Why do so many books have 'girl' in the title?
Every week, The Thread tackles your book questions, big and small. Ask a question now.
This week's question: Why do so many book titles have "girl" in them?
"Gone Girl."
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"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."
"The Girl on the Train."
"The Girls."
"Razor Girl."
"The Girl with All the Gifts."
"Lab Girl."
"Rise of the Rocket Girls."
"Lilac Girls."
In fiction right now, there are a lot of girls. In titles, anyway.
Publishing is no different than Hollywood in this way: When a book hits it big, a hundred more try to chase the same formula, mimicking cover designs and titles.
After Gillian Flynn's "Gone Girl" and Paula Hawkins' "The Girl on the Train" sold millions of copies and spawned film adaptations, we're only in for more "girls."
Some people point to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," which hit the U.S. in 2008, as the start of it all, but a new analysis shows "girls" have been rising since at least 1995.
Emily St. John Mandel, working with data from Goodreads and the blog FiveThirtyEight, broke down the "girl" trend in a new article.
Almost one percent of all fiction titles published this year have "girl" in the title, Mandel writes. That's huge.
But picking apart the trend reveals other truths as well. From Mandel:
The "girl" in the title is much more likely to be a woman than an actual girl, and the author of the book is more likely to be a woman. But if a book with "girl" in the title was written by a man, the girl is significantly more likely to end up dead.
What does it mean that we refer to women as girls in book titles? Does it hint at vulnerability? Relatability? Is it a product of a youth-obsessed culture? And why are these "girls" always in peril?
The data doesn't offer up any clear answers to these questions, but think about it next time you're at the library or the bookstore, and you're browsing:
"The Other Boleyn Girl."
"The Girl You Left Behind."
"The Windup Girl."
"The Girl Who Chased the Moon."
"The Welsh Girl."
"The Girl Who Fell From the Sky."
Why so many girls?