12 Weird Girl Books to Read If You Love Unhinged Plots

Kill for Love is a searing satirical thriller about Tiffany, a privileged Los Angeles sorority sister who is struggling to keep her sadistic impulses—and haunting nightmares of fire and destruction—at bay. After a frat party hookup devolves into a bloody, fatal affair, Tiffany realizes something within her has awoken: the insatiable desire to kill attractive young men.

Beth and Fran spend their days traveling the ravaged New England coast, hunting feral men and harvesting their organs in a gruesome effort to ensure they’ll never face the same fate. Robbie lives by his gun and one hard-learned motto: other people aren’t safe. After a brutal accident entwines the three of them, this found family of survivors must navigate murderous TERFs, a sociopathic billionaire bunker brat, and awkward relationship dynamics—all while outrunning packs of feral men, and their own demons.

Entering art school, Anna was wholly unprepared for someone as mysterious, moody, and cool as Willow. Here was Anna’s muse and collaborator all in one. Now, five years later, Anna is weary. Willow’s true nature as a muse only to herself has become nakedly apparent, as has her cruelty. So the mugging Anna has staged for Willow this morning? It’s supposed to send Willow running back to her true friend. But this morning isn’t just any Tuesday. It’s September 11, 2001. And as the city reels from the seismic events of that day, Willow never returns home.

When Ash spots an ad for Retro during a depressing Instagram scroll, she’s surprised the algorithm sent it her way. She’s heard of recreational time travel, but it’s way out of her budget. Then she sees the caption: Come away with us! We’re hiring. So begins Ash’s life as a Time Travel Agent, leading wealthy tourists on vacations to historical hotspots. Despite Ash’s tendency toward cynicism, she finds herself swept up in her dazzling new job. But as her trips threaten to unravel her real life, she confronts an unsettling truth: Escaping into the past was never really an escape at all.

Welcome to The Program, an immersive week-long experience, where mothers in all stages of crisis can come to take control of their lives. It’s not exactly the type of thing Georgia Evans, a busy working mother of two, would usually consider. However, still spiraling from a debacle that crowned her “internet’s worst mom,” she is desperate enough to try anything. Once on the island, Georgia is quickly won over by the founder of The Program, Cecilia Clements. Georgia grows deeply involved with Cecilia’s mission, ignoring any doubt that starts to creep in. That’s the whole point of The Program, after all: you can’t really trust a mom brain.

Linda is doing her best to lead a life that would appear normal to the casual observer. But on the last Friday of each month, she indulges her true passion, taking BART to SFO for a round-trip flight to a regional hub. The destination is irrelevant, because each trip means a new date with a handsome stranger—a stranger whose intelligent windscreens, sleek fuselages, and powerful engines make Linda feel a way that no human ever could. Linda knows that she can’t tell anyone she’s sexually obsessed with planes. Nor can she reveal her belief that it’s her destiny to “marry” one of her suitors, uniting with her soulmate plane for eternity. But when an opportunity arises to hasten her dream of eternal partnership, and her life begins to spin out of control, she must choose between maintaining the trappings of normalcy and launching herself toward the love she’s always dreamed of.

Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, believes his mother died giving birth to him. One of Marek’s few consola­tions is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina, who suckled him when he was a baby. For some people, Ina’s ability to receive trans­missions of sacred knowledge from the natural world is a godsend. For others, Ina’s home in the woods is a godless place. When fate brings Marek into violent proximity to their lord’s family, new and occult forces arise to upset the old order.

It’s the height of the Industrial Revolution, and 10 years into Lenore’s marriage to steel magnate Henry, their relationship has soured. When Henry’s ambitions take them from London to the remote British moorlands, a shocking carriage accident brings the mysterious Carmilla into their lives. Carmilla, who is weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night. Carmilla, who stirs something deep within Lenore. Soon, girls from the local villages fall sick, consumed by a terrible hunger, and Lenore begins to unravel. Lenore must confront a darkness that will place her at risk.

Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of 36-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. Keiko has never fit in, but when at 18 she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life. Managers come and go, but Keiko stays at the store for 18 years. It’s almost hard to tell where the store ends and she begins. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action…

After the death of his father, a young journalist named Faruq Zaidi takes the opportunity to embed himself in a mysterious cult based in the California redwoods and known as “the nameless,” whose strikingly attractive members adhere to the 18 Utterances. Shepherding them is Odo, an enigmatic Vietnam War veteran who received “the sight”—the movement’s foundational principles—during his time as an infantryman. Faruq, skeptical but committed to unraveling the mystery of both “the nameless” and Odo, extends his stay by months, and as he gets deeper into the cult’s inner workings and alluring teachings, he begins to lose his grip on reality.

When Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the day they bury her cousin Monife, there is no denying the startling resemblance between the child and the dead woman. So begins the belief that Eniiyi is the actual reincarnation of Monife, fated to follow in her footsteps. There is also the matter of the family curse—“No man will call your house home. And if they try, they will not have peace…”—which has broken numerous hearts and caused three generations of abandoned Falodun women to live under the same roof. When Eniiyi falls in love, she can no longer run from her family’s history. Is she destined to live out her family’s story of love and heartache? Or can she break the pattern?

The Coin’s narrator is a wealthy Palestinian woman with impeccable style and meticulous hygiene. And yet the ideal life remains just out of reach: her inheritance is inaccessible, her homeland exists only in her memory, and her attempt to thrive in America seems doomed from the start. In New York, she strives to put down roots. But America is stifling her. In an attempt to regain control, she becomes preoccupied with purity, cleanliness, and self-image, all while drawing her students into her obsessions.