Hi guys,
I am looking for my next book. Just to give you an idea of what I am looking for, I’ve read these books and absolutely loved them: Big Swiss, Boy Parts and My Year of Rest and Relaxation. I’m not exactly sure why I loved these books, but they all have something in common. For example, unreliable narrator, unlikable female protagonist, attractive, toxic, drugs, underlying mental health issues, etc.

Thanks :)

Anyone else that developed a CNC fetish due to reading this series at a impressionable age? I read it at 11 in 1998 and I’m pretty sure it imprinted.

I’m not conflicted about it, just curious if it could have been the catalyst.

I think I’m not into fantasy anymore, I thought I js needed darker more ‘captivating’ books & tried ninth house and honestly didn’t like it… my only recent reads I’ve liked were my year of rest & relaxation, & Circe, can you guys give me more recs similar to these? I’ll post a digital bookshelf I made to give context but I’m not really liking fantasy anymore, I think I’m into twisted / female oc stuff? Idk

Just devoured this book over 2 days thanks to a recommendation in this sub. Absolute weirdo, loser unhinged female protagonist. It was infuriating to read and disturbing.

If you loved A Good Person, Best Offer Wins, Boy Parts this one is definitely a winner.

Thanks to the person who recommended this!

I thought this book was going to be about three friends being sad, depressed and miserable about their life altogether while getting into the most craziest shit no sane person would've ever done while sober. Nope. The title mislead me and I took the bait.

Sad Girls is about Audrey who suffers a panic attack after Ana committed suicide because surprise surprise! Audrey told a lie that Ana was sleeping with her dad. As in the incest type! And for what reason? None! Do you know how insane you have to be to spread a rumor like that? Then she escapes the funeral with the boyfriend who's name is Rad and things sort of happened between them. You think this is a sweet love story about finding love again even if you think you can't because your girlfriend's dead? Wrong! Jesus Christ Rad and Audrey are so toxic together. Nevermind that she has a boyfriend while she's eating the face of her deceased classmate's lover.

Don't get me started on the subtle justification that it's okay because Ana's no more and she's never going to come back from the dead to haunt us. Audrey, darling, you have a partner and you're cheating on him. And everytime you remember about Ana you start to have panic attacks which is valid because that's the guilt you're feeling but holy fuck you need all of the therapy in the world before you can dive first into the decisions you're going to make. I get it she's young and her frontal lobe isn't developed yet but does she even know what's right or wrong and that every mistake has consequences? Also her friends Lucy and Candela feel like thriller characters that are one dimensional or are just there to make the plot move forward.

Lastly there's two things I severely disliked in this book: the death of another character (sorry for the spoiler) and the ending. Man. I powered through this book in only four days because I wanted to get it over with already. Luckily I didn't throw my Kindle across the room while reading this book.

I was playing with an ai bot ( not something I’ve ever done before and was curious ) anyway I put in my Libby search history+ books I’ve read recently+ books I have holds or notification tags on and asked it to consider all this and make a list of recommendations for the Libby app. It took my lists and said I’ll search based on these concepts you seem to enjoy “ Toxic, obsessive relationships and female rage• Body, food, and control• Cults, girl groups, fame, and performance Unreliable narrators, authorship, and metafiction • Queer and gothic domestic horror” I can’t argue with most of these generalizations but the wording makes me sound like I’m the one unhinged. Sorry and this can be deleted if not allowed just thought these characterizations might help others.

Has anyone read this? Thoughts?

kind of a weird obscure ask and im only checking here isntead of more mainstream bookrec subreddits because i still want it to be within the weird girl genre... Im basically yearning for a book like Chicago LMAO but i dont need the aesthetics or historical aspects i just like competitve murder/media obsession with disaster? have you guys read any weird girl books like this??

Sad we only got to hear a little bit from Chapter 1! Sounded pretty promising. Who else is ready to Read Everything?

/s

… I’m gonna get sad, aren’t I? 🥹

Hey!

What’s your favourite book that you wish you could read again for the very first time? Maybe we could recommend books for people based on their answers?

For me, it’s probably White Oleander! Also, I Love Dick by Chris Kraus has been calling to me again. So I’d be open to recs for either of those :)

I have read Yesteryear and it's finally time to move on to Tradwife... I read that Stephen King said Sarah Langan's for Halloween/horror, does anyone have a suggestion for which one I should read first? I always thought it was just Saratoga Schaefer. I appreciate it! :)

Not all weird girl, there are some silly popcorn type thrillers in there too! The top row has some of my favorites! I've left some space for more TBR.

This is such an amazing book. It is about women that where sort of the Bronte sisters, but not actually them. It is a weird kind of frame narrative which follows several women at different moments in time.
They are definitely all weird girls: lots of not-fitting in, loneliness, fighting against expectations from society, drugs, queerness , absurd elements and a little bit of horror.

Last month i read Eileen bij Otessa Moshfegh and i was so happy to find such a compelling , gripping book . I could not let go of it. And now i found this book and it is even more gripping and engrossing. Can’t believe how lucky i am!

The book takes place in the Yorkshire Dales , and i started the book last week when i was on holiday there and it was so amazingly atmospheric. As i walked the moors i just could feel the women in the book walking there with me.

