Rec
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riotgrrrl's tortured women book series
I got into a spiral last year where I began to mostly only read books about women who are going thru some shit. Would love to continue my journey if you have any additional recs! Here are the books I've read so far:
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh The Guest by Emma Cline The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton (not completely tortured)
for nicky999doors inspired by their my year of r&r rec <3
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@riotgrrrl
May 15, 2024
22
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@evilalexander
Phenomenal list. If I had to recommend a few more books about troubled women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, it’d be I’m A Fan by Sheena Patel, Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield, Y/N by Esther Yi, Tampa by Alissa Nutting, and Hurricane Girl by Marcy Dermansky
May 21, 2024
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@jennymontgomery
Oh i love this promt, this is right up my alley! Agree that The Idiot was very good. Here are some others: The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevson Life with Picasso by Francoise Gilot The Dry Heart by Natalia Ginzburg Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai Ema, the Captive by Cesar Aria Crying in Ha Mart by Michelle Zauner Motherhood by Shelia Heti Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner Milkman by Anna Burns Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boy Boys by Viv Albertine Passing by Nella Larsen Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman Severance by Ling Ma After Claude by Iris Owens In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes  Anna Karinina by Tolstoy No one is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
May 20, 2024
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@riotgrrrl
jennymontgomery amazing list!!!
May 20, 2024
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@oliviamutantjohn
- Lucia Berlin’s retrospective story collection A Manual For Cleaning Women - The Pisces by Melissa Broder - Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? by Lorrie Moore. Really a ton of her stuff would fit in this categor, but Frog Hospital is one of if not my favorite novel of all time. Seconding The Idiot as well.
May 17, 2024
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@coreydubrowa
Per my post I am definitely recommending Kathleen Hanna's new memoir, I feel like she is over-qualified in a way. Ha.
May 16, 2024
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@riotgrrrl
coreydubrowa i love her sooo much (obviously haha)
May 16, 2024
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@lindsisreading
just finished Sex and Rage by Eve Babitz and Old Enough by Haley Jacobson - both have main characters who are Working Through It™️. Also seconding The Idiot!
May 16, 2024
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@itotiani
lindsisreading i love eve babitz and her beef w joan didion, how their writing is so different and somehow complements each other. slow days fast company is a big fave of mine by babitz too, though it's not as tortured woman vibes
May 16, 2024
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@riotgrrrl
itotiani oooo adding all to my list!
May 16, 2024
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@sola
itotiani sooo true opposing sides of california hip 60s 70s culture... theres a syllabus here somewhere
May 16, 2024
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@itotiani
sola yesss and they literally diss each other on their books too in the most glamorous and subtle ways! fab
May 16, 2024
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@stylishglambino
i am currently reading I’m A Fan by Sheena Patel!
May 16, 2024
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@riotgrrrl
stylishglambino omg i have been wanting to read this. maybe next. i’m currently working on big swiss
May 16, 2024
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@stylishglambino
riotgrrrl omg i want to read that next! trade!
May 16, 2024
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@riotgrrrl
stylishglambino 🫡🫡🫡
May 16, 2024
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@cowboymouth
May I also recommend Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson. Especially if you enjoyed the Bell Jar!
May 15, 2024
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@tiff
Play It As It Lays - Joan Didion
May 15, 2024
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@itotiani
tiff i love this book it's as if every lana song was a book in the best way
May 16, 2024
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@sola
i just read Rouge by Mona Awad which definitely falls into this category, it wasnt the most incredible story of all time but the general vibe and imagery really stuck with me
May 15, 2024
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@sola
sola also The Idiot by Elif Batuman which i really enjoyed - not necessarily tortured but she is going through it i would say
May 15, 2024
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@riotgrrrl
sola !!! i have the idiot on my audiobooks list
May 16, 2024
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@sola
riotgrrrl im a big audiobooker and she narrates it very very well
May 16, 2024
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@itotiani
sola i love bunny by mona awad too, i stayed up 'till 3am reading it. bought rouge looking fwd to reading it on spooky season
May 16, 2024
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@sola
itotiani bunny is on my list! ⭐️
May 16, 2024
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@nicky999doors
Lemme scribble these down rq
May 15, 2024
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@sola
nicky999doors scribbling.... this is my genre fs
May 15, 2024
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@florinegrassenhopper
Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval Is Mother Dead by Vigdis Hjorth Nod (which I cannot stop recommending!) by Fanny Howe
May 15, 2024
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@lynnnnie
florinegrassenhopper I looooove vigdis hjorth!!
May 15, 2024
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@florinegrassenhopper
lynnnnie our girl vigdis might be the best one writing fiction right now
May 15, 2024
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@sola
florinegrassenhopper sooooooo much piss in paradise rot... i have never read about piss so much and probably never will again
May 15, 2024
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@riotgrrrl
sola ur really selling it
May 16, 2024
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@mouse
Ohhhh, now this is a genre i can help with
May 15, 2024
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@lynnnnie
This is a fantastic list and idea! Here is a link to some I’ve enjoyed that might be in line https://www.pi.fyi/rec/clv1c683s02gx5htvq9wn3x3x
May 15, 2024
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Related Recs

Rec
📚
Books about tortured women
For riotgrrrl This is quite hard at I pretty much only read books by and about women, and there are parts of most books that could be considered “tortured”. So my loose criteria were books that are set predominantly in the mind of the woman and deal with their mental illness or societally unconventional behaviour. The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf Fear of Flying - Erica Jong The Edible Woman - Margaret Atwood I Love Dick - Chris Kraus The Woman Destroyed - Simone de Beauvoir The Vegetarian - Han Kang Detransition, Baby - Torrey Peters Milk Fed - Melissa Broder Nightbitch - Rachel Yoder A Touch of Jen - Beth Morgan Cursed Bread - Sophie Mackintosh Death Valley - Mellisa Broder
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@mouse
May 15, 2024
14
Rec
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writers
Joan Didion. Camila Sosa Villada. Mona Awad. Ottessa Moshfegh. Yukio Mishima. Mary Gaitskill.
Books I'm currently reading and liking so far:
A Little Life-Hanya Yanagihara.
Carmilla-Sheridan Le Fanu.
Hunger-Martín Caparrós.
Books I've read in the past and liked:
Mist-Miguel de Unamuno.
Bad Girls-Camila Sosa Villada.
Bunny-Mona Awad.
Death In Her Hands-Ottessa Moshfegh.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation-Ottessa Moshfegh.
Animal-Lisa Taddeo.
This Is Pleasure-Mary Gaitskill.
Running With Scissors-Augusten Burroughs.
Cultish-Amanda Montell.
So You've Been Publicly Shamed-Jon Ronson.
Rosario Tijeras-Jorge Franco.
Educated-Tara Westover.
Maus-Art Spiegelman.
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@mariamaria
Sep 24, 2024
8
Rec
🎀
Women's fiction
Books by women that make me feel melancholy, introspective, indolent & antsy all at once.
Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro How to Be Both by Ali Smith The Gathering by Anne Enright
My holy trinity of "the feels" ugh
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@lichen
Feb 22, 2025
4

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