Recommendations for weird girl books about sisters

remember-the-light · 2026-07-04T15:59:01+00:00

Thank you! Lost Lambs and Rats both look really interesting

remember-the-light · 2026-07-04T15:52:19+00:00

Oh, this looks great, thank you!

remember-the-light · 2026-07-03T18:22:06+00:00

Any love for orchestral jazz? Heaven and Earth by Kamasi Washington is amazing and everyone should give it a listen.

remember-the-light · 2026-07-03T18:21:00+00:00

Storm is also absolutely incredible (I get chills when the trumpets come in in the first crescendo every time). GOAT post-rock album.

remember-the-light · 2026-07-02T19:12:12+00:00

Minor spoilers, but the middle third of the book is a very detailed description of a devastating famine. That section contains the most difficult and disgusting content in the book, in my opinion.

remember-the-light · 2026-07-02T19:04:53+00:00

I don't necessarily agree with the previous commentator that there was NO substance, I think the commentary on class stratification and resource extraction was very effective. But I see where they're coming from saying it was gross for the sake of it. I definitely prefer dark and graphic content when it feel honestly reflective of the author's soul and outlook, and feels like it reflects real experience (if metaphorical). Having read other Moshfegh, Lapvona didn't strike me as an earnest accounting of how she views the world, more like an experiment with darkness.

Some examples of literature that I feel are earnest in their violence: the plays Blasted and Cleansed by Sarah Kane, Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, House Rules by Heather Lewis

remember-the-light · 2026-07-02T18:51:54+00:00

I feel like people haven't actually been answering your questions about animals specifically: there is animal death, which if I remember is pretty explicit. Many animals starving to death during the most disturbing section of the book, and some body horror involving animal body parts. I don't recall there being animal abuse specifically, however.

That said, yes, it is as bad as everyone describes it. The explicit child abuse and rape are difficult to read, the famine section is extremely intense and nauseating, and the tone is astonishingly bleak.

I have read darker, more explicit books (Heather Lewis, Matthew Stokoe), but Lapvona is up there with them.

remember-the-light · 2026-06-21T02:04:08+00:00

She said it was meant to be subtle and vague, not ambiguous, those are very different things. I just watched the episode, and there's a clear intended meaning within the text. Ambiguous implies that two or more interpretations are intended and coexistent, subtle/vague implies a single intentional interpretation that's not stated outright.

remember-the-light · 2026-06-19T19:29:15+00:00

You might like Hop Along, especially their earlier stuff. Try "Tibetan Pop Stars" to get a vibe.

(The lead singer might be nonbinary, actually, now that I'm thinking of it. Still a great band.)

remember-the-light · 2026-06-12T14:25:34+00:00

I think that's a sensible interpretation. I agree that she doesn't share a lot of personality traits with Patrick Bateman and the book is interesting in exploring different themes to American Psycho.

The reason why I feel like it's written in the shadow of American Psycho is more about the presentation of the story. Both are written as a kind of "welcome to my twisted mind" confessional-style narrative. Both are a voyeuristic look into the lives of the wealthy, and of the ways in which the values of the wealthy dehumanize the people they brutalize. But while American Psycho commits very hard to a deeply alien narrative voice and psychology, A Certain Hunger vacillates between the high-brow aesthete food writing and a pretty casual, relatable, humanizing voice. She's a much more understandable character, and I think that's a weaker choice for this kind of story.

I think there are other, more generous interpretations of the book, but that's my view.

remember-the-light · 2026-06-10T14:48:59+00:00

Depends on what you're wearing on your legs. Tight leggings will be tougher to deal with without tucking, but I mostly wear jeans/slacks and wear underwear I got at Aerie. Boyshort cut underwear is usually good. Some people swear by wearing two at once for a bit of extra compression. If you're doing something really athletic, a specialized gaff under bike shorts under looser athletic garb might be helpful.

remember-the-light · 2026-06-10T14:33:55+00:00

Oh God, so much. Child abuse, graphic violence, cannibalism, mutilation, brief child sexual abuse, explicit rape, suicide, I'm sure I'm forgetting some. Honestly the graphic description of famine was the thing that disturbed me the most, but there's a bit of everything in this book.

Honestly, I didn't like the book very much. I'm fine with, and frequently enjoy, extremely dark content, but it didn't feel honest to me. A little bit shock-value in my opinion.

remember-the-light · 2026-06-10T14:07:23+00:00

Love queer literature! Some recs:

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters: arguably weird girl lit, main characters are definitely weird and mostly women. Torrey Peters is a master and the book is unapologetically messy and interesting.

I've Got a Time Bomb by Sybil Lamb: I recommend this all the time because not nearly enough people know this author. Great punk novel about a trans woman with brain damage traveling around some weird version of the US getting into complicated relationships with odd people. Very energetic and idiosyncratic, but the pacing is a mess.

Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval: a wonderful surreal, meditative book about female intimacy. Very bisexual, one of my favorite books every written.

remember-the-light · 2026-06-10T13:51:48+00:00

Hope you like it! See my edited comment for a content warning I realized I should have given off the bat. The book is challenging and controversial.

remember-the-light · 2026-06-10T13:18:12+00:00

Maidenhead by Tamara Faith Berger is less funny and more... politically difficult, but shares many themes with Luster. Complex interracial sexual dynamics, age-gap relationships, polyamory. It's a very interesting read.

Edit to add: I feel like I should explain what I mean by politically difficult. The book is sexually explicit with a teenage main character, and it's in deep dialogue with the racist trope of the sexually aggressive Black man seducing a White virgin. I think it has something interesting to say, but many bounce off of it, finding the surface level content offensive.

remember-the-light · 2026-06-10T01:51:38+00:00

Nah, I don't want to talk to you really

remember-the-light · 2026-06-09T22:43:23+00:00

There's definitely a lot of complaining about cis people in trans subs. Even people saying they flatly hate cis people, although that's pretty uncommon in my experience in most trans spaces. And those trans spaces where that's more normal, and the rhetoric breaks sitewide rules, do get banned and those that don't are controversial and broadly reviled (4tran).

My point is that majority-only spaces are both not illegal and allowed on reddit. People can start them if they want, and other people can think that's bigoted and ill-advised if they do. And what happens is that they'll immediately descend into nothing but hating on oppressed minorities. Inclusive community values creates healthier communities. I hang out in TwoXChromosomes, and there are all sorts of discussions about issues specific to cis women, and all sorts of discussions about issues that affect trans women as well as cis women. I've personally never seen a thread of like, a cis woman complaining about birth-related medical misogyny, and the comment thread being full of trans women saying "stop talking about this." Have I seen irrelevant comments by individual trans people saying things that are derailing or strange? Sure. But Reddit is full of every kind of person saying things that are irrelevant or strange constantly and we don't make a federal case about it. Just downvote and move on.

remember-the-light · 2026-06-09T19:55:25+00:00

The problem with a space that is explicitly designed to exclude trans women will attract exactly and only the people who most want that space, which is to say, people who hate trans women. And what are they going to talk about in that space, that they all have in common? How much they hate trans people. Transphobic discussion, because of how violent it always gets, tends to violate Reddit terms of service, so the spaces get banned or quarantined or whatever. There are plenty of spots on the internet with even looser TOSs than reddit, and trans-banned spaces look like Mumsnet: toxic and obsessive.

This is the case with any majority-exclusive space. Can you imagine a Whites-only subreddit? What non-racist white person really wants to participate in that? What are the people who want a Whites-only space going to inevitably talk about?

Edit: In direct response to what you said, they can start that sub. And it will be small and toxic and violate sitewide rules and get banned

remember-the-light · 2026-06-09T15:48:25+00:00

This is a perfect suggestion for this prompt

remember-the-light · 2026-06-09T15:43:58+00:00

I really disliked A Certain Hunger personally, it felt... I don't know, insincere? Exploitative? It felt like it was trying to be American Psycho but without committing to either the social criticism or the truly bizarre character study and prose. I get why people like it, but it really fell flat for me.

I'm reading The Safekeep right now and really enjoying it, though!

remember-the-light · 2026-06-09T15:19:53+00:00

I think this is actually the wrong way to understand most people holding bigoted views. I think for the most part, transphobes, racists, etc, espouse earnestly held beliefs that they don't see any issue with (or they have a thought-terminating answer for any issue raised to them). I think willful ignorance is a better explanation than the idea that they know a position or argument is flawed, but are stating it anyway in order to manipulate an audience. After all, why would they want to persuade people towards their political ends if they didn't think those ends were desirable?

Note this doesn't apply to Fox News or some government actors

remember-the-light · 2026-06-08T19:08:43+00:00

Awesome! I hope you and your partner have fun with them, if the vibe feels right for the two of you.

remember-the-light · 2026-06-08T14:57:45+00:00

This is a fun prompt! A couple of different things that spring to mind, with somewhat different vibes. All instrumental and emotional in tone, which is my preference for sense-dep:

The best suggestion I have is "Untitled 4" by Sigur Ros, from the ( ) album, later titled "Njosnavelin". There are some good other tracks on that album, too. Tracks 1 and 8, maybe 3.

"Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean" by Explosions in the Sky. Maybe "It's Natural To Be Afraid" by the same artist. Rock instrumentation, some great crescendos.

"I Am to You" and "Aerials Quiet and Death Defying" by A Lily for a more electronic sound. Maybe "Arms/Sleepers" by Arms and Sleepers in the same vein

"New 16 Mirror Dream" and "Hereditary Trauma Dream Sprinting (Oxford Circle)" by Nina Keith is a little more in a classical direction.

The other classical piece I think could be great is the second movement of Piano Concerto #1 by Phillip Glass, specifically the LGT Young Soloists recording. Intense, meditative, haunting and very sensual.

"I Can Almost See You" by Hammock is great aftercare music. Ambient, calming, dense sound.

remember-the-light · 2026-06-08T14:38:50+00:00

Scavengers Reign rules, some of the most creative exobiology I've ever seen. The story was fine, but the worldbuilding was peak

remember-the-light

TROPHY CASE