1. The Girl on the Train - about the murder of a woman
2. The Girls - roughly a coming of age story, but containing the murder of several people, including a woman and child (I'm not linking this one because I don't recommend it.)
3. The Woman in Cabin 10 - about the murder of a woman
Then I started to take a look at other titles:
- Woman of God (not about murder, thankfully)
- Razor Girl (not murder)
- Gone Girl (about a woman's disappearance)
- Pretty Girls (about a girl's disappearance)
- All the Missing Girls (about a woman's disappearance)
- The Lost Girls (about missing sisters)
- The Girl With all the Gifts (won't spoil this one, not exactly murder...)
- Shanghai Girls (human trafficking of women)
- The Hanging Girl (disappearance and death of a 17-year-old girl)
- The Good Girl (abduction of a woman)
- The Perfect Girl: A Novel (murder of a woman)
- Little Girls (death of a girl)
- Luckiest Girl Alive (woman with a secret)
- The Silent Girls (disappearance of multiple women)
- The Forgotten Girls (murder of multiple girls)
Many others, but I think you get the idea. Point being, violence against women and a preponderance of the word "girl." It just doesn't seem right and doesn't make me feel good. I feel like readers seem to be obsessed with the murder of women, and not just women, but girls. What does that say about our collective psyche as a culture? And I'm not even talking about the mystery section of the bookstore which likely has a high percentage of books (without the word girl in the title) that are about the murder of a woman. Also, this is just literature. This does not include CSI or Law and Order or any number of other television series that focus on the murder of women!
Truth is, I love CSI and I am completely guilty myself of being in the middle of writing a thriller about a serial killer who predominantly murders women. But why? I'm doing it because I think it will sell, but why in general are we so fixated on the murder of young women? Personally, I don't have an answer. If you do, I'd love to hear it.
P.S. I don't just read books on the murder of women. For a more comprehensive list of books I've read lately, please check out my previous post What Have You Read Lately?
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