Back in March 2017, I did a big roundup of YA books featuring the word “girl” or “girls” in the title. I thought the trend was slowing down by that point but, as it turns out, two and a half years later, the trend continues strong. It’s a trend I wasn’t wild about then, and I still hold the same reservations about it. When you look at the titles in a list like this — without the author and without covers — they all blend into one another. It makes doing reader advisory, as well as simply memory recall of a book title, extremely challenging. Imagine if this list also included adult titles (where the trend is still legion, too).

My parameters for this list are straight forward: I’m using titles from 2018, 2019, and what’s been announced of 2020 so far. I know this will miss some of the later 2017 titles in YA that came out after I made the initial list. Titles are pulled from Goodreads, using “Girl” and “Girls” in the YA book title that doesn’t refer to a specific girl named in the title (the example I used previously was Gabi, A Girl in Pieces doesn’t count but Girls Made of Snow and Ice does count).

Girl/Girls in the title are a reminder of how girls are objects, rathe than fully-realized beings in and of themself. It’s interesting to contrast this continuing title trend with a super refreshing trend I’ll write about next week: the full name in the title.

As I said before, in isolation, these titles aren’t a big deal. When seen in a list like this, though, it’s more than worth a pause.

 

 

2018:

• A Girl Like That
• Girl Made of Stars
• Gunslinger Girl
• Girls of Paper and Fire
• Undead Girl Gang
• Fat Girl On A Plane
• Hullmetal Girls
• Stone Girl
• The Loneliest Girl In The Universe
• Not The Girls You’re Looking For
• Sawkill Girls
• The Disturbed Girl’s Dictionary
• Girl At The Grave
• Girls On The Line
• Pretty Dead Girls
• Valley Girls
• The Handsome Girl and Her Beautiful Boy
• The Accidental Bad Girl
• The Girl You Thought I Was
• Paper Girl
• The Girl and the Grove

 

2019:

• The Girl King
• Girls With Sharp Sticks
• The Girl The Sea Gave Back
• The Downstairs Girl
• Wilder Girls
• Hot Dog Girl
• Hello Girls
• Girls On The Verge
• The Boy and Girl Who Broke The World
• The Tenth Girl
• A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
• Rebel Girls
• What Every Girl Should Know
• The Good Luck Girls
• We Are The Perfect Girl
• Orpheus Girl
• All-American Muslim Girl
• War Girls
• The Girl Who Came Out Of The Woods
• Ordinary Girls
• Girls Like Us
• Resurrection Girls
• Girl Gone Viral
• Fake Plastic Girl
• Chicken Girl

 

2020:

• Elysium Girls
• Throw Like A Girl
• Black Girl Unlimited
• Throwaway Girl
• The Blackbird Girl
• Almost American Girl
• Six Angry Girls
• A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Sweaters and Stars
• Girls Save The World In This One
• The Flutter-By Girl
• Girl Crushed
• Brown Girl Ghosted
• Pretty Funny for a Girl
• The October Girl
• The Girl In The White Van