In recent years both Australian and international literature seem to have been dominated by the navel-gazing derring-do of Millennial authors writing about, well, the dramas of being 20- and 30-somethings navigating a life full of crippling existential angst – arguably spearheaded by the bestselling novels of Sally Rooney. Heartbreak, jobs, familial conundrums: all have been seen through the smeary lens of the young.
Here are just three recently reviewed by ArtsHub: Green Dot by Madeleine Gray, But the Girl by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu and Sad Girl Novel by Pip Finkemeyer. So abundant have been the tropes of world-despairing, self-deprecating young women behaving badly that Liz Evans in The Conversation proclaimed: ‘I’ve had enough of Sad Bad Girl novels and sensationalised trauma‘, adding, ‘She is self-obsessed, self-serving and self-destructive, and I’m afraid I’ve had enough of her’, and calling for ‘more complex stories about psychologically nuanced women’.
