Female manipulators, women behaving badly, sad girls—whatever you call them, we love books about the kinds of women who have RED FLAG written all over them! We can’t choose just one to recommend, you have to read them all. Our rankings here are based on just how bad these girls get.

Tier 3: Do Better, Girl

My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is the pinnacle of the emerging hot-sad girl trend in contemporary literary fiction. Seriously, nothing else comes close. She’s white, rich, and objectively attractive. She’s got friends and lovers that she feels no connection to, she’s aimless, and she has grief with nowhere to put it. Moshfegh’s protagonist definitely isn’t the most likable on this list, and My Year is likely one of the more polarizing books on this list, but it will absolutely make you think about what makes this subgenre function, and how some of the other books are pushing back. Even if you don’t like it, you’ll think about it for a long time. - Anna

My Sister, The Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite

This book actually belongs on a “sister of a killer hot girl” list, but that’s alright. Braithwaite’s novel is deliciously strange and blunt, with a bizarre cast of characters and compelling setting that will keep you turning the pages. Literally, it’ll take you a couple hours to tear through this one. But it may take you a couple reads to fully appreciate everything happening in the story, since Ayoola’s hot girl vibes are a little grating at times, especially experienced through Korede’s panicked older sister perspective. But if you want something quick, crazy, and disturbingly funny, Braithwaite has you covered. -Anna

Beautiful World, Where Are You, Sally Rooney

More than any of her other novels, the characters in this story have complicated relationships with their identities and perceptions. One woman pines over an old flame, Simon, who it seems, will never share her feelings. The other, after years spent in seclusion living off of her writer’s advance, begins to fall for Felix, a man who is literally terrible. The two women write long, heady letters to one another mourning the state of the world and marveling at the passage of time. Spoiler alert, the end of this book sees all four characters come together and accept one another’s foibles. It’s all well and good, but Felix still gets away with too much, as far as this reader is concerned. - Aatia

The New Me, Halle Butler

This book is savage in every respect. Sassy? check. Bougie? check. Ratchet? Triple check. Butler pretty brilliantly excavates the tedium and ennui of a lonely, snarky millennial, Millie, looking for something, anything, to bring purpose to her life as she works a dead-end job in a designer showroom. She is committed to reinventing herself, any day now, and becoming the attractive, social, successful person she knows the world wants her to be – and it will happen right? Like any day now? It’s a quick read and delightfully savage in its takedown of Girl Boss culture and the distended capitalism we have come to live and work inside of. 9/10 for sass alone. - Colleen

A Certain Hunger, Chelsea G. Summers

Male protagonists are allowed to be vicious, disgusting, creepy, etc, yet their female equivalents rarely get that same leeway. A Certain Hunger is so refreshing. Here we see a devious and horrific female character: a serial killer. Dorothy is a self-proclaimed psychopath who is fully aware of her otherness and has mastered the art of deceiving people into thinking she is a perfect law-abiding woman. The novel begins with Dorothy in prison, reflecting on the crimes which have earned her her life sentence and on exactly which of her actions she regrets (certainly not the multiple murders she committed, that’s for sure). –Lindsay

You Exist Too Much, Zaina Arafat

Loved this one. The protagonist here is a queer Palestinian-American whose troubled relationships, disorderly conduct and all-around bad behavior send her to rehab for “love addiction.” Here she reflects on her relationship with her volatile immigrant mother, a cycle of romantic fixation and withdrawal and persistent loneliness. She’s a mess. Extra points for being explicitly LGBTQ. - Aatia

Milk Fed, Melissa Broder

From the first page Melissa Broder makes your skin crawl being inside the mind of her cruel, insecure, and deeply troubled narrator Rachel. Struggling with an eating disorder and an extremely over bearing and judgmental mother, Rachel can't help but view everyone with a critical eye. While attempting to set boundaries with her mom by cutting off communication for 90 days, we follow Rachel as she goes on a downward spiral into bingeing, restriction, and attraction to the Orthodox Jewish woman working at her local frozen yogurt shop. Mommy issues and body issues galore this is a phenomenal and gripping read but proceed with caution, very graphic ED content. - Chamidae

