Seven books about sad girls in New York City

Kate Gavino is a writer and illustrator. She is the creator of the website, Last Night's Reading, which was compiled into a published collection by Penguin Books in 2015. Her work has been featured in the New Yorker online, the Believer, BuzzFeed, Oprah.com, and more. She was named one of Brooklyn Magazine's 30 Under 30. Her second book, Sanpaku, was published by BOOM! Studios in 2018.

[Writers Read: Kate Gavino (January 2016)]

Gavino's new book is A Career in Books: A Novel about Friends, Money, and the Occasional Duck Bun.

At Electric Lit she tagged seven "contemporary books about women who eschew meaningless platitudes or glitzy portrayals" of New York City, including:

Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados

The book’s protagonist, Isa Epley, embodies everything I wanted to be at 21: gorgeous, confident, and pleasure-seeking. But even she finds herself bogged down by sad girl feelings, and it’s only exacerbated by the tenuous relationship she has with both her best friend and her finances. Like any intensely close duo, they have their fair share of toxic dependence and blurry boundaries, but not even the most incisive therapist can convince them to give up the friendship. All of which, of course, makes for the best stories.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue