RL
Leslie Ylinen
/
Collections
/
Terrible Women Reading List
Terrible Women Reading List
4
All Collections
Bad Vibes Only
Terrible Women Reading List
Old, Cursèd, Haunted
Contemporary Books
5w
Terrible Women Reading List
Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls
•••
I will read every word Alissa Nutting ever publishes and this short story collection is among them.
more
2
5w
Terrible Women Reading List
The Pisces
•••
Melissa Broder comes from the John Waters school of shock value as a strategy. She overshares and horrifies as a way to distance and disarm but if you can get past the filter, you’ll find someone dying to be heard, understood, and connect. The Pisces is a gender swapped retelling of the mermaid myth in which a woman falls into an obsessive love with a fish-man. It’s an incredibly profound exploration of love addiction and the bottomless need for validation. …but you will need to get through a lot of anal.
more
4
2
5w
Terrible Women Reading List
Convenience Store Woman
•••
Japanese dread is always quiet, deeply isolated and misanthropic, with an undercurrent of sexual repression. Here we meet a woman in her 30s with no ambition other than to work at the konbini.A great exploration of the inner lives of the people we overlook.
more
5w
Terrible Women Reading List
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
•••
So many story tropes that signal dread or unease are borne immaculately in Shirley Jackson novels. The distant family member with questionable motives. The uncle who went mad in the war. The haunted girl child, full of malice. An angry mob of townsfolk with pitchforks. Slow, soft, chilling unease and tension. A perfect book for any terrible woman. Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea? Oh no, said Merricat, you’ll poison me!
more
2
6w
Terrible Women Reading List
Bunny
•••
What if the meanest bitches you’ve ever met could do magic? At college. Dark and bizarre and full of terrible women.
more
1
6w
Terrible Women Reading List
Breast and Eggs
•••
Misanthropic but in that quiet and subtle way you only get from Japanese translation.
more
6w
Terrible Women Reading List
Big Swiss
•••
A transcriptionist becomes sexually obsessed with another woman after listening to her therapy sessions. Bad behavior all around but written with a charming, funny warmth.
more
2
6w
Terrible Women Reading List
Alias Grace
•••
Ye olde terrible woman. Goes on the list.
6w
Bad Vibes Only
Homesick for Another World
•••
This short story collection is Ottessa at her worst (best). I have intrusive thoughts about barfing up a cheesecake about once a month ever since.
more
6w
Terrible Women Reading List
Shit Cassandra Saw
•••
Great collection of short stories with the titular being a unique standout.
more
6w
Bad Vibes Only
The Guest
•••
Quintessential summer read for bad vibes only bitches. She’s hot, she’s broke, she’s morally bankrupt. And now she’s completely stranded and homeless in The Hamptons among the wealthy elite. This is STRESSFUL but so much fun.
more
8
1
6w
Bad Vibes Only
My year of rest and relaxation
•••
Depressed White Woman has an Eating Disorder FINAL BOSS. Well worth it for the quack psychiatrist, hot take on art gallery culture, and the Whoppi Goldberg obsession.
more
1
6w
Terrible Women Reading List
The Crucible
•••
So much respect for the original “lie that got completely out of hand” story. They can’t make me hate you, Abigail. I too saw Goody Proctor dancing with the devil.
more
6w
Terrible Women Reading List
All Fours
•••
Absolutely no one needs another review of this book, but it does indeed contain a terrible woman and I need it for my Terrible Woman Reading List. Honestly, I felt embarrassed the whole time. It’s was the dancing.
more
6w
Terrible Women Reading List
Berlin
•••
There are many, many choices in the Depressed White Woman has an Eating Disorder category, but I do think this one is the most serviceable.
more
5
6w
Bad Vibes Only
Eileen
•••
You know that thing when you’re not really gay but you accidentally become psychotically obsessed with another woman and now y’all are murdering? It’s happened to all of us at least once.
more
1
6w
Bad Vibes Only
Made for Love
•••
What if you and your partner had brain chips that allowed you to see each others’ every thought? What if you were bit by a dolphin and became insatiably horny for everyone’s favorite aquatic mammal? If you got your arm stuck down the throat of a sex doll, could you get it out? What do these things have to do each other? In here the answers lie.
more
12w
Bad Vibes Only
Rebecca
•••
Forever in my top 5. A perfect gothic book. Big mood, a mystery with a great twist, a sprawling haunted manor, ye olde mean girls, and Maxim de Winter is a fuckboi prototyle. Read it NOW.
more
17
1
12w
Terrible Women Reading List
Tampa
•••
🫢🫣ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK! A gender swapped Lolita and it’s also somehow funny. No idea how this got published but Nutting is an incredible storyteller and I appreciate writers taking big swings and big risks.
more
2
12w
Bad Vibes Only
Animal
•••
I love it when bleak and upsetting books are set in the summer. Winter is easy. Sun soaked dread is advanced.
more
5
12w
Terrible Women Reading List
Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black
•••
Cookie Mueller was a party monster at a professional level. Think of her as Joan Didion’s Wario. All the sharp insight, none of the chill. A John Waters muse, NYC advice columnist and completely unreliable narrator. It doesn’t really matter what’s true, just enjoy the ride.
more
6
Follow Leslie Ylinen
Follow
By submitting, you agree to our
Terms
and
Privacy Policy
© 2026
Privacy
Terms
Support
Report
Cookies