26 Comments

Ooooft this piece is so good.

“The depressing idea central to sad girl novels is that submitting to a problem is just as valid as solving it.”

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author

Thank you! :)

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founding

Oooft was the first that came to my mind too.

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Sep 6, 2023·edited Sep 6, 2023Liked by Bri Lee

YEP! Really resonate with your last point around how these narrators seem to spring from nowhere, with little-to-no familial or other historical context beyond "it's complicated". For me, it's the complexity of intergenerational relationships explored in, for example, Jessica Au's Cold Enough for Snow (maybe a type of antidote to the sad girl novel?), that can make characters that might otherwise fall into the sad girl demographic more relatable as even being emotionally complex in the first place.

Also, I think you may even give the perpetrators of this trope too much credit in suggesting that it might link to a modern experience of anxiety or apathy. I can't help but feel when reading characters like this that it's purely a matter of whittling down the focus to a singular identity, which is ultimately flat because of it. I guess identity has been the primary preoccupation of art for the best part of a decade, but isn't it more interesting when identity is rather a prism for considering the exterior world anew? Maybe soon other readers will grow out of this phase too, and we can head somewhere in this direction.

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author

Such a good point re: identity as a prism, I think so too — and I feel like it’s becoming a readymade signifier that’s stifling new ideas or ways of seeing the world — which is why I personally go to art and literature! Agreed re the ahistorical nature of these books. Cold Enough for Snow has been on my must-read list for ages, I need to read!

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Agree, me too. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Figuring out how to talk about it without confirming the xenophobic cry of "identity politics"! Cold Enough for Snow is brilliant, a quiet, quick read. Can't recommend it enough.

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Sep 6, 2023Liked by Neha Kale, Bri Lee

Cold Enough for Snow is a great example of anti-sad girl novel - and it shows that you can explore the complexity of inter generational relationships in a short space.

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Yes! I loved that about it. A real gut punch to the saga-length realist novel...

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Jan 18Liked by Bri Lee

‘Whittling down the focus to a single identity’, thank you, you have managed to convey exactly what I thought but couldn’t express!

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Oh my goodness, Neha, you have captures this so well. It's exactly how I feel about this style of novel but couldn't articulate. I feel a weight lifted off my shoulders hahhaha absolutely excellent

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author

Thanks so much Cameron, it took me quite a while to work out why this kind of literature made me uncomfortable, I'm so glad it resonated with you!

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Sep 6, 2023Liked by Neha Kale

I’ve re-read this article three times now and every time it SLAPS. Incredibly well written - thank you Neha! The comments are insightful af. I love this magazine/community so much haha! I will be getting my spindly little hands on a copy of Cold Enough for Snow stat. Thanks for the recommendation Emma!

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author

Thanks for reading Hannah!

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This really is superb, Neha. Beautiful, brilliant writing that deserves a second and third read. x

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author

Thank you so much Jodi, it took me a long time to figure out what I thought — so glad you enjoyed it. x

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Mar 29Liked by Neha Kale, Bri Lee

I've been living under a rock for the past seven months in a new job working what feels like 100 hours a week and have only just emerged. Catching up on missed News and Reviews and reading this is just YESYESYESYES WOWOWOWOW - perfectly encapsulated how I feel about sad girl novels and my confusion at why 'others' seem to enjoy them. Thank you Neha for taking the time to so clearly articulate your thoughts on the genre and in doing so giving us (me) a window into our own thoughts and feelings. I need to go back and read again.

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author

Thank you for reading and so glad it helped you articulate your thoughts!

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Sep 12, 2023Liked by Neha Kale

THANK YOU! For articulating some of what I’ve been thinking about the sad girl novel + SO much more. The point about time really resonated with me, it puts the finger on exactly one of the things that irks me so much about these novels. They do turn you into a sad girl! I absolutely loved this piece.

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Mar 10Liked by Bri Lee

I agree with the sense of inertia, these characters simultaneously claim agency through noticing their position in life and examining it, and embody a sense of powerlessness as they are buffeted by socio-cultural tides. The lack of joy and pessimism makes me sad when reading. I found Gabrielle Zevon's "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" an antidote to this trope.

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Goddam this was great and exactly how I feel.

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author

Thanks for reading! So glad it resonated.

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This is such excellent criticism. Articulates so well so many things that I’ve sensed, but not fully understood.

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Sep 6, 2023Liked by Neha Kale

Yes, a great read, I agree. I too read a bunch of these books, I think the last was Sorrow and Bliss, it just put me off so badly. For a lot of the reasons you have articulated Neha.

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....Wow! Fantastic work, Neha - this is a piece I’ll definitely come back to after digesting.

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founding

Your paragraph about naming the problem to extricate yourself from the problem, and the phenomenon of the equivalence between reflecting vs addressing power is, wow, amazing.

I wonder- what did you think of Sorrow and Bliss, and the portrayal of Eve as using Michaela’s story, vs the authors own “use” of the stories of hundreds of women (myself included) who were assaulted in university colleges?

I haven’t seen the Barbie movie, and despite being told to by students, friends and colleagues, I’m worried I’ll be annoyed at it for doing that.

Thank you for penning this piece. I’ll be thinking about it for ages

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author

Thanks for reading and responding so thoughtfully Elizabeth. It’s funny, I thought about including Sorrow and Bliss here, but it resonated with me differently to a lot of sad girl novels and I wonder if this has something to do with the decision not to “name” Martha’s mental illness as well as the specific way the narration is couched in her family’s story and the narrator’s relationship with her sister. To me, it also doesn't grapple with millennial experience in quite the same way.

I’m very sorry to hear this and it is such a prescient point re: Eve and Michaela – I do feel like one of the larger philosophical questions that novel is trying to address/ask the reader is whether the violence inherent in treating the experiences of survivors as if they are interchangeable outweighs the potential structural shift that can come from it. Read that way, the act of writing the novel itself mirrors this thorny question – but then again, there’s the same ethical tension between reflecting power versus addressing power, the loop that so many of these texts replicate.

Thank you for giving me lots more food for thought! I recommend watching Barbie, if only to work out how you feel about it – it was very instructive for me!

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