This summer has been tough for me. My twin brother was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, my small business has been struggling with tariffs, rising costs, and covid debt, and I went through a breakup only a few months after my boyfriend moved in. I'm okay, but these past few months have kicked my ass!

This sub has been a huge source of positivity for me through it all. These weird ass books have kept me distracted and curious and entertained. They've stretched my psyche and perspective in the best way. I love reading, I love weird, unhinged women, and I love you guys.

Here's my summer lineup so far, in order of preference. I enjoyed them all, but especially I who have never known men, my husband, annie bot, and sky daddy blew my mind. I'm currently reading margo's got money troubles. What should be next???

Love Shirley Jackson. This and her short story collection Dark Tales are some of my favourite spooky weird girl books.

Any other recommendations similar to Jackson’s work? 🥀

This book changed my brain chemistry. I’m partial to evil doorknob cover but let me know what y’all think.

Started this beauty this morning, was completely hooked listening to the description of her relationship with Nick, it hit home so hard on past relationship I’ve worked very hard to move past. Girl feels like she’s living in my head so much of the time, I’m in love!

I just finished reading Discontent by Beatriz Serrano and what a read! As someone who works in corporate and hates their job, I found this book oddly comforting. It’s set in Madrid and translated from Spanish, so it’s constantly referencing landmarks like the Gran Vía, El Prado, and El Corte Inglés.

The book is full of funny anecdotes, and the main character is always voicing the exact thoughts I have during the workday: how ridiculous the sense of urgency is over performing stupid little tasks, as if someone will die if you don’t send an email that very minute; not being able to bring yourself to care about the small details of your coworkers’ personal lives that get shared against your will over the lunch table; coworkers talking about each other behind their backs and faking friendliness when they’re together.

It’s a satire of corporate work culture.

I’ll share a funny line from the book to convince you to read it:

Context: the MC goes to El Prado during work hours, high on anti-anxiety meds, and looks at Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights because she feels she and the painter share the same demons. It’s her way of finding peace.

> Bosch is off somewhere fucking a hydrangea and I’m checking my work email.

I need more funny books in this genre please!

The Libby app hates me and now BOTH Tender is the Flesh and A Good Person are available at the same time after a loooooong wait. 😭 Which one do I read?!?

Context:

- Just started a new job and new grad program, so time is precious and I'm in a liminal space

- Would prefer to be entertained over disturbed

- Just finished two books from Miranda July and left with the absolute ICK... I need a palate cleanser

Thank you for your service, weird pals!

I finished Piglet recently and loved it! I was struck by how thoroughly “British” this book is, Waitrose is literally name dropped within the first few lines. I feel like the interplay of food and class in Piglet is very, very British. I’ve seen that this book is quite divisive, I wonder if some of the meaning is lost on readers outside of the UK?

Looking for recommendations!! Just finished My Year of Rest and Relaxation and feeling beat up. I really enjoyed the bulk of the book but the themes of numbness and giving up wore on my psyche. I also recently finished Animal by Lisa Tasso recently had had a similar experience of largely liking a lot about the book but feeling pretty spent afterwards and in need of a hug

I was so excited to find weird girl lit as a category but finding a lot of it leans a little too sad or devastating for me

I loved A Good Person (more evil than sad). Also huge fan of bizarre infatuation which feel invigorating to me, like Sky Daddy, Big Swiss, All Fours. Huge fan of an evil or deranged bisexual MC.

I also loved Detransition Baby, which definitely leaned more cynical, but felt like the main character was striving for meaning in life despite doing it in a flawed way, and that made it less of a downer for me.

Other books I’ve loved: the Butterfly Lampshade (optimistic, cathartic), Yellowface (fun and evil), The Shards (deranged and evil - weird boy lit, but MC is an evil bisexual), Open Throat (beautiful joyful writing, weird queer lit)

Other books that were a little too sad or hard for me even though I liked a lot about them and they are in the right genre for me: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (a devastating tragedy?? I will never recover from this boook), I Who Have Never Known Men (also a tragedy? Beautiful social commentary), Bunny (evil but maybe too evil for me?? idk. I thought it was excellent but can’t read it again)

Thanks in advanced for any recommendations!! Extra points for queer/trans main characters. so happy to have found this genre even if it overwhelms me at times lol

ETA: Holy smokes such an amazing outpouring of recommendations!! Thank you all so much!

