A Tyranny of Petticoats

15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers & Other Badass Girls

By: Jessica Spotswood - editor

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

From an impressive sisterhood of YA writers comes an edge-of-your-seat anthology of historical fiction and fantasy featuring a diverse array of daring heroines.

Criss-cross America - on dogsleds and ships, stagecoaches and trains - from pirate ships off the coast of the Carolinas to the peace, love, and protests of 1960s Chicago. Join fifteen of today's most talented writers of young adult literature on a thrill ride through history with American girls charting their own course. They are monsters and mediums, bodyguards and barkeeps, screenwriters and schoolteachers, heiresses and hobos. They're making their own way in often-hostile lands, using every weapon in their arsenals, facing down murderers and marriage proposals. And they all have a story to tell.

With stories by:

J. Anderson Coats

Andrea Cremer

Y. S. Lee

Katherine Longshore

Marie Lu

Kekla Magoon

Marissa Meyer

Saundra Mitchell

Beth Revis

Caroline Richmond

Lindsay Smith

Jessica Spotswood

Robin Talley

Leslye Walton

Elizabeth Wein

The full copyright information can be found below:

Original book published by Candlewick Press 2016.

P 2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Compilation and introduction © 2015 by Jessica Spotswood.

“Mother Carey’s Table” © 2015 by J. Anderson Coats.

“The Journey” © 2015 by Marie Lu.

“Madeleine’s Choice” © 2015 by Jessica Spotswood.

“El Destinos” © 2015 by Leslye Walton.

“High Stakes” © 2015 by Andrea Cremer.

“The Red Raven Ball” © 2015 by Caroline Tung Richmond.

“Pearls” © 2015 by Beth Revis.

“Gold in the Roots of the Grass” © 2015 by Marissa Meyer.

“The Legendary Garrett Girls” © 2015 by Y. S. Lee.

“The Color of the Sky” © 2015 by Elizabeth Gatland.

“Bonnie and Clyde” © 2015 by Saundra Mitchell.

“Hard Times” © 2015 by Katherine Longshore.

“City of Angels” © 2015 by Lindsay Smith.

“Pulse of the Panthers” © 2015 by Kekla Magoon.

“The Whole World Is Watching” © 2015 by Robin Talley.

©2015 Original book published by Candlewick Press (P)2015 Brilliance Audio

Critic reviews

"Bahni Turpin takes command in this tour-de-force narration of 15 stories by 15 authors about bold American girls.... Turpin gives no sign that the range of characters, eras, situations, and emotions is anything other than easy. She channels, complete with believable accents and intonations, an Inuit girl running for her life, the Three Fates temporarily transformed into prairie girls, a 1960s hippie protester, and a nineteenth-century gorgon murderess, among many others. This is addicting listening for young adults and adults alike." ( AudioFile)

A wonderful compilation

The stories were great. Some were stronger than others. I would have started the compilation with something slightly less tragic, but overall the representation of voices was refreshing. The narrator is fantastic.

Bad Ass Girls!

Entertaining and educational. The stories are well written and the performance is excellent. It is definitely worth the listen

really fun read

really liked the variety of writing and stories, very enjoyable. fun stories ranging from scifi, pure historical fiction to everything in between. loved that all were kick butt women/girls.

Love the narrator

The only reason I completed this is becuz of Bani Turpin she is the best narrator. A lot of these stories are short and make no sense. But I still like it.

such a nice diverse read

I loved this book. I have a hard time with short stories so the audiobook really helped. I love the narrator and all the stories were such diverse unique reads

Strong ladies are the only commonality

I think it would have been easier for me to get behind these 15 stories, all between a half hour and an hour, if they'd been a little more connected by genre, tone or time period. Instead, the commonality is they feature strong gals and get progressively more political as the date ticks closer to the past century. A few stories have magic or myth, but most are straight fiction. Also, there's padding for these already short stories, with an introduction to the anthology, and each author ending the story with a little insight into why they wrote the story ... or how it connects to a prior work. I appreciated some of the ties to real life history, but often this felt like telling instead of showing; a good short story does not require explanation. I appreciate that each story has its own chapter, so even if they aren't titled, you know that clicking on a chapter will start you at the beginning of each short.

My favorites were the weird westerns, with magic on the frontier. However, I preferred the Dead Man’s Hand anthology for a better collection of weird westerns. There were enough good shorts to make this worth the sale price.

Ch 1 Introduction
Ch 2 Mother Carey's Table by J Anderson Coats - 1710 Pirates of the Caribbean, but with female POV ⭐️
Ch 3 The Journey by Marie Lu - 1723 Eskimo tribes and parental loss, Trail of Tears feeling, or White Fang.
Ch 4 Madeleine's Choice by Jessica Spotswood. 1826 Louisiana accents, balls, marriage rumination⭐️
Ch 5 El Destinos by Leslye Walton -1848 Texas, immortal fates told with lyrical style ⭐️⭐️
Ch 6 High Stakes by Andrea Cremer- 1861 Boston, magical smorgasbord assembles to compete
Ch 7 The Red Raven Bail by Caroline Tung Richmond -1862 Wash DC, spycraft during the Civil War
Ch 8 Pearls by Beth Revis - 1876 Chicago, Wild West fable ⭐️⭐️
Ch 9 Gold in the Roots of the Grass by Marissa Meyer - 1877 South Dakot, fake fortune teller … or is she?!
I was captivated by this Asian tale. ⭐️⭐️
Ch 10 The Legendary Garrett Gils by Y.S. Lee -1898 Alaska, sisters are doing it for themselves
Ch 11 The Color of Sky by Elizabeth Gatland - 1926, planes and comments about the N word
Ch 12 Bonnie and Clyde by Saundra Mitchell, Tomboy heists during The Great Depression ⭐️
Ch 13 Hard Times by Katherine Longshore - 1934, train jumping
Ch 14 City of Angels by Lindsay Smith - 1945, building off Rosie the Riveter with a side of sapphic ⭐️⭐️
Ch 15 Pulse of the Panthers by Kekla Magoon - 1967, Black Panthers from a female’s POV ⭐️ ⭐️
Ch 16 The Whole World is Watching by Robin Talley - 1968, FF riot romance