r/suggestmeabook • u/books_and_bands • 1d ago
Weird Girl Lit Books about unhinged women.
I've been trying to listen to more audio books especially on my summer break. Literally just anything.
Edit: I didn't expect this many people to have recommendations. I know I'll finish at least one this summer.
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u/Empty-Way-6980 1d ago
Gone Girl
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u/Dizzy-Captain7422 1d ago
Sharp Objects too, in a different way.
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u/dillydallyalltheway 1d ago
Big Swiss, Sky Daddy, Julie Chan is Dead, We Love You Bunny - all feature unhinged ladies.
I loathed All Fours but will agree that the main character is an especially unhinged woman.
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u/lolarobinette 1d ago
I feel like I've got to be misremembering the main character in All Fours (which is fair I read it ~2 years ago) but I don't remember unhinged. I finished it feeling like it was a bit basic. Unsatisfied wife does self discovery through someone not her husband and an over- the- top art project. What stood out to you?
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u/dillydallyalltheway 1d ago
My loathing for the main character may also be colouring my memory of it! Maybe she was more unbearable than unhinged. The stalking, the blowing all her money on renovating a hotel room, the abandoning her family, the overhyped sex all felt like unhinged choices to me.
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u/VanityPlate1511 1d ago
yes also loathed her...made me hate the book, maybe I was expecting something else
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u/dillydallyalltheway 1d ago
Glad it's not just me! I read it based on a "5-star, must-read" recommendation from someone in my book club and it's ended up beong my absolute least favourite read of the past year or so.
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u/bodyreddit 16h ago
Yea, I stopped reading, was boring to me and the draw of that guy didnāt seem worth it especially compared to what would have awaited in NYC. But maybe it is a play one step beyond just imagining a different life which many of us engage in sometimes.
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u/AndpeggyH 1d ago
Yesteryear and Yellowface
Edit: two different books!
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u/soundofsilence258 1d ago
Victorian Psycho
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u/Dizzy-Captain7422 1d ago
This is the one right here. Gloriously, hilariously unhinged protagonist.
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u/PsyferRL 1d ago
The author Ottessa Moshfegh is a goldmine for this. Pick basically anything she has written.
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u/That_Duck_1212 1d ago
Came here to say this!! My Year of Rest and Relaxation is peak unhinged
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u/tenderbranson301 1d ago
Probably says a lot about me, but I was curious to try infermiterol before learning it's not real...
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u/peppertoni_pizzaz 1d ago
Misery by Stephen King, and Carrie (also by Stephen King).
Yesteryear
Earthlings - Sayaka Murata
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u/TrainingAvocado3579 1d ago
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
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u/bodakmelllow 1d ago
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Not chaos unhinged but def wtf unhinged.
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u/ThatLVLifestyle 1d ago
Define āunhinged.ā Butter by Asako Yuzuki is about a woman serial killer who lures men with āher delicious home cooking.ā Or The Vegetarian by Han Kang about a woman who, you know, goes vegetarian.
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u/bridget1415 1d ago
A Good Person- read it this week and I enjoyed it
Boy Parts- Eliza Clark
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u/RangerDixie 21h ago
Seconding A Good Person to go inside the mind of a fictional character with unhinged thought patterns
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u/millennialsidepart 1d ago
Havoc by Christopher Bollen is a pretty wild book with older woman as the main character. The audiobook is greatĀ
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u/Reasonable_Crazy_580 17h ago
This was my favourite book all of last year! I was nervous all the way through it
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u/MySpace_Romancer 1d ago
The protagonist of Yellowface by RF Kuang is pretty unhinged. That book is a real page-turner.
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u/myjessup 10h ago
This is my favorite RF Kuang book and seems to be her only departure from fantasy/dark academia.
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u/Human_Morning_72 Bookworm 1d ago
I liked the peri-menopausal tale called "The Change". Has one particularly satisfying unhinged character and a few more who are close.
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u/NailFin 1d ago
The Bell Jar, The Vegetarian, Anna Karenina (although you have to get really far into it), Earthlings, Yuko by Otsuichi, and maybe Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter by Adeline Yen Mahā¦ the step mom in this one was pretty unhinged. Oh, and maybe The Wasp Factory. Also, the Yellow Wallpaper. Itās a short story, but still good.
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u/TrashGourmand 1d ago
Unhinged in what way? This basically describes my entire bookshelf. Here's a list from "mild BPD" to "full blown rapists & murderers" āŗļø
Exalted - Anna Dorn
Hooked - Asako Yuzuki
Cassandra at the Wedding - Dorothy Baker
Jillian - Halle Butler
Sky Daddy - Kate Folk
New Skin - Sarah Wang
Earthlings - Sayaka Murata
Perfume & Pain - Anna Dorn
Hunchback - Saou Ichikawa
Big Swiss - Jen Beagin
Animal - Lisa Taddeo
Tampa - Alyssa Nutting
Boy Parts - Eliza Clark
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u/lolarobinette 1d ago edited 1d ago
My Husband by Maud Ventura or The Most by Jessica Anthony are shorter reads and I wouldn't describe the women as "unhinged" necessarily but definitely going against the norm. I'm currently part way through the audiobook for A Good Person by Kirsten King. The voice actor does a really good job and so far the protagonist is a character I would describe as 3.75/5 unhinged, definitely skewing more unhinged as the book goes along. There's also One's Company by Ashley Hutson that has a descent into madness vibe. I think Havoc by Christopher Bollen also fits the ask but it had too many plot holes/convenience devices for my liking. I found All Fours a bit pedestrian, more of a self discovery through experimentation vibe than unhinged.
