u/cryborg_96

I recently realised that the only horror(adjacent) books I enjoy are those that can be categorised as "femgore," which I would describe as featuring unhinged women that are able to reclaim autonomy to some extent or enact revenge through violence. In my opinion most, if not all, femgore is also weird girl lit so I wanted to share some recommendations here! I have limited it to one book per author, so would suggest checking out more of their bibliographies if any intrigue you.

I have recommended a lot of these in other contexts before, and some of these are not favourites, but I do think that are all worth checking out. Would love to hear your recommendations!

Unfortunately I have not been able to find the origin of this term, so if any of you know who coined it I would like to know.

I made another post like this a couple of weeks ago (you can find it here) and since then a lot of other new(ish) or upcoming releases has caught my attention so I decided to compile them here again. A lot of these I have discovered through this sub and were suggestions on my previous post, so thank you!

Here is a bit of information about each book, mostly excerpts from the blurbs:

• Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim:

The border cuts you in two. When you immigrate, you leave a copy of yourself behind, an instance. One person enters their new country; the other stays trapped at home.

How far would you go to live the choice you didn’t make?

• Decomposition Book by Sara Van Os:

An emotional, electrifying, and darkly hilarious debut about a woman who finds a dead body and can’t give up its ghost.

• Skin Contact by Elisa Faison:

Unmoored by her mother's sudden death, Frances has never felt so diminished, or so old. She's painfully aware that strangers no longer look at her the same way - and that she's now, at thirty-two, older than the great aunt for whom she was named, who was killed in the seventies under mysterious circumstances involving an extramarital affair. 

Nerve Damage by Annakeara Stinson:

A riotous revenge novel about a woman’s quest to escape her stalker ex-boyfriend—by stalking him herself.

• Offseason by Avigayl Sharp:

A blisteringly funny and transcendently deranged debut novel following a young woman who takes a job at an all-girls boarding school in a small coastal town to teach English literature—and to try, desperately, to escape the trap that is herself.

• Debt by L.A. Warman:

A lesbian sleeps her way through New York City, accumulating debts in each sexual transaction, until falling in love forces her to confront power, money, and reliance in this daring, poetic exploration of modern love.

(A little sidetrack, sorry. I posted about this in this sub before because I was so excited when it was announced as I love the authors previous books. It got a lot of downvotes which is not something I have experienced before in this sub and I can't really figure out why?? Do any of you have any thoughts on it?)

• Home Sick by Rhiannon Grist:

After a violent incident at work, Tamsin goes looking for a fresh start in a remote cottage far away from her old life. Here she could make real friends, find a job she loves, become a whole new person, even. But the solitary cottage is actually a semi-detached, with only a thin wall separating her from a total stranger. Her neighbour is an enigma. Dowdy one moment, vivacious the next, but always wearing an unnerving smile. Tamsin can’t shake the feeling that there’s something wrong with her, especially when she starts experiencing disturbances in her own home.

• Nymph by Sofia Montrone:

This jaw-dropping debut revels in the exuberant highs and awkward lows of girlhood and captures the universal experiences of trying to hold on to what is elusive, to deny what cannot be faced, and to say what cannot be said.

Edit: fixed spelling.

I love both Dust and Whore Foods by this author, they are both so strange and interesting. When I saw this announced a couple of days ago I was so excited. Would love to hear if there are any more niche books you all are looking forward to.

The book description:

A lesbian sleeps her way through New York City, accumulating debts in each sexual transaction, until falling in love forces her to confront power, money, and reliance in this daring, poetic exploration of modern love.

Debt is a product manufactured to create desire. Fantasy costs a lot of money. There is a girl. There is everything she wants. She gets it. She doesn’t get it. She gets it, she wants more. In the city she can be who she wants to be, in the countryside she is who she has to be. Accumulation works, then it doesn’t. Soon, she is indebted to everyone. Debt creates relation. To try to pay her debt she tries more and more drastic measures: pregnancy, death, love. But will she ever pay? And if she does will the currency be recognized?

