I want to read beautiful prose about unhinged women making depraved decisions, and I am constantly on the hunt for my next fix. My favorites in this subgenre are:
- The Guest by Emma Cline
- Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
Notable mentions:
- My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
- Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler
- The Girls by Emma Cline
by bagmert
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Rachel Kushner’s The Flamethrowers.
The protagonist is not totally unhinged but she’s definitely out there and goes on a wild ride from motorcycle racing to the NY art scene, to Italy’s socialist uprising and an escape across the Alps.
An elderly lady is up to no good by Helene Tursten
Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder. Feminist Lovecraftian horror.
The Bel Dame Apocrypha series by Kameron Hurley. Sci fi fantasy.
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey. Near future sci fi.
*She Who Became the Sun* by Shelley Parker Chan, though the protagonist can also be read as nonbinary or genderqueer. In either case, she’s utterly ruthless and ready to whatever it takes to become emperor.
*Valhalla* by Ari Bach. If you want to spend time in a cyberpunk dystopian future with a woman who chooses violence and is regularly baffled by other people’s reactions to that choice, go for this one. It’s bonkers, the plot is all over the place, and I couldn’t stop reading.
Problems by Jade Sharma
Out – Natsuo Kirino
* Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood—she’s a poet and it shows in her prose!
* All’s Well by Mona Awad (anything by Mona Awad)
* The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
* Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Also, this just came out but Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker (though not sure I would say her prose are quite as beautiful).
I mean gone girl is a classic in this genre
The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne!
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
My Husband by Maude Ventura
White Oleander