Disclaimers: I included links to relevant Amazon listings in this post on books about unhinged women. I’m an Amazon Affiliate and earn a small percentage from qualifying purchases. As with all books on my blog, please check parental guidelines and trigger warnings before reading.
If you take a look at Bookstagram, Booktok or any place book talk has found a home you’ll notice quite a bit of unhinged women books discussed.
Books like My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Gone Girl, The Woman Destroyed, Bunny, even The Silent Patient are making or remaking their mark in book stores everywhere. So why are these angry books at the top of the charts? Let’s dive into it.
We’re Done With Boring
Women’s emotions are more interesting. We have more of them, and dare I say, they’re more nuanced. For a long time men weren’t comfortable expressing a wide range of emotions and during that time women took the lead in the emotions department, developing theirs further. Have you noticed how more and more protagonists of your favorite books are women these days? How most authors are women now, while just a few decades ago male authors were the majority? It seems more of the readers are women too, and that’s another factor as to why reading about women and their emotions has caught interest: women are the ones reading about them!
Deeper and Darker
Women’s anger in particular is typically deeper, more twisted, and perhaps angrier than a male’s. It’s usually more built up because women often feel the need to suppress it. Men weren’t given too many socially acceptable feelings to feel but anger was one that was allotted to them, and they really made it their own. So when women express their typically-masculine rage, we take a step back and see what it’s all about.
Hard to Feel, Fun to Read About
Rage in general is a hard to feel emotion, because we’re not quite sure we deserve to feel it. (It’s one step above sadness, shame and guilt, so that’s something!) Because it’s a difficult emotion, it’s easier and pretty enjoyable to read about someone else having it. We just go along for the ride, getting a little cathartic release while we’re at it. What, me? Angry? Never.
Women Are Angry
Despite some of our reluctance, many women are angry! Angry at the world, themselves…and at men in particular. While societal patriarchy is practically dead, many women are angry at the men in their personal lives; they feel used, mistreated, taken for granted and betrayed by them. Even if they don’t fully express their rage irl, they definitely want to read about unhinged women taking their power back.
To sum up
Women’s emotions are more interesting, especially their rage. And despite rage being difficult to feel, women are angry these days. When women express rage and allow themselves to go unhinged, there’s usually a good reason and we’re here to read all about it. And that’s why you’ll see more and more unhinged women books at the top of TBRs everywhere.
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