Brat Summer Reading List
What to read if you are an aspiring brat girl
I started writing this before Brat Summer went fully mainstream, but we all know what it is now. Kamala Harris has jumped on the bandwagon and now, so will I.
Charlie XCX describes a brat girl as the following: “You’re that girl who is a bit messy and loves to party and maybe says dumb things sometimes … She’s honest, blunt, and a little bit volatile. That’s brat.” A bit like the Hot Girl Summer of years gone by, a brat girl is chaotic but fun; she’s the life and soul of the party, but unapologetically herself.
My favourite kind of books are like this, with messy but empathetic protagonists who are simply trying to find their place in the world. With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to jump on the trend myself and recommend some of my favourite brat summer reads.
In my opinion, brat books can be divided into two categories: brat aesthetic and brat attitude.
Brat aesthetic
Charli XCX recently shared a video on her Instagram of her dancing on a yacht, somewhere in the Mediterranean. She looks happy and sexy, and in the background is a copy of Yomi Adegoke’s bestselling debut novel, The List. With its distinctive lilac cover, this book is a perfect prop for brat girls. The novel follows protagonist Ola, a high-profile journalist whose fiancé is named on an anonymous list of abusive men in the Media. It’s twisty and turbulent, and its original cover art isn’t dissimilar to the bold aesthetics of the brat album cover.
Brat literary girls reject the clean, minimalist covers of Fitzcarraldo books and the (mildly upsetting) aesthetic of influencers who display their books’ page edges, rather than spines, on their shelves. They favour bright, distinctive colours; think Caroline Calloway turquoise or Ottessa Moshfegh pink.
Caroline Calloway is a definite brat girl. She knows she’s hot and she embraces her chaotic personality, even titling her self-published memoir Scammer, after the reputation she acquired from hosting a series of failed ‘Creativity Workshops’ back in early 2020. Her early fans will know that she’s always loved turquoise, and she has worked hard to make the colour her trademark: her old West Village apartment was painted all-over in the shade; she places butterfly emojis over her genitals when she shares nudes on Instagram; Scammer sits proudly and unashamedly on fans’ shelves.
Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation is similar. The recognisable cover features an oil painting of a bored-looking woman, with the title and author’s name in a bold, bright pink, but the book is also brat in its vibe. The unhappy protagonist sleeps for a year and attempts to hibernate from the world around her. While brat girls can be joyful, they can also be sad, and this 2018 novel was ahead of its time.
Another colourful book I want to mention is Annie Lord’s memoir, Notes on Heartbreak. If you see a girl carrying the lilac hardback or nectarine paperback, you’ll know she’s a kindred spirit. It’s a book about falling in love and having your heart broken, but it’s also a joyous ode to friendship. As the cover states, the book is “Euphoric. Painful. Beautiful. Messy”, all characteristics of brat summer. Lord herself, a journalist who writes about Sex and Relationships for publications including Vogue, is a bit of a brat girl. She looks like she has a lot of fun, but she also shares intimate details about her messy dating life online.
These books are all brat in their aesthetic. They’re titles you’ll want to post on your Instagram, perhaps as part of a messy tablescape with cigarette butts and empty wine bottles, signposting that you’re a brat girl and you love it.
Brat attitude
Then there are books which are just brat in their attitude. It’s less about how a reader might appear by demonstrating their brat reading choices, and more about the characters themselves, “girls who love to party and maybe say dumb things sometimes”, to quote Charlie XCX once again. These are some of my most-loved books; there’s nothing more relatable than a young woman trying to find her way in life, and each of these characters provoked something in me.
Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados is at the fun-end of the brat girl spectrum. It follows the protagonist, Isa, who spends a sweltering summer having fun in New York with her best friend. They go on dates, hang out with celebrities, and try to get away with spending very little. A delightful debut which captures the fleeting joy of youth, it’s sexy, glamorous and intoxicating. I also adored Granados’s prose: it’s a remarkably confident debut, and I can only imagine the writer is as unashamed and passionate as her protagonist.
Jessica Andrews’s Milk Teeth struck a cord with me for different reasons. It’s brat in the authenticity of the unnamed protagonist’s insecurities, in her struggle to love herself. It follows a young girl who has always punished her body, who moves from the North East of England to Barcelona to follow a man she’s dating. In embracing the richness of Spain — in colour, taste and emotion — she must let go of the girl she used to be. In sensual prose, Andrews explores fears of vulnerability and learning to take up space. In a way, it’s a book about learning to become a brat girl. I loved it.
From its tongue-in-cheek title to its exploration of sex and power, Imogen Crimp’s A Very Nice Girl is brat in the Sally Rooney way. The novel follows a struggling opera singer in London who enters into an unhealthy relationship with an older man, and it’s bratty in terms of the messiness of the protagonist’s situation, rather than her self confidence. Brat girls can be insecure in a way that may make them vulnerable to toxic partners, and Crimp’s debut is authentic in its exploration of gender politics.
Finally, I want to shout out Emma Jane Unsworth’s 2015 bestseller, Adults, whose protagonists are unapologetic, hedonistic brat girls. The novel follows two best friends who share a messy flat in Manchester, working jobs they don’t care about and living for their weekends of drinking, drugs and sex. However, as Laura’s wedding approaches, their friendship is pushed to the limit. The book — and the 2019 film adaptation — is both funny and moving. Like Happy Hour, it’s a reminder that brat girl summer is about female friendship rather than individualism. Goodbye to sanitised squares of selfies and smoothie bowls, hello to chaotic photo dumps of late nights with friends.
What are your favourite brat books? An extended list of recommendations is below, and I’d love to hear what you think!
Eliza’s Brat Summer books
The List, Yomi Adegoke
Scammer, Caroline Calloway
My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh
Notes on Heartbreak, Annie Lord
Happy Hour, Marlowe Granados
Milk Teeth, Jessica Andrews
A Very Nice Girl, Imogen Crimp
Adults, Emma Jane Unsworth
Boy Parts, Eliza Clark
New Animal, Ella Baxter
Conversations with Friends, Sally Rooney
Luster, Raven Leilani
Vladimir, Julia May Jonas
Animal, Lisa Taddeo
Cleopatra and Frankenstein, Coco Mellors
Little Rot, Akwaeke Emezi