Girl on Girl

Why are female friendships written so hot and bothered, yet male friendships = bromance? This month’s ELLE Book Club read is one of the novels exploring the terrain.

When it comes to debut novels, few have been as buzzy as Emma Cline’s The Girls. With the book selling for a rumoured seven-figure deal at auction, there was much anticipation around Cline’s story of a Manson-like character and his impressionable followers, catapulting the Californian author to the front page of the internet and easily capturing our attention – not least because it panders to our current fascination with Manson-esque storylines thanks to the You Must Remember This podcast. But the cloyingly sweet tale of adolescent friendship set amid a sinister landscape isn’t the only book to get us talking this month. Another new release, Girls On Fire ($32.99, Hachette Australia), shares more with The Girls than just similar names. Here, we explore their portrayals of the intensity of female friendship.