#lit recommendations

Haruka - This isn't my strongest recommendation, but there's something about the themes of trauma and childhood in Catcher in the Rye that I feel Haruka fans may like. Of course, this is an incredibly popular novel in the first place haha.

Yuno - For whatever reason, Tess of D’Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy keeps coming to mind. It’s not especially related, outside of also having a theme of pregnancy and of the unjust ways young women’s sexuality is focused on, but regardless, absolutely worth a read as a classic. Content warning for themes of sexual assault and victim blaming.

Fuuta - Maybe 20 Days of Turin by Giorgio De Maria if you’re into the sort of internet culture horror aspect. 20 Days of Turin is not about the internet (and predates it) but is a weird fiction novel that has its own weird creepy social media esque library featured at the center of it.

Muu: Penance by Eliza Clarke may be of interest to you. This is a relatively recent book, but is very focused on the violence teenage girls can enact on each other. I would recommend checking out the trigger warnings for this one in advance of reading, as there's some triggering content covered.

Shidou - if you’re into the dad-ness of it all, maybe Silas Marner by George Eliot, a very short novel about an exiled weaver and a girl he adopts (it sort of predates the popularity of the trope of sad guy takes on adopter daughter that’s become so popular).

Mahiru - If you like rich girls with strong feelings on love but who are fairly sheltered in a way that impacts their understanding of other people's connections, Emma by Jane Austen might be for you. Or, if you're interested in hallucinatory, toxic relationships, Ice by Anna Kavan may be interesting to you. It's a bit of a weird novel but certainly interesting. Content warning for sexual assault.

Kazui - obv u should read Yukio Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask but u should also read Imre by Edward Irenaeus Prime-Stevenson. Both of these texts specifically touch on gay men marrying straight women, something the character in Confessions of a Mask goes through with, and the character in Imre does not. Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin may also be of some interest, as it also deals with the destructive force cowardliness is sexuality can deal (also features a bartender lol). It’s also gorgeously written. All three of these books deal fairly frankly with homophobia, so if that’s something you’re sensitive to I would recommend being cautious.

Amane - We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson comes to mind quickly. It’s a fantastic short read and well worth reading even if you’re not interested in Amane. It’s a book about agoraphobia, but also family murder. If you’re more interested in reading about the impact of religion, and the relationship between mothers and daughters, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson is a novel about a young girl who is incredibly invested in following her family’s, and especially her mother’s, Pentecostal beliefs in the small town she lives in, but everything begins to change when she falls in love with another girl. James Baldwin's Go Tell it On the Mountain is also another fantastic novel that deals with both familial abuse and growing up in a religious community.

Mikoto - The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin. Sci Fi novel about a guy who holds himself as really just a normal guy (he is, in fact, not. But also, yes he is.). Also about kind of evil therapists which has nothing to do with Mikoto but just an interesting thing about the book. I would also say Kafka’s the Metamorphosis for the work life aspect.

Kotoko - House of Names by Colm Tóibín is a retelling of the house of Atreus, including Clytemnestra’s killing of Agamemnon and the events of the Oresteia. Very revenge focused.

General recommendations: Confessions by Kanae Minato (another intense read) and Crime and Punishment by Doestoevsky, Beloved by Toni Morrison (incredibly difficult read, but a classic for a reason).

If it’s about queer characters with a focus on lesbian and sapphic relationships, and are up for something pretty messy, then Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin might be up your alley. It’s a very famous Taiwanese queer work from the 1990s.

If you’re into women breaking into violence after the crushing weight of loss then you should read Hecuba by Euripides. If you’re into lesbians in space doing lesbian things, you should read Ammonite by Nicola Griffith, a 1992 novel that won the Lambda and Otherwise awards, about a woman employed as an Anthropologist to visit a planet that, following a settlement attempt hundreds of years ago, has been populated exclusively by women following the outbreak of a virus that disproportionately killed men. The women, since then, have developed into communities in isolation from the rest of the interplanetary systems. Alternatively, if you want lesbianism and extreme violence as retribution, Night of Baba Yaga by Akira Otani might be of interest. This novel is a thriller set in 1979 Japan, about a woman who is forced into becoming the bodyguard of the daughter of a Yakuza boss. The lesbianism is much more subtextual, but very much purposeful (the author is openly a lesbian). This read is, however, very much a touch read, with graphic depictions of racism, sexual violence, general violence, and misogyny. I would recommend that if you are sensitive to any of these subjects you absolutely read the content warnings closely before reading the novel, as it’s quite an upsetting read.

If you’re into the aliens and scary elements of reproduction in a sci fi setting as an exploration of both what it means to be human, but also power dynamics, I recommend Octavia Butler’s short story Bloodchild and her Xenogenesis trilogy. Definitely check out content warnings in advance, as Octavia Butler’s works tend to have lots of triggering content, and these two works in particular deal with reproduction from a sci fi horror aspect that can absolutely be triggering for people. I think Octavia Butler is the one author who, while I love her works, I frequently have to take a break before I pick up her sequels because of how unsettling her books tend to be. If you like horror, sci fi, and literature that tackles social issues though she’s absolutely a classic author.

If you’re into explorations into what people are like when raised outside of standard structures of human society, Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman is a novel about a group of women, none of whom know each other, who find themselves in an underground bunker, guarded by men they do not know. The protagonist is a young girl who has never known life outside the bunker, and so has very different notions on life in comparison with the older women.