Girlcrush

LoveReading Says

If you’re picking up Girlcrush, it’s likely because you’re already one of Florence Given’s 600k followers, and you loved her bestselling feminist non-fiction Women Don’t Owe You Pretty. Or maybe you just clicked on its title because it sounded gay.

I fall into the latter camp, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that some of my favourite moments were the intense descriptions of the supernaturally hot characters. Obviously I developed an immediate crush on butch Rose, Eartha’s down-to-earth (no pun intended) non-binary bff.

The book’s subtitle is ‘A Hot, Dark Story’, which says the novel’s two vibes characteristically explicitly: Girlcrush is a proudly horny bisexual coming-out story, detailing Eartha’s wild dive into post-break-up dating, but it’s also the descent of a young woman thrown into the dystopian world of social media fame. (Case in point: the incident that gets the story rolling is Eartha’s viral ‘cumming out’ video.)

This book exudes manic pixie dream girl energy – both in that it has a lot of supernaturally sexual, quirky characters with names like Eartha, Phaedra and Mona, but also that it puts you into the literally manic headspace of someone way too deep in digital Wonderland.

Don’t read it if you want likeable male characters (Eartha’s boyfriend is like everyone’s most disgusting ex rolled into one) or if you can’t handle a lot of jokes about genitalia, or if you don’t want to read fight scenes WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS?!!!? But if you’re looking to fight your phone addiction by reading a book that feels like you’re somehow still on your phone, scrolling through chaotic thirst traps, ironic self-help quotes, and glimpses of human connection, this could be your girl.

Lily Lindon

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