Normal People, Sally Rooney

Told in dual perspectives, Normal People has the distinction of being a Hot/Sad girl and boy book. And Connell Waldren, our male protagonist, is so, so sad. These characters and their introspection and ambition continue to resonate with me. Some of the lines in this book are lines from this book that are truly unforgettable. Normal People loses points for lack of speech marks, though. - Aatia

Tier 2: We Love You, Get Some Help

A Novel Obsession, Caitlin Barasch

Now, you want to talk about women making some poor decisions, let me introduce you to maybe the most anxiety-inducing, thrilling woman protag I’ve read in the last year. Barasch’s A Novel Obsession follows 24-year-old Naomi Ackerman, bookseller and aspiring writer (hurt, yet?), who gets herself into some stalker-ish behavior upon discovering her current boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, well, exists. What unfolds is a narrative that even her best friend couldn’t talk her out of. You might be thinking, Hm, I’ve found myself needing to stalk my partner’s past, but trust me – I’m sure what you’ve done is angelic compared to Miss Ackerman’s. –Ericka

We Do What We Do in the Dark, Michelle Hart

I read this book in one sitting. I was hypnotized by Mallory’s observation of her world and the women involved in it. This story fixates on Mallory’s clandestine relationship with an older woman, but forgets the other relationships that fortified or forced Mallory into questioning her position in the world. Mallory is lonely, but enjoys being alone; when looking at her relationships to her mother, her next door neighbor, her next door neighbor’s mother, she isn’t sure what she’s looking for; she is young, and questioning, and she grows older, and continues to question. What I enjoyed about Mallory’s trajectory is that, yes, she is a little sad, and she has her fair share of aimless sexual relationships, but through it all, she holds steady in her resolve, and pushes to be a softer, kinder, loving person. At the end of the day, isn’t that what we all want for ourselves? - Ericka

Conversations With Friends, Sally Rooney

I’m ready to talk about Conversations With Friends finally. And so is everyone else! Like Rooney’s most recent, Beautiful World, Where Are You, the characters in this novel are tangled in a complex web of desire and attraction. Frances and her brilliant friend, Bobbi are students and aspiring artists. They draw the attention of an older artist couple and their affairs spark jealousy and betrayal. There’s a scene toward the end where Frances is completely immobilized by symptoms of endometriosis and at the time of reading, I had never seen that illness portrayed…anywhere. - Aatia

No One Else Is Talking About This, Patricia Lockwood

Gorgeous gorgeous girls love scrolling through Twitter. Gorgeous gorgeous girls also love reading brilliant novels. Patricia Lockwood has somehow made it possible to do both! No One Is Talking About This blew my mind, not only because of the tweet-like structure of its paragraphs and chapters, but because of how quickly I was sucked into the narrator’s life (after she goes viral for a tweet that asks, “can a dog be twins?”), revealed to the reader in glimpses and fractured pieces. This book is humorous, moving, topical, and truly unique. - Amali

Post-Traumatic, Chantal V. Johnson

Vivian isn’t like the other sad girls on this list. She’s a lawyer, working in an outpatient facility. Her compassion and talent for working with people are at the forefront of her characterization, she is good at what she does and passionate. Still, she has baggage. Buried under her hyper-critical, hyper-vigilant view of the world, there is true compassion, I think, and a desire to do no harm. I respect that- Aatia

Tier 1: God Tier

Luster, Raven Leilani

This novel moves like poetry – Leilani enchants readers (me) with her exquisite miles-long sentences, into believing that maybe, just maybe, Edie could get some semblance of a happy ending. Edie’s choices throughout this story pushed me to my limits of being uncomfortable, but I guess that’s what good stories allow you to do. Needless to say, I’m going to see what else Raven Leilani can muster!! –Ericka