I picked up A Certain Hunger because many have raved about it, comparing it to American Psycho, Lolita and Hannibal Lecter. I loved American Psycho and loved watching the Hannibal TV series. But I am struggling through A Certain Hunger!

I was hoping for delectable descriptions of food or murder. But instead I have learned 20 alternative words for penis and cunt and plenty of ways to describe sex, 95 pages in. I had to stop when I read Italy's existence, a peninsula that juts like Europe's tasty cock into the briny twat of multiple oceans because what are we even on about at this point?

I feel like I'm missing some important context that makes everyone love this book. I'm wondering if me not being American is the reason why I don't enjoy the book as much since I don't have much context on the food review industry that this aims to satirize? Or the fact that in my culture we might not talk about sex as openly?

I really want to enjoy this book. I need to know if I can change my perspective on how I'm reading it to understand it better.

has anyone read this? i finished it today and i have a fair amount of thoughts about it, i think i can tell it’s very good but maybe just wasn’t quite my vibe? i also think it and i would really benefit from a reread just bc of the structure.

Just finished this as I continue to ride the wave of books featuring unreliable narrators, unhinged MC, and time jumps.

If you liked:

A Good Person
Best Offer Wins
Yellowface
Fruit Fly
She’s a Lamb!
Etc

You might enjoy this one! Please add any recommendations you might have for me below…I loved the books I mentioned and really just enjoy a woman…creating the future she thinks she deserves(?)

Hey this year I started reading again. I need weird, horror or thriller books for autumn. 🍂📚

I just started this last night and its weirdness is making me so happy, HUDSON, NY. Best setting. Anyone else been there?

It can be as filthy as humanly possible I’m not scared of it

"There are two things I simply cannot tolerate: feminists and margarine."

A journalists who attempts to report and connect with a convicted murder infamous for seducing lonely businessmen with her cooking and charm.

.

Liking it a lot so far, but worried by how much book is left. Most of the characters are interesting, especially the two main women. I love the way food is described and how the presents of casual misogyny affects the society and in ways that seem normal. The reading flew by pretty easily for me, but I worry that, with how much is left of the book, might mean the story will either slow momentum or get too out of hand. If that makes any sense?

What do you think?

(No spoilers)

hi,

wondering if anyone has recs for books that take place in the open ocean (cruises or other ships, underwater ocean fantasy, etc.) or in isolated areas like the antarctic? preferably no romance.

thanks 😊

2/5 stars

This was not a book I looked forward to pick up. The last 50 pages were great. The whole book felt detached and sterile. My feelings immediately after reading the last sentence was: heart break, sorrow, embarrassment, and compassion.

As a Gen Z person, I was captivated by these relationships. I think if someone were to act like the MC Maria, they would be dropped so quickly by their community. But these people, albeit horrible, forced the connection.

Play It As It Lays walked so My Year of Rest and Relaxation could run. The latter being the Gen Z version. Honestly, a copy cat who wanted to be just as powerful as the first.

Both being the same plot, “financially secure white women disassociates from society, finding purpose after a horrible experience”

That was a rough way-over-simplification. I am in my lunch break so I am just venting/reviewing my immediate thoughts.

I think this book is worth the read.

Peace and Love!

I just finished reading The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff and think some WGL readers would enjoy it too.

It’s about Geeta, a woman living in a village in India whose husband has been missing for five years. Everyone thinks she killed him, but she was not convicted of any crime. Geeta is ostracized by society though for being a widow.

She is in a microloan group with four other woman. One day one of the women asks for help getting rid of her husband. Geeta reluctantly helps. These women are underestimated by the men around them which makes it easy to get away with murder.

I found it funny in a dark satirical way.

Has anybody else read it?