In Decomposition Book, Sara van Os leans into the strange, feral edge of “weird girl” fiction—a genre that feels more relevant than ever. Following a lonely young woman who forms an unsettling bond with a corpse, the novel taps into themes of exhaustion, identity, and the desire to escape a world that feels overwhelming. To celebrate the release, Sara van Os shares why weird girl lit is having a moment, the appeal of messy, unfiltered characters, and the stories helping readers embrace their wild side.
Guest post written by Sara van Os, author of Decomposition Book.
I think that weird girl lit is having a moment right now, because people are tired, tired enough to want to embrace our inherent feral-ness, want to see that part of ourselves reflected in what we watch and what we read. My wife has a touch of the ‘tism, and we talk about the effort that masking can take. I remember when she stopped masking in front of me and I finally got the honor of knowing the real her. I find the entirety of her beautiful, adorable, autism and all, just as she embraces all the OCD occasionally puppeteering me. Not everyone has autism or OCD, but everyone is subjected to the government, to capitalism, to climate change, to exhaustion, and, at least in the US, to health insurance policies or the crippling lack thereof. People are tired, too tired not to say, ‘fuck it’, and embrace the parts of themselves they might have worked hard to hide in the past.
Particularly for women, existing in the modern world can be straight-up exhausting. The patriarchal bullshit just goes on and on, with new horrors every day. To me, the rise in popularity of weird girl fiction and media goes hand in hand with the state of the world, with the election of motherfuckers like Trump and the loss of abortion rights in so many states. We also see this reflected in all the books coming out right now featuring trad wife influencers, such as Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer and Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. And the feral girl genre of media where a group of women are loose in the woods, such as the show Yellowjackets, which I am very fond of, forever a Shauna apologist, and the novels The Grace Year by Kim Liggett and The Wilderness of Girls. All of these, I highly recommend, as I’m sure you can guess if you’ve been anywhere near my upcoming novel, Decomposition Book.
Weird girl lit allows people to surround themselves with characters who reflect the wild bitch who exists in us all, allows us to let those parts of us roam wild and free. I think the sudden rise of popularity in this genre reflects our need for media that allows us to live vicariously within these weird, wild women. Since arcs have gone out of my book, I’ve had the honor and privilege of speaking to so many of my fellow Savannah apologists online. Because yes, Savannah befriends a corpse, but she’s also lonely and traumatized, and young and dumb. She’s someone who feels small in a world that’s just too big around her, too much, too exhausting. She’s too fragile to take it, so she flees. She takes refuge with Ava’s dead body, an almost person who can’t hurt her, just human enough to befriend. Safe. Or, as my OCD would like me to say, Safe Safe. My OCD thinks it is very important that there are two safes.
PS: Everyone who loves weird girl lit should definitely read Sky Daddy by Kate Folk, because Linda is my new patron saint.
