associated questionable morality. These girls are disguised out of necessity, because they cannot achieve their goals any other way. A girl-disguised-as-a-boy is the ultimate outsider, trying desperately to join a group that by her very nature is ultimately impossible. She can give me voyeuristic insight into the guarded interactions of the male of the species – those mysterious creatures.
From a storytelling perspective, our female protagonist’s initial desperate act of subterfuge gives rise to the constant tension of possible discovery. How will friends, colleagues, and superiors react to being duped when she is found out? For the reader knows that she will, eventually, be found out. That constant stress on the character translates, at its best, to an intrinsically thrilling read.
Here are five great books where a girl dresses as a boy or, if you prefer, a woman dresses as a man.
Alanna: the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
The first in the Lioness quartet; a classic epic fantasy series for young adults. Alanna wants nothing more in life than to be a knight, so she disguises herself as a boy and travels to her nation’s capital to become a palace page. Alanna is witty, stubborn, brave, and talented, but also flawed in such a way that it is all too easy to see why she conceived of this madcap plan and why she might fail.
Sword Masters by Selina Rosen
The story of a woman with a very particular set of skills, and some seriously dangerous secrets, who infiltrates not only a school for swordsmen but a foreign culture, in an effort to build alliances and defeat a common enemy. Disguised as a man she is forced, eventually, to marry a woman, and must face the consequences of her own lies on a personal, as well as a professional, level.
The Price of the Stars by Debra Doyle & James D. MacDonald
The first book in a sprawling space opera trilogy. Beka fakes her own death and becomes Tarnkeep, a thoroughly unpleasant space pirate, in order to unravel the twisting political coils that are tightening the noose of responsibility around her reluctant neck. Beka loves being her male alter ego, and there is a definite aspect of transgender to Beka’s personality, which is neither empathized nor criticized. When Beka is Tarnkeep she is described in 3rd POV as a he, a narrative trick that forces the reader see him for what Beka also is, male. Tarnkeep allows Beka access to freedom, places, people, and information she could never have as her other self. He also finds it much easier to kill. Thus we are never certain if Beka loves being Tarnkeep for what he can give her, for what he is innately, or if she/he simply exists comfortably as two distinct personalities.
To Play the Lady by Naomi Lane
The first book in a (sadly) unfinished series. It features many of the things I love about a girl playing a boy, although in this story our low class tomboy from another culture must play at being both a noble lady and a stable lad. Politics force Jenna to assume this double act, hiding her magical abilities and her manly skills. If discovered, Jenna will bring shame and destruction down upon her family, her nationality, and her entire social caste. For Jenna, the stakes are very very high indeed.
Newt’s Emerald by Garth Nix
A charming take on gaslight fantasy, and uses the girl-disguised-as-boy trope in its more light-hearted guise. In regency times, Newt must track down a missing emerald. As it is much easier to get around alone as a mustache-wearing man, Newt dons the mustache with gusto. Hijinks and a very confused romance result.
New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger writes comedic steampunk mixed with urbane fantasy in three series: two adult, the Parasol Protectorate and the Custard Protocol, and one YA, the Finishing School series. (And yeah, these feature a popular female side character who dresses as a boy.) Gail was once an archaeologist and is overly fond of shoes, tea, and women dressed as men.
Uncool cover picture. Bait and switch is not becoming.
I would also highly recommend Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett. A fabulous use of this trope, with a great twist!
@1 All (or at least virtually all) of these types of posts on Tor use a photo from a famous example that is not mentioned in the ensuing text. Can’t say I disagree with the strategy – otherwise it might be hard to find good visuals for the piece.
To be fair, Ragnarredbeard, this is the normal setup for these lists. The cover images quickly convey the concept but don’t necessarily get referenced. And since it’s not a “Top 5” list, just a list, it’s fine. Éowyn is the poster warrior for this plot device and rightly so. She’s still the best of them all.
I should note – I have read and enjoyed several of the author’s works. Very fun.
I’d add The Thousand Names by Django Wexler. Oh, and maybe a Shakespeare play or two — especially fun at the time, because the female roles were played by male actors, so you’d have a male actor playing a female character who was pretending to be a man. And as @2 said, Monstrous Regiment!
I really enjoyed “Through A Brazen Mirror” by Delia Sherman which is in this same vein.
I thought this topic seemed familiar…
http://www.tor.com/2015/09/21/five-books-about-girls-disguised-as-boys/
Only about a month and a half ago, too. I mean, not that there’s anything wrong with that, I just found it funny, and the link does contain more examples people can enjoy.
I do get a Shiver in the ‘Return of the King’ in any media form (even the hanna barrberra film) when Eowyn disquised as Dernhelm tells the Witchking “I am no Man!!!”.
I always liked Lythande from ‘Thieves World’ too.
@5 So have I! As a matter of fact, my choice for this list? Genevieve LeFoux from the Parasol Protectorate!
Arya Stark in A Song of Fire and Ice Series.
To follow up on Stefan @6, Winter (one of the characters in Django Wexler’s who disguises herself as a man) infiltrates a potentially rebellious group of women in the 2nd book of the series. Thus, those who think she is a man see her disguising herself as a woman.
As the picture to this article shows, Eowyn disguised herself as a man in Return of the King.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
The recently out (and quite enjoyable) Walk the Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson also employs this plot device. It’s a US frontier/ wagon train adventure with a small bit of magic thrown in.
THE ANUBIS GATES by Tim Powers: the main female protagonist spends most of the book disguised as a young man.
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich is also excellent.
Technical nitpick: I believe that Beka’s alter-ego in The Price of the Stars is properly Tarnekep, not Tarnkeep (Tarnekep Portree, to give the persona his full name).
In the realm of additional examples, it might be noted that L. Frank Baum uses a version of this device in The Marvelous Land of Oz, although not perhaps in what we would now consider an enlightened fashion.
While i also love this trope (so much wacky ensues!), I find it disappointing that the inverse is rarely written of. Boys disguising themselves as girls is strangely hard to find outside of Ranma 1/2 fanfiction, even though they would technically be suffering through similar difficulties. Don’t suppose anyone knows any such stories they’d recommend?
I do wonder how the fictional trope of cross-dressing in order to infiltrate a place barred to your gender affects the way in which people get paranoid about allowing trans* individuals into the spaces such as restrooms for the gender they identify with. The two seem related, and worth exploring by someone familiar with the appropriate issues.
I personally am partial to books focused on females succeeding in what we consider specifically male domains – Elizabeth Moon’s Parksenarrian being the best realized and most obvious example.
Yes, Allana fits the trope, but is also too close to a Mary Sue. She has all the powers, just when they are needed.
@6 Yeah The Thousand Names is what I think of when I saw this article. She switches back in forth in the second one, and is back to mostly being in disguise as a man in the third. Marcus is still oblivious to it, which is really funny, and also pretty sad.
The Ill made mute by Cecilia Dart-Thornton was a great book also
You forgot the best one of all! The Girl From the Emeraline Island. It has it all–girl disguises herself as a boy for the educational opportunities, always on the edge of detection, almost gets caught because she has her period and pretends she has cut herself on the leg really badly, romance, bromance, blood, radiation sickness, coming-of-age, alien furry things, and, well, everything! The Girl From the Emeraline Island
What about The Agency series by Y.S. Lee – definitely plays with the trope throughout the whole series. “A Victorian-era girls’ academy acts as a cover for an all-female investigative unit called The Agency. Follows the adventures of Mary Quinn.” Because it’s Victorian London, boys can go more places than girls can. Mary often has to dress as a boy to be able to solve the mysteries.
@16 The one novel I can think of where a boy spends much of the time disguised as a girl is THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE QUEST by Margaret Lovett, a historical mystery set in a late medieval world. The orphan boy, Trad, is being raised in a remote village by his abusive grandfather, when he comes across a wounded knight, whose head-wound prevents him from remembering his identity and the purpose of his quest. Trad and the knight escape from the knight’s pursuers by posing as travelling entertainers, with Trad disguised as a girl and pretending to be the knight’s daughter. There are clues along the way that they uncover suggesting that Trad is heir to the throne, who’d been hidden away and who is now being sought by those who’d prevent him from being raised to rule, and that the knight’s quest was to find and protect Trad.
Alanna was my hero as a child and the reason became addicted to reading. I love seeing her on lists, but when it comes to reading my favorite female in disguise is Viola from The Twelfth Night.
Leigh Brackett’s People of the Talisman.
I’m reading Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson right now. Excellent book! A girl with the ability to sense gold disguises herself as a boy to work her way west to California during the Gold Rush.
The Beacon at Alexandria by Gillian Bradshaw – a GREAT adventure, a wonderful character, terrific historical fiction. From Library Journal – “When Charis learns that her father has betrothed her to the hated Roman governor Festinus, she enlists the aid of her brother and flees to Alexandria. There, disguised as a eunuch, she begins to study Hippocratic medicine under the tutelage of a patient Jewish physician. The young woman excels as a healer and her fame spreads. Political intrigues force her to frontier outposts of the Roman Empire where she practices as an army doctor. She succeeds in maintaining her disguise until she is captured and held prisoner by the Goths during their uprising against the Romans. Bradshaw has superbly re-created the political, social, and intellectual climate of the 4th century A.D. and the attitudes towards woman and medicine in this excellent work “
Eon: Dragoneye Re8born
Albert Nobbs?
Bloody Jack and the Bloody Jack series by L. A. Meyer. Around 1800, Mary as Jacky Faber is a ship’ boy in the first book and frequently shifts back and forth throughout the series. She’s smart cunning, and resourceful, Frequently to much for her own good. She struggles through the Napoleonic wars, fights pirates, becomes a pirate, and a fine lady in puritanical Boston. “It’s easier being a boy.” “What’s the matter Jaimy? Ain’t-cha never seen a girl before?”