Recs if you like Eileen...

Exactly what it sounds like. Books you read that make other people question "who is this diva" or "good for her"

Books that are atmospheric, emotionally unsettling, beautifully written, a little weird, and linger long after you finish them.

books featured in the cozy video game “tiny bookshop”

...are unhinged, lonely, tortured, kooky, crazy, unmoored, yearning, plotting, stalking, monologuing, self-pitying, lost, etc.

Books recommended by musician Lucy Dacus, a solo artist and member of the band boygenius. Pulled from her goodreads list.

the gurls NEED to read horror books 💋 i wouldn’t say these are all horror but that’s left to the reader to make that assumption

books with characters who are in their 20s (and trying to figure out their 20s). primarily but not exclusively lit fic.

🍃✨ books where the real setting is somebody’s unsettling or off-kilter brain/perspective (with exceptional prose quality)

the warm, fragmented interiors of women navigating emotional turmoil, relational dysfunction, identity crises, and existential malaise. intense, immersive, atmospheric, and deeply felt. stories of mundanity and despair, but also of a different beauty, some subtler strength. let's wallow freely and without shame.

note: open to recs, but those focused on interiority rather than romance (e.g. not Normal People)

Coming of age novels end when the girl figures out who she is. Coming of Rage begins years later, when the woman realizes what's been done to her and is finally old enough to know better. Some of these women savor it slowly. Others empty the bottle and make a Molotov cocktail. All of them are done apologizing. Always taking recs - See pinned comment!

Weird, mostly girlys going through different unique life adventures. Supporting girlies (the girls, theys and thems) rights and wrongs.  Regina George screaming down her hallway into her room hunting down the Burn Book

These books are deeply human, and they aren't afraid to make you uncomfortable along the way. Whether the characters are unlikeable or the author seems to be rudely calling you out or the content is critiquing an aspect of the human experience (or all the above), these books are unflinching in the face of their consumers. Recommendations are welcome!

Horrors and thrillers set in winter (21st December to 20th March, but I will count earlier December as winter too to make things easier) or in a really cold place that reminds of wintertime.

The list will contain both more known books that you've probably already been recommended and some that I've seen have had less attention, at least over here. I have not read them all, but I want to complete this list myself too during the next Christmasses.

for those who don't conform to the norm.

Social commentary under patriarchy

Fiction where we learn perhaps a bit too much about someone's bathroom habits

Alternative Xmas reading — think downbeat stories, family dysfunction, holiday loneliness, seasonal depression, black comedy. There's a gift from me to you under the tree in the comments.

Other winter-holiday books welcome as long as they're cranky!

Is your cynicism chronic? Check out my list Bleakness Is My Weakness...

All sorts of stories about all sorts of women. Mostly litfic, some horror.

A list of books I have come across when looking for books that fit this theme. Please leave a comment if there is something I should add.

Being weird is fun!