Read Like a Brat

What better way to start off our list than with the very muse of “360?” Julia Fox has been everywhere — from starting her own fashion line, to working as a dominatrix, starring in a blockbuster film, and dating our most notorious A-listers, Julia’s done it all.  

We’d argue Miranda July is one of our OG brats. When an unnamed artist ventures on a cross-country road trip and only makes it to the next town over, she goes through a life-altering romantic experience. Charming and chaotic, All Fours is an irreverent read.  

It wouldn’t be a brat roundup without a novel of the same name. Our protagonist Gabriel is reeling from the recent death of his father and the aftermath of a devastating breakup, but his moldy, deteriorating childhood home is what sends him straight to rock bottom.  

Everyone wants to think of themselves as a Julia, but that title isn’t meant for just anyone. The characters we meet throughout Cleopatra and Frankenstein are all trying to make it, and all see themselves as an ‘it-girl’ in one way or another. Funny, relatable and raw, this is a glittering walk through New York City.  

In “Everything is romantic,” Charli XCX muses on how everything around her has a certain glow to it now that she’s in a committed relationship. In Women, a young writer’s first queer relationship with an older woman causes her to see the world differently as she falls into a chaotic relationship that utterly consumes her.

From “bad tattoos on leather tanned skin” to “Jesus Christ on a plastic sign” these seemingly mundane things become the core of “Everything is romantic.” In Catalina, our protagonist becomes infatuated with an anthropology student teaching her about the country she comes from but doesn’t really know. Intimate, unexpected and daring, Catalina is the kind of character you write love songs about.  

From the love affair at its surface to the enthralling depths of humanity, Green Dot is rich, meaningful and hilarious. With a messy narrator we can’t help but love, this is the story of a woman falling into an affair with a married man, and figuring out what it really means to start living.  

Instead of a brat summer, Al is having an all-out brat winter. While manning the door of a reputable Nashville club, Al meanders through sweaty nights with thoughts of her ex in her head, and more often than not, the club’s bartender in her bed. Unmoored, gritty and grungy, Lo Fi is a winter of sex, drugs and music that Charli herself would respect. 

“I might say something stupid” gives us a glimpse into the deep insecurities and social anxieties Charli experiences (celebrities — they’re just like us!). The Rachel Incident is a chaotic and convoluted story of two best friends in their twenties grappling with life, love and identity. 

Aside from its brat green cover, the narrator of I’m a Fan is unhinged, brash and bitter — the hallmarks of brat. With commentary on race, patriarchy, social media and more, Sheena Patel’s debut will seep into the corners of your own inner dialogue.  

Unexpected, funny and caustic, My Year of Rest and Relaxation follows a woman’s determination to spend a full year in a drug-induced hibernation. Much like Charli’s desire to escape the prying eyes of the world in “I might say something stupid,” this narrator believes isolation is the only comfort she needs. 

This is a story about a driver’s days of being constantly surrounded by people and feeling completely alone. With countless protests and social causes demanding her attention, the main character spends her days in her own head, making this a blistering meditation on modern alienation.  

You can take a brat out of the party, but you can’t take the party out of the brat. When a grifter’s carefree, sugar-baby life is upended at the end of a relationship, she does whatever it takes to stay far out on Eastern Long Island, leaving a disastrous trail of destruction in her wake.  

One of our culture’s original brats, Eve Babitz chronicles a young girl’s budding career aspirations while drifting through Los Angeles and New York City. Glamorous and gritty, Sex and Rage will put you in a dreamlike trance.  

Being a 365 party girl isn’t all glitz and glam — Boy Parts explores the darker, brooding side to nonstop gratuitous pleasure, parties and drugs. When the protagonist tries to follow her passions to a career in London, she is met with brand new obsessions that threaten to pull her back under.  

This memoir chronicling Glynnis MacNicol’s “pursuit of radical enjoyment” is the very essence of brat. It is not only a personal pursuit, but a bold one, daring the world to refuse it. Being brat means being bold — and this memoir is exactly that.