‘A smorgasbord of unlikability’: the authors helping ‘sad girl lit’ grow up

In this post-Fleabag world, publishing has become obsessed with the inner turmoils of messy millennials – but isn’t it time they pulled themselves together? Meet the novelists subverting the clichesYou’ve probably come across this woman: she is unfulfilled in her career, has been abandoned by at least one man, she is aimless and lamenting the obstacles in her life (of which, in reality, there don’t appear to be many). She is not just miserable, she’s a mess; self-absorbed and full of self-loathing.If you’ve read a book by a woman, about a woman, that has been published in the last five years, then it’s overwhelmingly likely that this woman was the protagonist. The narrative likely circled around this character’s sadness, her passive struggle to overcome it, and little else. Typically, such stories have notes of darkness but will rarely deliver the actual thing. Usually the main character (like the author) will be middle-class, if not incredibly wealthy. Almost always she will be white. The book’s cover will probably feature a devastated-looking woman with her hair covering her face or her head cradled in her hands. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-08-08 15:19:43 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "‘A smorgasbord of unlikability’: the authors helping ‘sad girl lit’ grow up"

The Guardian view on the Women’s prize for nonfiction: shining a light where it’s badly needed | Editorial

Having a separate award was good for female novelists. Now a medical author is blazing a trail with a true storyFemale nonfiction writers are paid less on average, receive fewer reviews and win fewer prizes than men. Unsurprisingly, this means that women sell fewer books. So far this year, more... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2025-06-15 16:25:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this

This Appalachian Historical Fiction Has a Forgotten Kingdom in North Carolina

The main character here learns that her ancestral home was once a part of a kingdom—where her ancestor was queen. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2025-06-04 12:30:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Honor Jones on Exploring the Lasting Effects of Childhood Trauma

Feature image © Sarra Fleur Abou-El-Haj. There are echoes of Virginia Woolf throughout Honor Jones’ masterful, exquisitely crafted first novel Sleep, which explores the ways in which a childhood trauma haunts her main character, Margaret, and those around her. The novel opens with scenes of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2025-05-27 07:15:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Nahid Rachlin, Novelist Who Explored the Iranian Psyche, Dies at 85

One of the first Iranian novelists to write in English, she examined the clash between East and West. Her debut novel, “Foreigner,” provided insight into pre-revolutionary Iran. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2025-05-14 17:24:42 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Friend, Foe, Family, Stranger: Fourteen Books on Black Motherhood by Black Daughters

In 1859, Harriet Wilson published Our Nig. This forgotten novel was the first book published by a Black woman in the United States. Wilson’s main character, Frado, is parentified too young and then becomes a mother too soon. This traumatic experience is widely caricatured in global literature,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2025-05-09 08:58:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Playing with words: why novelists are becoming video game writers – and vice-versa

While the novel remains a high-status cultural form, video game writing is still seen as a throwaway art – despite some of the biggest names in fiction being involvedI’ve been working in games for a little more than 15 years, and the main thing I’d say about it at this point is that it’s a... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2025-04-30 08:00:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Shelby Van Pelt Created Her Oddball Octopus in a Low-Key Writing Class (And Other Deets)

Shelby Van Pelt’s novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures, is available now in paperback from Ecco, so we asked her a few questions about writing, reading, routines, and more. * Who do you most wish would read your book? In Remarkably Bright Creatures, my main character, Tova, has a group of friends... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2025-04-29 08:58:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Mario Vargas Llosa dies at 89: Nobel laureate from Peru was the last of 'El Boom' novelists

Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel literature laureate and a giant of Latin American letters for decades, has died, his son said Sunday. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2025-04-14 02:33:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

These YA Novelists Celebrate Queer, Fat Characters

Crystal Maldonado, Julie Murphy, and other authors discuss the importance of joyful representation. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-04-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Who Needs Intimacy?

Influential novelists are imagining what women’s lives might look like without the demands of partners and children. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2025-04-04 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Translator and Author Tim Mohr Dies at 55

Mohr, who translated such German novelists as Alina Bronsky, chronicled the Berlin music scene in a 2018 book, and helped bring to life a number of musicians’ memoirs, died at his home in Brooklyn on March 31. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-04-01 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Translator and Author Tim Mohr Dies

[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-04-01 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Who Were the Women Novelists Who Really Inspired Jane Austen?

“You see, but you do not observe.” –Sherlock Holmes, “A Scandal in Bohemia” * It all started with a book that made me curious. I was on a house call in Georgetown, invited to browse the personal book collection of a woman who used to be a professional rare book dealer like me. I spent […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-19 10:58:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Lit Hub Daily: February 18, 2025

Sophie Lewis chronicles the rise and fall of #girlboss feminism: “The funeral for ‘trickle-down feminism,’ eerily, keeps repeating itself, suggesting that, every time we report that the girlboss is dead, we’re being wishful.” | Lit Hub Criticism Rebecca Romney on unearthing a legacy of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-18 11:30:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this

What should the cover of Pride and Prejudice look like?

This week, the book-reading internet was apparently in a mild uproar over six redesigns of Jane Austen novels, which will be published—with new introductions from popular contemporary YA romance novelists like Ali Hazelwood and Tessa Bailey—by Puffin, Penguin UK’s children’s imprint, in March.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-04 14:47:27 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Betty Shamieh on the Next Generation of Palestinian Fiction

I purposely avoided reading the works of other Palestinian American novelists making their ways into the world as I wrote Too Soon. When I looked up, I saw my book would be a part of a literary wave I had no idea I was riding, an artistic movement, that felt particular to the Palestinian... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2025-01-22 09:59:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this

British novelists criticise government over AI ‘theft’

Richard Osman and Kate Mosse say plan to mine artistic works for data would destroy creative fieldsKate Mosse and Richard Osman have hit back at Labour’s plan to give artificial intelligence companies broad freedoms to mine artistic works for data, saying it could destroy growth in creative... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2025-01-14 17:52:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this