We have a rather interesting Rec League this week and I’m honestly surprised we haven’t received something similar earlier. Here’s the request from Ren:
I would like to put out a request for romances with atheist heroes or heroines.
I’m an atheist myself and I can never find that part of myself represented in genre fiction. If there’s an atheist character, by the end of the book they will invariably end up converting, and I’ll throw the book across the room in a fit of rage.
What I would like to see is protagonists who either remain atheists throughout the book or who start off as religious and then lose their faith. Agnosticism would also be okay, or any kind of irreligious characters. (I especially love historicals, but nobody ever mentions Freethinkers!)
I’d be very happy to get recs, as I’ve tried searching this site, reading lists, etc, and came up empty-handed. Help me Bitchery, you’re my only hope!
Honestly, this request stumped us at SBTB HQ, but we know some of you out there have some recommendations for Ren!
YES! I WANT THIS!
A Seditious Affair by, er, me has a loudly atheist freethinking radical hero in the Regency, a time when atheism could be prosecuted under blasphemy laws so it was quite a big deal. And An Unnatural Vice (also by, er, me) has a Victorian atheist hero (son of an archbishop, lost his faith, does not regain it) in a relationship with a fake spiritualist.
I’m sorry to self plug but I’m coming up otherwise blank on this! It’s possibly that there’s an awful lot of characters who would be atheist if asked, but the author didn’t see any particular reason to mention it on page.
Haha – the one time I have an answer to an HABO, of course the author is quicker 🙂 I specifically came here to plug Unnatural Vice, which I read yesterday – it’s awesome by the way. I love that whole series!
That’s interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an atheist character convert in a piece of genre fiction. Would like to hear more about those books.
About atheist characters in general, I think I’ve assumed that most scientist characters are atheist, unless the author uses their religion as a powerful motivator in the story. I agree with KJ Charles, perhaps for many authors, it goes without saying.
Emerson from Elizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody series comes to mind. It’s more a historical mystery with romance. Throughout the series he maintains his atheism.
I also just listened to What a Dragon Should Know by G.A. Aiken The heroine doesn’t believe in worshipping gods and trust most in rational thought. But it’s a dragon shifter story and features some supernatural god characters. I don’t know if that’s what your looking for.
I dunno if she’s irreligious, but irreverent for sure: Stella Miles Franklin.
Think around 1890s (?)
I’ve read My Career Goes Bung and Some Everyday People and Dawn. Seen the My Brilliant Career movie.
Caveat that she was an antinatalist. Doesn’t bother me, but definitely not the trend in historicals.
I’m an atheist myself, so I’ll be following this one!
Atheist characters in romance seem to be as rare as happily childfree women. Any woman who starts off not wanting kids almost invariably ends up “seeing the light” and adoring children by the end of the book. It’s maddening.
I hope if it’s okay for me to mention my own book, Awakening, which is currently up for preorder. The heroine was raised in a repressive religious family but has been a closeted atheist since a young age. She defies her family to go to college. The hero is also non-religious.
Sorry for the shameless self-promotion here, but I felt this fit the request. I’m an atheist myself and it is frustrating to not see myself represented except as a caricature who either converts by the end or is just a bitter hopeless person. Looking forward to seeing the recommendations here 🙂
Following a Twitter discussion, several people recommended Not Another Rock Star by Amber Belldene. It’s a priest/rock star romance, m/f with female priest, and I’m told the hero is an agnostic throughout.
THANK YOU for these recommendations! I was really embarrassed that I couldn’t think of any.
Atheist characters in romance seem to be as rare as happily childfree women. Any woman who starts off not wanting kids almost invariably ends up “seeing the light” and adoring children by the end of the book. It’s maddening.
YES. I hate that predictable plot twist and it makes me FURIOUS.
Hope it’s okay to pimp my own work. One of the lead characters in the first book of my new series, Stoker & Bash: The Fangs of Scavo, is an atheist, though the topic is never directly broached in the first book… but will be in the second. 😀 It’s a Victorian M/M mystery romance.
I’m inclined to put forward the Crawford siblings in Jane Austen’s “Mansfield Park”. They don’t even speak the lingo of supposedly religious-rooted virtues. Unfortunately they fit into the “morally dubious” category: no role models. Think “for fun, not forever”. Still, not lacking in charm.
The heroine also realises she can’t respect her parents, which was the commandment I thought I would be hell-bound for disobeying if I lived past childhood. But Austen, the minister’s daughter, seems inclined to allow that sin in her (try-hard?) “model” heroine.
