Thanks to Charli XCX’s hit album, BRAT, Brat Girl Summer has officially entered the chat. With the album cover’s slime green popping up seemingly everywhere, it’s hard to miss. But what does Brat Girl Summer really mean? It’s simple. The Brat Girl Summer essentials, as defined by Charli XCX herself, include “a pack of cigs, a BIC lighter, and a strappy white top with no bra.” And that list should include one more item: a novel that embodies the intersection of luxury and trash, the two worlds BRAT straddles.
Brat Girl Summer can be activated by a night out at a grungy underground rave or by yachting in Cannes with a guy from Raya; there are no rules, just simply “livin’ that life.” It rejects the “clean girl” aesthetic of sleek buns and green juices, instead embracing waking up with last night’s mascara clouding your vision. It’s running to the bodega hungover to pick up a Diet Coke and bumping into your ex while walking back home. But it’s also questioning the jealousy you feel toward a professional rival, relishing the process of making art with your friends, and contemplating whether motherhood could ever be in the cards for you. It’s glamorous and messy, hopeful and sometimes sad.
Below, 11 novels that capture the essence of the Brat Girl Summer, whether you’re leaving it all on the dancefloor or reading your Kindle at home in bed:
On BRAT’s opening track, Charli declares, “I’m everywhere, I’m so Julia.” She’s referring, of course, to Julia Fox, whose gripping memoir chronicles her party girl lifestyle, set against the backdrop of the glittering New York City skyline. Before becoming one of the city’s most recognizable It Girls, Fox was an outcast with a turbulent home life who fought for survival through challenges with addiction, violence, and abusive partners. Beyond the bleached eyebrows, eclectic outfits, and exaggerated black eyeliner looks, Fox gives a stern middle finger to the male gaze (a stance held by all Brats alike).
Those who fantasize about spontaneously moving to a new city with their best friend but have no job lined up or money saved can live vicariously through Marlowe Granados in Happy Hour. Although broke, the stylish novel’s leading duo, Isa and Gala, are singularly motivated by a desire to live lavishly. From not knowing how they will get home post-bar or pay next month’s rent to luxurious weekends spent in the Hamptons, the two protagonists always succeed in a very “Von Dutch” way to make the most of what they have and navigate their chaotic version of paradise.
Sugar, Baby follows Agnes, a 21-year-old woman working as a cleaner while living at home with her devoutly religious mother in a cookie-cutter British suburb. Feeling restricted and lost, she spends all her money at clubs on the weekend as escapism, fuelling her quest for distraction from mundanity. When she gets caught up in the lavish but unstable life of being a sex worker, her search for fulfillment takes on a much deeper meaning.
Luster is about many things—navigating the extremely white publishing world as a young Black woman, surviving in a big city in your twenties, dealing with family issues, dating a married man—but at its center, it’s about the growth of an artist. As protagonist Edie goes from creating unsatisfying sketches to experimenting with realizing her visions on canvas, readers get to see the process and evolution of a female artist close up—and that’s truly what BRAT is all about.
Imagine a drunken night spent with a globally adored British pop sensation—and when awakened, it’s hard to piece together the realities of the hookup. That is precisely what happens to Rose, the protagonist of Olivia Petter’s forthcoming Gold Rush. Behind the glitz and glamour of her celebrity rendezvous, an underlying truth of exploitation lingers. This novel deftly explores themes of celebrity culture, power dynamics, consent, and navigating a world that devalues and disrespects the female body.
The title says it all—this book is about raving in its rawest form. Wark documents the underground queer and trans rave scene in undisclosed locations around New York City, conjuring up scenes of flashing lights, foggy dancefloors, and the way pulsating sound systems can bring a group of sweaty strangers together like family. Cue “Club classics.”
Let’s look for a moment to an original Brat, Eve Babitz, as she documented 1960s and ’70s Hollywood. Written as a note of seduction to a man she can’t seem to land, Babitz’s book is a sensual walk through the highs and lows of life among the rich and famous, a landscape plagued by movie stars’s hunger for fame, drug binges at the Chateau Marmont, and shocking social scandals. Babitz’s engrossing prose proves “Everything is romantic” (sort of) in LA.
The best-selling memoir by ex-beauty editor Cat Marnell delicately unpacks the fine line between euphoric partying and depressing self-destruction. Scenes of celebrity run-ins at the club and high-profile jobs in fashion media are interspersed with the sadder realities of life as a twenty-something drug addict. You can almost hear “I might say something stupid” playing faintly in the background.
In Emma Cline’s The Guest, Alex, a struggling 22-year-old escort slouching around amongst Hamptons’s elite, navigates luxurious parties on ocean-front mansions, private beach clubs, and extravagant restaurants while rubbing shoulders with the 1% one summer. Alex is not only in an unhealthy relationship with a sugar daddy but is also addicted to self-sabotage. Upon removing her rose-colored glasses, she’s exposed to the darkness hidden behind these “fabulous” circles—a Brat-style awakening if there ever was one.
Friendship is a major theme on BRAT, (with “Girl, so confusing” addressing the frenemy-ship between Charli and Lorde) and perhaps no book of the 21st century better captures the complexity of platonic female relationships than Elena Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend.” Motherhood, career envy, self-sacrifice, forgiveness, and regret all feature in the first of the ‘Neopolitan Novels’ series about the lifelong friendship between two women from 1950s Naples who, given the chance, would definitely work it out on the remix.
Mona Awad’s Bunny meanwhile, is a more modern entry into the Mean Girl literary canon. When the protagonist, Samantha, finds herself feeling out of place as a scholarship student at a tony New England MFA program, she gets sucked into the vicious, competitive world of the school’s “Bunnies” (known in other fictional universes as Heathers or Plastics). Bunny is “for all my mean girls,” and unapologetically so.
