Sad girl summer is, on the surface, about the sad girl. But it’s what the sad girl does in the long stretches of days that makes the sad girl summer genre. The sad girl lies on the floor, My Year of Rest and Relaxation-style, staring at the ceiling, striving to not be sad anymore. Whether that’s through a project she starts, a person she meets, a medication she’s on, or something else, when the melancholic main character meets the desire to leave the melancholy (whether she’s able to or not), that’s when sad girl summer books shine. Often these main characters are considered “unlikeable”: they’re sad, dirty, angry, not pleasant, and have probably spent whole weeks on the couch in the same pair of sweatpants eating hot Cheetos. But they’re also fundamentally real, and that’s what keeps us all coming back to them, because they’re the characters many of us identify with. And while the summer is winding down, the sad girl summer genre is one that persists all year long, hot weather not necessary. Here are 12 books that express the languid and longing nature of the sad girl summer to read all year round. If you’re looking for something a bit more upbeat, check out this list of happy fiction, or read a roundup of some of the best 2022 summer releases.