Feel weird shamelessly mentioning my own book, but my YA novel, PROOF OF LIES, features an atheist best friend who stands up to her religious family. It’s a smaller part of the first book, but her atheistic beliefs play more heavily in book 2, Lies that Bind, when she attends a funeral.
I second and third the KJ Charles recs.
Cover Thy Neighbor by LA Witt – m/m contemporary between a pastor and an atheist. I felt like the book didn’t quite live up to its potential but it was still pretty good. I got impatient with the h/h – they start with insta-lust, follow it up with a lot of “this will never work, why can’t I quit you?” wingeing and then, bam, they realize it’s possible to love each other without compromising their core beliefs. (As I write this, I realize I’ve outlined the plot of like 50% of all genre romance so ymmv).
This is a really interesting request. As I think about it, I think the majority of romance characters in contemporaries are vaguely secular – not atheist, not religious, not even actively agnostic or questioning, just secular. And the majority of characters in historicals are vaguely Christian or vaguely whatever the dominant religion of their time and place is. But it’s much less common to find romance characters that have strongly stated views on religion either way – either atheists or people who actively practice their religion and rely on their faith (rather than people who just vaguely identify with the religion they were raised with), with the exception of inspies.
I wish I could recommend something! I know I’ve read a number of irreligious characters, but it’s never a major plot point or even something that is brought up throughout the book (because of course they don’t need to be shown going to weekly religious services or praying before every meal, etc.)
Honestly I wish there were religious warnings on books. I am currently 15% into a much recommended contemporary and I’m about to DNF because they are praying before a weekday lunch, and I can’t take a whole book of that.
I can’t tell if the heroine in this book remains an atheist, but she’s described as a devout one. File under “paranormal” and “historical” as well. Immortal Surrender by Claire Ashgrove
i can speak for my own books, and say that daniel, from IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE, will, from WHERE WE LEFT OFF, and ginger, from SMALL CHANGE, are all agnostic/atheists. 🙂
I’m agnostic, so I don’t particularly enjoy overly religious heroines.. probably the one I could recommend is What A Dragon Should Know by G.A. Aiken (a.k.a. Shelly Laurenston). The heroine is a non-believer in a world where there’s a large pantheon of gods.
I guess since other people have mentioned their own work, I’ll jump in. Whyborne in the Whyborne & Griffin series (though he did make little altars to Pan and Bacchus as a child). Nick in Hexslayer. Caleb in SPECTR probably started as agnostic, but after being possessed by a 5,000-year-old vampire spirit becomes an atheist (the vampire having never observed any evidence of a god or gods in all that time). The first two are m/m historical paranormal romance, the third m/m paranormal romance.
Please feel free to suggest your own work in this thread – by all means, and thank you!
“Split” by Miss Merikan (my pen name in terms of disclosure). Satanic occultist heroine, discovering atheistic Satanism by the end :> Hero also atheist after coming from a very religious Catholic home.
Sorry, this is totally not a romance – but it is a fascinating memoir about a Christian missionary/linguist who becomes an atheist: Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes, by Daniel L. Everett.
Sorry, I haven’t any suggestions for your primary request, but I’d like to mention Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman as two authors that might interest an athiest reader of genre fiction. Pratchett’s Carpe Jugulum, part of the Witches sequence came to mind immediately.
Also, I think it’s great to see authors helping a reader with such a challenging request. I find most current historical romance writers that I read tend to treat religion as sort of a gloss rather than something deeply and sincerely believed.
@Cleo, good point. Religious beliefs barely appears in most of my reading. A tip of the hat to the vicar in historicals, not even a nod in contemporary. Maybe that old convention about not discussing religion or politics in public still holds some sway.
Funny thing is I see better representations of what could be considered religious themes – forgiveness, redemption, charity – in books that don’t mention religion at all. Except for the occasional “Oh my God!” in extremely …secular moments.
That being said, can’t contribute anything to the rec list.
Leila from the Night Prince series (by Jeaniene Frost). There are various mentions of “If I believed in God, I would be praying right now.” The hero is a believer, but it’s never an issue between them.
Phillip Pullman Golden Compass series goes all the way into anti-theism. I honestly feel the book end got hijacked by the anti-God message.