I read it in Dutch, so especially for the Dutch people here: read this book in Dutch! But luckily there is an English translation also , for everybody else.

I could’ve sworn this character was talking about my ex boyfriend at first

Worry - Alexandra Tanner

Just got to part two. WOW. This is a lot more fun and fast paced, I thought there would be more on the structures of capitalism but I’m curious how part 2 will flesh it out.

Have you read this? I signed up for the book subscription just to get this sooner!

EDIT:
Finished! The turn in part 3 was stark. I felt a lot of emotions around it, it definitely became more weird girl and less faux feminism in a capitalist hellscape.

Genuinely loved and can’t wait to lend to my friends!

recommendations for someone who loved she’s a doll and just watch me?

Especially recommended for all the graphic novel loving weird girls out there.

Did you find them entertaining and funny? Did you laugh out loud? Are the authors "merciless comedians"?

Book spoilers I suppose but I did not? I snorted maybe twice at MYORAR, but overall it's an interesting and we'll written book about a bunch of sad and toxic people. I wouldn't really laugh at anything in it, even if it is absurd.

And Earthlings? The graphic child sexual assault book having "hilarious" in the center of the cover feels like irresponsible bait.

I'm disappointed that books marketed as laugh out loud funny are anything but. Interesting sure, but not funny.

As a bookseller I love being able to recommend titles from smaller presses (feminist press at CUNY in this case) and this has become a surprising hit in our small town store. Despite being Canadian I love and personally identify with any book set in Vermont (love u Vermont, miss you, you’re the closest thing to Canada both literally and in my heart) ❤️ if you enjoy small town weirdness and are tired of every big book being about deranged city girls (no offense) you’ll love this! Someone on Goodreads called this “gay depraved girlmore girls in the best way” which makes it a perfect fall read imo. & I mean look at that cover!

currently reading this, feel like some may enjoy! It’s sort of weird girl adjacent. Without giving too much away, an interesting take on vampires written by a vegan.

This book is well beloved in the book community, and I understand why to some degree, but I also don't think it was as impactful as it could've been for many reasons.

1. Vanessa - It was hard to be sympathetic to her situation when she is 32. She doesn't help her teen coworker who is getting harassed by an older patron, and is misogynistic, smokes, drinks, and doesn't try to better her life. I know why Russell wrote her this way (to show how deep grooming goes and its impact in adulthood), but to me, it almost felt forced. I didn't find any reason to find her character compelling when all she did was drink and smoke weed. She literally had nothing going for her. Again, it may be intentional, but I still didn't like it and detested being in her head. There is a way to make being in someone's head to be enjoyable (American Psycho), but Russell didn't capture that.
2. Strane and their relationship - It felt like it moved very fast and some of the things both him and Vanessa would do didn't make any sense? She was always in his room, of course that is going to look suspicious, but I guess neither of them thought of this? Strane felt a cardboard cut out of a groomer. There no substance, no external motivators for anything he did, and therefore made the grooming and their relationship read like a Lifetime movie rather than a serious book.
3. Writing style - I was severely underwhelmed. People praise it for being well written, but outside of the subject matter, it felt middle grade and juvenile which was strange (and even in the 32 yr old Vanessa head, it felt this way. I understand why people might excuse it for the younger Vanessa). This is a more personal opinion of mine.
4. Repetitive - It was 100 pages too long at least.
5. Relied on shock value - I don't know if it's just me, but I don't think we needed so many sex/rape scenes between her and Strane. I understand the symbolism of the strawberry pajamas, which was chilling and done well, but did it necessitate the explicit content thereafter? In my opinion no, just gratuitous shock value to make the book even more disturbing. Reading the sex scenes made me feel so sick, when the book was already sick and dark enough as a solitary thing. The grooming and strawberry pajamas kept me up most nights last week, and I couldn't fall asleep because of my anxiety. Again, this is personal preference, but it passes the line of what is needed in such a tumultuous book.

The one thing I think this book did well was the representation of trauma and sexual assault awareness. Sometimes it felt a little bit on the nose, but I see where the author was going.

I have now read all of Moshfegh's books... Eileen and Lapvona are my faves by her. I love what a freak weird girl she is! How tf does she come up with these plots lmao?!

Hi friends! I was hoping some of you wonderful people could help me decide my next book or few books to read. I’m going on a trip soon and I’d like to pick out some books to read. I just finished Tender is the Flesh and I enjoyed it, although it was pretty bleak. I think I prefer more humor in my literature. Here’s a list of some of the books I’ve read recently and enjoyed, not all are “weird girl lit” necessarily but some are posted about on here:

- Tender is the Flesh
- She’s a Doll
- Martyr!
- Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep
- Lucky Day
- Fabulous Bodies
- Camp Damascus
- Sky Daddy
- Yellowface
- Bunny
- The Wind Up Bird Chronicles
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle
- Antkind

Any recommendations? I had a lot of fun reading “She’s a Doll” recently but maybe it’s a bit too YA? Sky Daddy has been one of my favorites in this list- I would love to find more like that.

Thank you!