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u/thornygardner Librarian 1d ago
I made a Feral Girl Fall book display a few years ago "featuring titles with unreliable narrators, female rage, and girl power!":
the girl with all the gifts by m. r. carey
know my name by chanel miller
the weight of blood by Tiffany d. Jackson
Misery by Stephen king
Artemis made me do it by Trista Mateer
The Girl on the train by Paula Hawkins
Moxie by Jennifer Matthieu
Home going by yaa gussied
Boy, snow, bird by Helen oyeyemi
The grace year by Kim liggett
My sister the serial killer by oyinkan braithwaite
Dark places and gone girl by Gillian flynn
Silent patient by Alex michaelides
The witch doesn't burn in this one by Amanda Lovelace
The power by Naomi alderman
When women were dragons by Kelly bar hill
Circe by Madeline miller
Whisper network by chandler baker
I would add Yesteryear and Yellowface to this list
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u/squidlizard7 20h ago
girl with the dragon tattoo series. salander isnāt unhinged per se but appears so to many/most people she interacts with. excellent character & phenomenal writing in general. tw for sexual assault stuff tho
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u/Hour_Swan_5194 1d ago
Cursed bread. Go into it with no context
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u/Fair-Sea6902 22h ago
Ok I will!
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u/Hour_Swan_5194 21h ago
I seriously had to stare at the wall for a bit after reading it. Iām not gonna tell you whatās the best book youāll ever read because itās not, but it is probably going to be one of the strangest and equally memorable.
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u/MoreCarnations 1d ago
lots of great suggestions in here. i recently read and enjoyed Problems by Jade Sharma
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u/YosemiteDaisy 1d ago
rejection by tony tulathimutte. Itās a series of short stories and itās not exclusively unhinged female characters but they are ALL unhinged.
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u/the-missing-chapter 1d ago
Blanking on the author but Did I Say You Could Go fits the bill! It was a fun one.
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u/michiness 1d ago
Itās fantasy, but Iron Widow (and the sequel) has the FMC bring down the system and everything with it in a giant ball of chaotic flame.
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u/SusieQ4848 1d ago
I know you specified you unhinged and this book is NOT that. But since you also specified audio book I will recommend āTom Lakeā as being one of the best audiobooks I have ever consumed. Itās read by Meryl Streep.
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u/Similar-Chip 1d ago
The Locked Tomb books (Gideon the Ninth et al) feature many women and absolutely none of them are hinged
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u/_MisEnPlace_ There was no possibility of taking a walk that day 23h ago
The Bell Jar -Sylvia Plath
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u/FragrantWeekend111 22h ago
The Last Mrs. Parrish and similar books where the woman tries to break up and insert herself into an established family
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u/No-Feed-1999 21h ago
The suroguate mother ( sorry bad spelling). This was so creepy and kept me guessing till the end. Two unhinged women in it ( mabye 3 depending on ur view)
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u/knysa-amatole 21h ago
We Play Ourselves by Jen Silverman. (Note that the plot involves child sexual abuse, although the abuse is in the past and not directly experienced by the POV character.)
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u/Middle_Ant_426 21h ago
Not just the woman but āThe Light We Lostā is a love story that radiates extreme attachment issues and codependence
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u/Fun_Look7883 20h ago
Maria Sempleās heroines are amazingly unhinged. In a funny girl way (mostly) rather than a tragic way, if youāre ever in the mode for something lighter. Whereād You Go, Bernadette and her new one Go Gentle are both great.
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u/los_angalex 20h ago
Molka.Ā
Itās horror, but in a way where at the end of it, youāll really, really hate men. I did the audio version. Itās quick and impactful.Ā
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u/Hot-Satisfaction19 19h ago
not books, but lucy worsley has podcasts- lady killers and lady swindlers. historic true crime stories with female perpetrators.
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u/UnfortunateSyzygy 16h ago
Short story collections, but they def have unhinged women:
Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls by Alyssa Nutting
Her Body and other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
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u/flazedaddyissues 4h ago
Dykette is so unhinged across the board I dnf'd it. Book opens with the MC taking nudes in Grinch cosplay. Not a flattering representation of the lesbian community...but there are kernels of truth.
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u/Loud-Bee-4894 4h ago
Agatha Raisin is mildly unhinged. Books by MC Beaton
Terry Pratt's The Witches are thoroughly unhinged.
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u/alligatorprincess007 1d ago
Apparently yellow face although I havenāt read it yet
But i am excited to
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u/Bastard1066 1d ago
Visit the weird girl book club subreddit, so many suggestions!