And… ugh, I am sure I’ve read more. I’ll add if I remember
The hero and heroine of my MAX SEVENTEEN have both been raised in a Christian environment, hers quite harsh. He pays lip service, she thinks it’s all a load of hypocritical bollocks. At one point she corrects his automatic “Thank God” with “You don’t believe in religion over science,” and he agrees.
Incidentally, neither of them want children. Most emphatically her. And she does not change her mind! Because that’s a trope I find absolutely maddening.
I can’t think of any books where the characters are specifically atheist. I tend to assume as much unless otherwise mentioned.
I’m going out on limb here with “The Last Hour of Gann” by R Lee Smith. Amber Bierce makes No bones about her lack of any faith while Meoraq is sort of in the planets religious domain. She snarks him constantly throughout and the end revelation rocks Meoraq’s entire thinking. Great book
Witches of London is a contemporary m/m that has an Asatruar falling in love with an atheist (who stays one). Scorpion (currently out of print) is m/m fantasy with a lead who’s definitely in the atheist ballpark – gods are very much a matter of opinion.
Thank you very much for the recs! I’ve been waiting for this to get posted since forever and I squealed when I saw the post with 24 comments already! All the suggested books sound great and I look forward to checking them out, I’m especially loving all the authors commenting with their books. 🙂
I’m sure there’s many more characters who would say they’re atheists if asked but it never comes up in the book… but that’s the point, I want book where it does come up. I’ve got books with bisexual characters and with women in STEM, so why not this too. And I’m glad to see that there are quite more irreligious characters than I thought!
Confession: I do read Whyborne & Griffin but forgot about Whyborne being an atheist, whoops. I think it’s the only book/series suggested that I’ve already read. That, and Pratchett and Pullman. I love the Discworld series and I’m still in mourning for Sir Terry. Monstrous Regiment is my favourite book of his, mostly because of badass crossdressing soldiers but I also like the theme of religion vs belief. Brilliant stuff.
@Ren, thanks for being brave enough to ask. Throwing the atheist bomb in a public forum can have very unpleasant consequences. Made the mistake of referring to Adam & Eve as a creation myth one time. I’ll never do that again….
And thanks to the Bitchery for, as always, being accepting and helpful.
The hero in Flowers From the Storm by Laura Kinsale is atheist. The heroine is a devout Quaker who comes to terms both with losing her faith community (involuntarily) and living outside the strictures of that faith.
@Roan Parrish – ooooh, Ginger got a book? Guess I slept on that one – off to buy and read. I loved the “middle of” series! 🙂
The funny thing is that Pratchett’s Carpe Jugulum contains the best description of faith I can remember reading in fiction – when the little priest takes out his holy book and makes ‘a great light’ in the darkness.
@cleo – that’s what I was thinking. It’s surprising how many historicals don’t address how much the trappings of religion affected everyday life. Many take place in eras where not actively attending would definitely had gotten the side eye from neighbors or authority figures, especially in small communities where it definitely would be noted.
I am surprised more by the lack of atheism in contemporaries where I would expect it to be more common.
@Gemma yes to everything you wrote! Additionally I am so tired of the books that end with a sudden pregnancy for the hero or heroine who was previously rejected for being infertile; this is the fertility equivalent of a makeover montage. I wish there was a book with an infertile person or couple who discovers a childfree HEA.
The amount of romance varies from book to book in the Laurie R. King Beekeeper’s Apprentice series, but the stances on faith/religion of the central two characters are fascinating to me. The heroine’s Jewishness is a really important part of her identity, but she finds herself increasingly agnostic; meanwhile, her partner (first platonic, then spousal) is pretty staunchly atheistic but respectful of her beliefs.
Thank you for asking this question! Sometimes it feels like we might not exist, either!
I agree that in many cases it’s not mentioned. I wonder if this reader has been seeking out books that are described as having atheist mmain characters, and inadvertently running into “conversion” stories because she’s getting inspirationals where being atheist is part of the plot and character arc.
I write contemporary romantic suspense, and none of my characters are religious. Yet I think Camie, the heroine of The Skeleton Canyon Treasure, is the only one who actually mentions her religious (non)beliefs.
@Lady Voulptua Raventresses – Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas has a lovely HEA for an infertile couple. I too want more books with happy child free couples.
@Lynnd, I’m going of on a tangent in the thread. Sorry! I love HEA without a child. Historicals typically have it with an infertile couple – that’s fine, there was no reliable birth control. But in contemporary romances, I want it to be because of personal choice (i.e. they felt no need to have a child).