Yesterday’s Libra New Moon left me feeling all emo, and it got me to thinking about some of my favorite characters in books, about my favorite songs, my favorite sad feelings and images I like to collect in a mental file to unpack in moments such as this. Obviously I love Lana Del Rey, especially her sadder darker songs, and I love a similar vibe in the books I read as well as in the ones I write myself. So what is the appeal of sad girl fiction? Why do I love it so much?
I think there’s an aesthetic quality to sadness as a way of being in the world. Anger is more powerful and joy is pure rebellion, but sadness carries its own subtle subversion. Sadness is mourning the very tragedy of being female in a world that is still so unfair to women, thus sadness does not always require justification. We inherit sadness. We carry it with us. And sometimes we like unfolding it like a magical cloak and looking at all its textures and colors.
In my own writing, the saddest sad girl is Betty in Storms of Malhado. She’s also my favorite character I’ve ever written (because I am secretly Betty but only occasionally and within reason). Not all readers love Betty. Some find her too neurotic, too obsessed with Cornelius, too eager to withdraw from the world, take refuge in her kitchen or her bathtub and cry for days.
Then again, some readers love Betty, and they enjoy delving into her sadness. It is my theory that if you love Lana Del Rey, you will probably love Betty too. If you like doomed yet glamorous characters such as Adriana La Cerva in the Sopranos, you might like Betty too.
Though obviously I also want to discuss some of the sad girl books I love best, 5 of which have helped inspire me in the creation of Betty and other characters (I’m looking at you, Miss Vulpe!) and one I only recently discovered, which I really wish I had come across sooner.
My absolute favorite sad girl book, one I revisit frequently because it’s just so good, is Wide Sargasso Sea. If you haven’t read it, you should check it out. It’s giving a backstory to the madwoman in Jane Eyre and it’s set in a haunting post colonial Caribbean setting. It’s beautifully written and will get you thinking on a great number of things. This book was a top source of inspiration for me as I was writing Storms of Malhado, and I even picked a name and background for Josephine that reflects this.
Another favorite of mine is Quicksand by Nella Lassen, which explores the pain of not belonging and searching for a place where one belongs. The main character’s loneliness and alienation and the unavoidable spiraling make this book unforgettable.
Bonjour Tristesse is a book I encountered in high school and which I have liked ever since. I think its influence on me is most noticeable in The Adventures of Miss Vulpe.
Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum is a book I came across recently but this one possibly has the strongest Betty vibe of them all. Unhappy woman, feeling alienated in a foreign country, looking for an outlet, while simultaneously being very passive and somewhat self-destructive. The author is a poet and the book is beautifully written and focuses on language quite a lot. I think Betty would have actually liked this book.