This book is deplorable. I love it. Edie is a twenty-something working as an assistant at a publishing house. She’s entrenched in an affair with Eric, her married coworker. Theirs in an imbalanced relationship in terms of power (a common theme in this list) and those imbalances become magnified when Eric invites Edie to stay at his home with his wife and adopted daughter. Akila, the daughter, cinches this book for me. Her presence in the book holds a mirror to Edie. She’s a source of discomfort at times, but she also invokes surprising tenderness. - Aatia

All About Love, bell hooks

Warning! This book will make you cry and rethink every preconceived notion you had about love. bell hooks dives head-first into the delusions our society has created about love, and writes with such fervor and intention that it feels like she’s grabbed me by the shoulders and is shaking the nonsense out of my head. A lot has changed in the 20 years since it was written, but this is definitely required reading for all the hot girls out there with anxious attachment style. - Amali

Nightbitch, Rachel Yoder

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book—bright red, with a giant slab of meat on the cover. Five days later, I was finishing it on the train ride home in tears. If you are a fan of the surreal and the absurd, loved Kafka’s The Metamorphosis but are sick of male narrators, and are absolutely obsessed with women going feral, this book is for you! Rachel Yoder creates an incredible story about a stay-at-home mom, just trying to be the best nurturer she can be, and sometimes, that involves transforming into a wolf and howling at the moon with your offspring. - Amali

Writers & Lovers, Lily King

Lily King knows what she’s doing!! I have to admit, it took me a couple chapters to fall into this story, but when I finally did it was epic. Casey is the woman behind the hot-sad girl curtain. She’s got the archetype down: struggling artist, aimless and a little alone, with romantic prospects who seem just a little out of reach. But Casey and this story also feel dosed with a reality that draws you in and stays long after you’ve finished. Touching on loss, connection, and the impending fear of missing “it”, Writers & Lovers feels like one of the supremely real examples of struggle and direction for the hot-sad girl character. King’s writing leaves you feeling warm and stuns you with beautiful writing along the way. - Anna

Okay, so… it’s been a while since I’ve read this one. What I remember most is clutching my chest while reading at how aligned my life seemed to be with late-20s Casey, who works in a restaurant, lives in the tiniest apartment, is constantly inundated with mail regarding her student loan debt, and finds herself entangled in two very different relationships. Throughout this slim novel, Lily King delivers Casey’s story with clear insight, leaving you cheering for Casey from start to finish. King’s ending to this story is fairytale-esque, with a lot of the loose ends tied up well, and Casey’s desires fulfilled. A hot-sad girl read for the hot-girl summer vibes, this novel is sure to remind you why we should cancel student debt that even when you’re at your lowest, it really can only go up from there. -Ericka

Animal, Lisa Taddeo

Lisa Taddeo, you’ve done it again! Animal has one of the best, most depraved, slightly unhinged, very hot protagonists I’ve read in the past year. The story follows Joan, a quintessential New Yorker, as she flees to Southern California after her married boss, who she had a brief affair with, shoots himself in front of her at a restaurant. Don’t worry about spoilers—that happens in the opening paragraph. What follows is an incredible and brutal novel about the perception of women, childhood trauma, empathy, rage, and revenge. This is for the hot/sad girls who hate Tik Tok even though they won’t delete it and are emotional wrecks. - Amali

Sex and Rage, Eve Babitz

No one writes being a hot girl like Eve Babitz. Taking place in late 60's LA you get to live vicariously through Jacaranda who surfs all day, drinks all night, and falls deeply in love with the worst of the worst men. The sometimes writer, sometimes painter, always a party girl is heavily influenced by Eve’s own life. This book radiates summer days and will make you feel less alone in the sometimes aimless and directionless feelings that accompany surviving your 20's. Personally, I will be having an Eve Babitz summer! - Chamidae