It’s brat summer! You’ve seen the Apple dance all over Tiktok, you’re ‘so Julia’. My friends Taylor and Sam both sent me a post from the Rancho Cucamonga Barnes and Noble (how very Workaholics). In this video, they show all of the “brat books”. Dear Reader, I had read them all! Which makes sense, because I first predicted brat summer two years ago (see the proof below).
Here is the official list:
Perfume and Pain by Anna Dorn (mentioned in my 2024 faves!)
These books have ranked among some of my favorites! I also recently saw that my bookstagram friend wellredphd posted about brat summer reads and I had read 12 of the 24 that she had recommended. She said this was very me, as I tend to read girl vs the void books.
I had never heard this term, so I gave it a Google. Goodreads has a list of 199 books, titled Women Vs The Void (I had read 78 of them). Skimming through this list, I realized that this is my genre. I had never known how to describe it and I was so glad to have the words to finally voice it. “Female protagonists contemplating the banality of existence” is exactly what I look for in a book. It’s very millennial, raw and difficult girls, unlikable and relatable characters, the brats if you will. I think that the reason I tend to like these books so much is that I see myself in them.
Some of my other favorite ‘brat’ books that I’ve read recently are Worry by Alexandra Tanner, Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados, Exalted by Anna Dorn, Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, Piglet by Lottie Hazell, A Good Happy Girl by Marissa Higgins, and We Were The Universe by Kimberly King Parsons. I’m currently on the library hold list for the ultimate so Julia book: Julia Fox’s Down the Drain.
I would love to hear what your favorite brat books are! Drop them in the comments.
In Currently Reading news, since my last newsletter, I have read Anyone’s Ghost by August Thompson and Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (you’ve seen this one everywhere). I am just starting Kittentits by Holly Wilson, which I have had for so long, but had to keep pushing back because my other library holds were due. Happy reading!
I have read 28 of the list, what a list! I just read Our Wives Under The Sea, which is on the list. I really thought her wife was going to swim away happily in the end rather than dissolve. </3
Love these Brat books. Currently reading We Were The Universe! 💚