Essential Sad Girl Literature
Angry, melancholic, and self-destructive. These are the defining features of the women in “sad girl literature.” A string of bad decisions, rage-filled thoughts, and sorrowful solicitude fill their stories and portray a vulnerability that their audience can seek comfort in. Often a character analysis of these behaviors, sad girl literature can reveal the uglier side of womanhood and the obstacles that come with it. Follow these 10 sad girls as they navigate their identities, beliefs, relationships, and more. Featuring the pioneers of sad girl literature like Virginia Woolf as well as new contributors to the genre, you’ll find that the stories may change, but the complexities of womanhood are timeless.
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Add to BookshelfNormal People
by Sally Rooney
If Connell and Marianne aren’t right for each other, then why do they keep getting pushed back together time and time again? In high school, Connell relishes his popularity while Marianne just tries to get through each day. But when Connell’s mother becomes a cleaner in Marianne’s home, Connell and Marianne’s class differences bring them together. But before Marianne and Connell can even start a relationship, the detriment it could bring to his popularity is too big of a risk to take. Months later when the two begin at Trinity College, Marianne skyrockets to popularity while Connell loses his status. But despite their unwavering attraction to each other, can they be together if they can never stand on even ground?
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2
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All This Could Be Different
by Sarah Thankam Mathews
Graduating right when a recession hits, Sneha manages to snag a corporate job as a consultant in Milwaukee. But as her boss begins to purposely skip out on paying her — among other indiscretions — Sneha loses the steady stream of income she expected to have. At the same time, her father has been deported to India, taking Sneha’s mother with him. Fighting to keep from getting evicted and responsible for sending money to her parents, Sneha isn’t able to keep up with it all. But her money problems aren’t the only issue — lying to her friends about her parents and her difficulties with her new girlfriend weigh on Sneha too. Can she find a way out before it all gets too heavy?
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3
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Mrs. Dalloway
by Virginia Woolf
Following the day of Clarissa Dalloway — a socialite during post-WWI England — this stream-of-consciousness novel tracks the ups and downs of the emotions Clarissa feels as she prepares for a party she’s hosting later that night. Clarissa goes from running errands to seeing important people from her past — including her former lover and best friend. Clarissa’s interactions with these people in the present mingle with her memories of them from the past — and have her questioning her life’s choices. What begins as a seemingly ordinary day turns into a defining one as Clarissa lets herself feel these complex emotions — and finally understands them.
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4
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The New Me
by Halle Butler
Stuck in a mundane loop of going to a temp job she hates and then back home to watch Forensic Files, Millie is on the verge of getting fired — but she doesn’t know it yet. Disliking her coworkers and doing her receptionist tasks half-heartedly — or sometimes not at all — does not go unnoticed by her boss. But when Millie sees an email that she thinks indicates that she will become a permanent employee, she takes it as an opportunity to change her life. With a list of ways to reinvent herself, Millie puts her plan into action. But when she receives word that she’s been let go, will the progress she made go with it?
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5
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My Year of Rest and Relaxation
by Ottessa Moshfegh
Juxtaposed with the glamor of her degree from Columbia, her job at an art gallery, and her classy apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is our unnamed narrator’s grief from her parents’ deaths, her unbalanced relationship with her boyfriend, and her agitating friendship with her best friend. Unsure of how to combat this pain, she decides to sleep for a year. With an endless supply of pills from her forgetful psychiatrist, a bodega around the corner, and as much TV as she can stay awake for, the narrator is ready to shut herself off for a year. But once the fog of the pills has lifted, will the problems hidden beneath them remain?
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6
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The Friend
by Sigrid Nunez
In Manhattan, an unnamed narrator has recently lost her friend to suicide. Struck with grief, the only thing that brings her comfort is his Great Dane, Apollo — who’s mourning the loss of his owner just as much as she is. Although her apartment building prohibits pets, the narrator and Apollo become inextricably tied together — but the more she depends on his company, the more withdrawn she becomes. Even with the possibility of eviction hanging over her head, she can’t seem to cut the one tie she still has to her friend. But how can she rely on Apollo as his arthritis worsens and his end begins to near?
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7
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We Do What We Do in the Dark
by Michelle Hart
Mallory has always felt “she was a sad girl. A lonely girl. And after a lifetime of practice, she had become so good at this that it had become the most appealing thing about her” — which is exactly why a professor is drawn to her. Married, older, and out of reach, the woman can never fully be hers. Known only as “the woman,” she and Mallory begin an affair that defines her time as a freshman and long afterward. When her affair with the woman — and the privacy surrounding Mallory’s queerness — puts her in an isolating state of solitude, it’s only years later that Mallory realizes that she must make a choice. She can either continue to live in this state of loneliness — or finally face the pains of the past.
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8
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Come and Get It: A GMA Book Club Pick
by Kiley Reid
Millie Cousins has worked hard to be an RA at the University of Arkansas, but her students don’t make it easy. So, when a visiting professor and writer gives her a chance to get back at them for their micro-aggressions and pranks, Millie takes it. Professor Agatha Paul thinks she’s found the perfect — i.e. out of touch — students to write about for her next project, and they happen to live in the room next to Millie’s. Every Thursday evening, Agatha listens in on the students, jotting down the shocking things they say regarding their friendships and relationships with money. But when the working relationship between Agatha and Millie turns inappropriate, Millie risks much more than just losing her job.
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9
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Girls Against God
by Jenny Hval
Growing up in a deeply religious community in Norway in the 1990s has done the opposite of what the unnamed narrator’s family hoped for. Instead of being as devoted as those around her, their expectations have turned her against God. As the presence of witchcraft becomes more apparent, the story takes us to a coven of witches who have been working on their spells. Between time travel, curses, and heavy metal, Hval examines certain oppressive structures within Christianity, along with the narrator’s hatred of the patriarchy and capitalism. Searching for community within her coven and band, she just might find a way to free herself from the tight confines she’s been forced to live within.
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10
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Happy Hour
by Marlowe Granados
Isa Epley and Gala Novak are ready to have the summer of their lives. Subletting in New York City and freshly 21 years old means that the girls can go wild — that is if they can fund it. Despite their dazzling nights, their mornings aren’t nearly as glamorous as those of the elite members of society they party with. But if the girls aren’t selling clothes at a market stall, they’re flirting with men to get their dinners paid for. But when Isa begins to feel that she’s pulling her weight far more than Gala, the friendship that she thought would flourish under New York City lights doesn’t seem so strong in the light of day.
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11
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Intimacies
by Katie Kitamura
An interpreter has come to The Hague to escape New York and work at the International Court. She’s drawn into simmering personal dramas: her lover, Adriaan, is separated from his wife but still entangled in his marriage. She’s pulled into an explosive political controversy when she’s asked to interpret for a former president accused of war crimes. A woman of quiet passion, she confronts power, love, and violence, both in her personal intimacies and in her work at the Court. She is soon pushed to the precipice, where betrayal and heartbreak threaten to overwhelm her, forcing her to decide what she wants from her life.
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12
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Berlin
by Bea Setton
When Daphne arrives in Berlin, the last thing she expects is to run into more drama than she left behind. One night, when Daphne is alone in her apartment, something strange, unnerving, and entirely unexpected intervenes, and life in Bohemian Kreuzberg suddenly doesn’t seem so cool. Channeling the modern female experience with razor-sharp observation and trenchant wit, Berlin is a wickedly insightful, darkly funny novel.
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13
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The Rachel Incident
by Caroline O'Donoghue
Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterward. But Fred has other desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred’s glamorous, well-connected, bourgeois wife.
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