An unnamed protagonist fucks her way through the lesbians of New York City in borrowed apartments before returning to the only home she can afford, a two hour drive out into the countryside. In the city she can be whoever she wants. Her collection of sample sale clothes and fake designer bags grants the affect of wealth and she attracts suitors beyond those she is used to. These new suitors have jobs The protagonist attempts to be desired in a way that will protect and take care of her, but instead finds herself taking on more and more debts, both literal and metaphorical. She digs and digs until all she knows is hole. Debt explores the economics of desirability and the way capitalist patriarchy infiltrates queer community. Over time, our protagonist breaks through this rigid strategic approach to really fall in love with a non-binary transmasc person. Together, they create a Dom/sub dynamic. She does everything she is told to do and unlocks a new reality where she can relax and open herself up. They teach her how to accept care through domination and control. But, will her hole ever really be filled?

I just noticed how weird girl centric this shelf is, especially the pink to yellow part! I don't really have any organizing principles apart from some colour cohesion and keeping books I have read in our living room and my tbr in the bedroom.

I am planning to try writing individual reviews of a lot of these at some point! Currently I'm in the middle of Femmephilia by Sophie Lewis, but there is no way I will have time to read it by the end of today.

Have you read ay of these?

You can find the full list here. Have you read any of these yet? Do you feel like they are in "the spirit of Le Guin?"

Some of my favourite poetry that I consider weird girl. Would love to hear your recommendations 👽💖

Have any of you read it? Would love the hear your thoughts 🫶

I love these photos. Apparently the makeup took two hours to apply! I found the image here, it seems like the original scan is from a blog that doesn't exist anymore (vulcan-oxymoron.blogspot.com). Do any of you know where it was originally published in print?

I have posted about this book before in this sub, but wanted to share it again because I have never seen this book discussed before and I think that a lot of you would enjoy it! It's a queer feminist revenge story. So far it is very pulpy and weird in the best possible way.

I decided to finally organise recent screen shots and links I have saved into a proper list and thought that I would share it with you! There is quite a big span here time wise, some of these came out in May while others are set to be released this autumn. I am hoping to get to all of them this year, which might be a bit too optimistic 😭 Would love to hear what new or upcoming weird girl lit releases you are looking forward to.

Here is a bit of information about each book, mostly excerpts from the blurbs:

• All Flesh by Ananda Devi:

A wild, bomb-throwing teenage revenge plot that skewers the cults of consumerism and the body beautiful.

• Death Do Us by Ruthy Mason:

Bea, a promising young archaeologist, has just gotten engaged. It should be the most exciting time of her life, but she can't shake the feeling that something is wrong. (...) Her engagement ring, an unusual family heirloom from her fiancé, is getting tighter and tighter. Something is crawling under her skin. Someone is watching her from the shadows. ..

• Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey:

Celia is so tired of being alone. All she wants is to have a family―to belong to someone. That's why she's going to Kindred Cove for the annual Salt Festival held by the secluded community that lives there. They promise that healing is possible. They promise that transformation is inevitable. There is no grief at Kindred Cove, because there is no suffering. Nothing is ever lost.

• Honey by Imani Thompson:

A dark, provocative, adrenaline-rush of a novel about a graduate student who murders bad men and justifies it in the name of feminism, by a bold new voice in fiction.

(I am finally the first person in the queue for this one at the library, so will be picking it up this week!)

• Hello Limerence by Momo Yamaguchi:

Mika is about to turn 25, and all she has to show for it is a soul-sucking office job and a terminal case of virginity. Between unwanted advances from co-workers and subway commuters, and love-bombing from unappealing fuckboys, Mika’s ready to explode. Her only therapeutic outlet is her imagination, which manifests in a series of comically violent and horny fantasies.

(I am so obsessed with this cover!!!)

• Hunger & Thirst by Claire Fuller:

1987: After a childhood trauma and years in and out of the care system, sixteen-year-old Ursula finds herself with a new job in the postroom of a local art school, a bed in a halfway house, and—delightfully— some new friends, including wild-child, Sue. When Ursula is invited to join a squat at The Underwood, a mysterious house whose owners met a terrible end, she can’t resist the promise of a readymade, hodgepodge family.

• Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer:

Doctor Liz has just been acquitted for performing the last abortion in North Dakota when she's kidnapped. They're not just any kidnappers, but a fundamentalist cult, deep in the rural west, without respect for law or decency, and in desperate need of an OB/GYN.

(I recently got an audiobook copy of this after asking this sub about your experiences with it, I got a lot of great replies here)

• New Skin by Sarah Wang:

A scalding, darkly humorous debut following an enmeshed mother-daughter duo, both best friends and enemies, and the plastic surgery addiction that warps their lives into a perilous spiral.

• Accumulation by Aimee Pokwatka:

A twisty, searing, conversation-starting novel about a filmmaker-turned-housewife who moves into her dream house and is forced to consider whether it's the house or herself that is haunted.

• Rottenheart by Kat Dunn:

Inspired by Hamlet, the ultimate revenge tragedy, Rottenheart is the stunning new sapphic gothic horror novel from Kat Dunn, the lauded author of Hungerstone and Bitterthorn. Set in the 1890s, this a story of love and grief, mothers and daughters, death and madness.

• Kitten by Stacey Yu:

A magnetic, stirring debut novel about an adrift young woman whose growing fascination with her boyfriend’s cat ushers her into the possibilities of her own life—but not without first threatening to unravel it.

• Agnes Lives! by Hallie Elizabeth Newton:

A day-in-the-life debut novel about a fading socialite on the hunt for someone to kill her before her next SoulCycle class.

This is inspired by this great post by u/Future-Can3522, would definitely recommend checking it out 💗 There is a lot of overlap here with some previous recommendation posts I have made, but I thought that it was fun to just put together a less themed master list of a lot of my favourites. Some of these are very popular, but there are also a couple underrated ones.

What are your all-time favourites?

This is one of my all time favourite Le Guin covers. I love the alien fauna and the dreamlike quality. The photo I have used here is from a post by the Ursula K. Le Guin foundation on Instagram, you can find it here.

It looks very interesting so I am considering spending my monthly libro fm credit on it instead of waiting for a physical copy to be available at my local library. Would love to hear your thoughts on it if you have read it!

Here is the blurb:

O Lord, deliver us.

Doctor Liz has just been acquitted for performing the last abortion in North Dakota when she's kidnapped.

They're not just any kidnappers, but a fundamentalist cult, deep in the rural west, without respect for law or decency, and in desperate need of an OB/GYN.

Guarded, isolated, without access to the outside world, Liz nevertheless is treated with respect as the only doctor on the compound, but she is very aware of what happened to the last obstetrician they kidnapped.

She must escape, and bring help to the girls trapped at the compound, if it's the last thing she does.

Apart from some memoirs I wouldn’t consider a lot of non-fiction weird girl, but this explores a lot of the themes and issues that make these books so interesting to me! I am very excited to read more of it 💖

This was released today, but would love to hear your thoughts on it if you have read it or if you are planning to. Would also love more non-fiction recs.

I picked this and some other issues up at a sff-conference today, this is definitely my favourite cover. They were only 1€ each. I haven't read the story yet so I don't know the true vibe of this alien, but I love how whimsical it is.

So excited for this! Are any of you planning on reading it?

This is the blurb:

"For years, Billy’s decisions have been made for her by long-term girlfriend Rose, leaving her free not to think for – or about – herself. But when they break up and Billy is left without anywhere to live, she’s forced to take up an unappealing but affordable SpareRoom ad. Her new flatmates, Sid and Rhoda, are the kinds of people who talk very seriously about taking accountability, adhering to the flat’s community guidelines and holding space for one another. Meals are communal by force, polyamory is assumed, and whatever the problem, capitalism’s usually to blame. Yes, Rhoda’s parents own the flat, but that doesn’t mean they’re not unapologetically political and loudly queer, and slowly Billy becomes enmeshed in their radical, vulnerable world. But as Billy’s past starts to catch up with her, and all of their boundaries begin to crumble, each of them must reckon with what they truly stand for – and what they’ll sacrifice to hold onto it."