Caly Recommends... Girlbeast - Cecilie Lind

Caly Reccomends... An addictive and daring re-imagining of the Lolita narrative rooted in the complexities and ruin of girlhood. Lind masterfully steers the reader through desire and coercion, examining an urgent and unstable agency and the duality of being, and being seen. Brilliant, vulgar and vital! 

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Everything is mine and is taken from me. That’s what it means to be a girl. Highly acclaimed in Denmark, Girlbeast is a fearless, unsettling, and poetic reimagining of the Lolita narrative, where power shifts unpredictably, and desire and coercion become indistinguishable.

In a world that fetishises girlhood, it asks whether a girl be blamed for internalising the roles imposed upon her? Can she wield her youth as power in a system designed to render her powerless? With sharp, fast-paced prose, Cecilie Lind crafts a daring examination of female agency, sexuality, and the complexities of consent. The novel evokes the idea of the girl as animal – a creature conditioned to be both docile pet and wild beast, torn between submission and rebellion, innocence and desire. Brave, provocative, and unflinching, Girlbeast is a gripping, vital novel for our times.