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Step aside, Hot Girl Summer. This year, it’s all about Brat Summer.
In case you’ve been wondering why everyone’s wearing neon green, all credit goes to English pop star Charli XCX, who recently released her sixth studio album, Brat.
“It can go that way — quite, like, luxury,” Charli said on the BBC Sounds podcast, when asked whether a photo of the star on a speedboat qualified as “brat” behavior. “But it can also be so trashy, just like a pack of cigs and a BIC lighter and a strappy white top with no bra.”
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After coming through their bookshelves and TBR lists, PEOPLE staffers shared their favorite brat-coded books, or those that look like they’re already dressed for the trend. Check out our picks below.
‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ by Stephen Chbosky
MTV Books
The 1999 book that many millennials probably quoted in their AIM away messages follows teenage “wallflower” Charlie as he navigates the sticky transition from adolescence to adulthood. It was also adapted into a movie starring Emma Watson and Logan Lerman.
‘The Guest’ by Emma Cline
Random House
This sexy, smoldering summer read about a woman who wears out her welcome in an older man’s Hamptons house is brat-coded, brat-colored and perfect for brat reading.
‘I’m a Fan’ by Sheena Patel
Graywolf Press
“I stalk a woman on the internet who is sleeping with the same man as I am.” This dynamic debut dissects the patriarchy, power and status with an unforgivingly incisive eye.
‘Come and Get It’ by Kiley Reid
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Millie is an RA who’s eager to graduate, buy a house and get her life going. So when visiting professor Agatha offers Millie an opportunity that can help jump-start that dream, she’s all for it. But things start to spiral out of control, in this campus novel that looks at what happens when money and desire clouds our judgment.
‘I Kissed Shara Wheeler’ by Casey McQuiston
Wednesday Books
In this fun, fizzy YA from the author of Red, White and Royal Blue, popular girl Shara disappears, leaving a series of notes to help find out where she’s gone. Her rival Chloe, bad boy Rory and quarterback boyfriend Smith must all team up to solve the mystery — with lots of hijinks in the meantime.
‘Wow, No Thank You’ by Samantha Irby
Vintage
Irby, a self-proclaimed “cheese fry-eating slightly damp Midwest person,” is spit-take hilarious and this essay collection proves it. It’s raunchy, deeply real and almost too relatable.
‘I Want You’ by Lisa Hanawalt
Drawn and Quarterly
Fans of Bojack Horseman will also love this delightfully unhinged book from the show’s production designer. It features such listicles as “Top Causes of Freeway Accidents” and “Things We Are Sorry We Did Last Night,” including the murder of all Hanawalt’s Google doppelgängers. Don’t read it in public unless you want to get stares as you snort-laugh all the way through.
‘Madeline’ by Ludwig Bemelmans
The Viking Press
The staffer who recommended this beloved children’s book about a tiny, brave little girl called her “the original brat.” Need we say more?
‘The Giving Tree’ by Shel Silverstein
HarperCollins
It’s pretty bratty behavior for a human to take everything from a tree that just wants to be loved, right? We thought so.
‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Inc.
Okay, only the cover of the boxed set is actually green. But there’s something deeply Brat-adjacent about the unhinged justice of Panem and the heart-pounding action that happens when teens must fight to the death on live TV.
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