Why oh Why do the authors keep writing titles with the word "Girl" in it??? I won't even look at these books because it's just gotten to be so ridiculous. After all that work of writing the novel why settle for a stereotypical name, I just don't get it!

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9 years ago
34 answers

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Samantha The "girl" in this title has a double meaning though, which you learn at the end. I don't think it's as "denigrating" to women as one might think. There's a twist.

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✦ Ellen’s Reviews ✦ The title is an integral part of this story, Don't be fooled or misled by title "trends." This story is a true original. Loved it. Without giving anything away, the title is perfect and will become very meaningful when you read the book.

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cluedupreader Loved this line in USA Today's review: "(If Tolstoy submitted War and Peace to the publishing process in 2017, it would almost certainly come out the other end of the chute as Girl and Peace.)"

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Leslie Part of the standard denigration of women, IMO. Ironically, I've heard that the author of the book that later was published as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo insisted that the book be titled (as it was in Swedish) Men Who Hate Women. Unfortunately, he had passed away by the time the English rights were sold. It seems as if those books, again ironically, were the real start of the trend. There was an interesting discussion on the subject on one of the threads on The Girl on the Train. Someone said that they thought it fit in the context of that particular book because, despite being about 30, the main character was very emotionally immature. My response was that that interpretation would be fine if it happened in isolation, but as it is, it seems like they just do it as part of the trend. To be fair, I don't know that authors always have a lot of say in the title, in which case the fault would be that of publishers.

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Christine I feel exactly the same way ! No one has creative titles anymore. I get even more annoyed when every book blurb starts with, "If you liked Girl... you will love this book!" Ugh. I have refused to read a book because of the association with a hit book.

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Jennifer I think in many cases the title has little to do with the book. But in this case I actually think that The Girl Before is a perfect title for this book.

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Linda I don't understand why anyone would be upset by being referred to as a girl. It's just a word: girls and boys, men and women, lads and lasses, males and females. It's all the same to me. What would have been a better title?

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Paula Brandon I am in complete agreement! It's a popular trend which publishers will flog to death until books with "girl" in the title stop selling. Tess Gerritsen and her publishers deliberately changed the name of her latest book to "I Know A Secret" because they thought there were too many books with "girl" in the title. So it looks as if there is a slow swing against it. Hopefully, it will die out soon!

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Bekah Just a trend to grab attention, because it is similar to popular books that came before. That book sold well, so this one will, to people who only choose what they read based off "Best Seller" lists. You see it in other genres too. A big one that's still kicking in YA is the adjective loaded "The/A [blank] of [blank] and [blank]". Familiarity triggers sales.

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Peggy It is annoying, but I feel I would have missed some very good reads had I skipped a book because of its title. However, I am guilty of judging a book by its cover. Some of them just leave me cold. Seems like an earlier trend was "The Lady---" I'm not anywhere near the age I was as "a girl," and the term does leave me cold when used to describe me.

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Brynn I'm curious if anyone who has a negative criticism of the title has read the book? If you read the book, you will find that the author cleverly utilizes the title to mean something that is not totally obvious throughout the book.

Yes, all these books are capitalizing on Gone Girl's success. Whether or not you find it offensive is up to you.

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David I so agree with the other posters. The title would be much less offensive if it was replaced with " The Human Before". That would certainly cause the book to fly off the shelves, and no feathers would be ruffled. (Oh, so sorry, make that fluffy chicken coverings).

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Simone Pat-Caro

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

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Elizabeth K. Don't blame the authors - they often don't get to choose the titles for their books. Publishers get final say over that and are very likely to follow trends.

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Jennifer Maloney Authors generally have no say in the title of their books. Publishers decide these things and they based it off of what has sold in the past, which is why you see trends in titles, book covers, etc.

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Robert The word "girl" fits but you won't know why until the end. There is a twist, the title doesn't mean what the reader might assume it does.

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Rachel I thought they missed a golden opportunity to use the house in the title. The house was by far the most interesting character.

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Judy Lindow Or how about those (mostly white covers) with red titles?

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Monica I actually bought another book a few months ago also called, "The Girl Before." I had to look again because I couldn't believe they had the same title! The other one is by Rena Olsen

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Carol B-F

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

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Angela Nunez Did you read Janes'slast chapter? She referred to The Girl Before as her daughter. Made perfect sense to me.

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Kati Quite true, it seems to be very trendy to name the books, that fall into similar thriller category, with the word "girl" in a title. In Finnish the title of this book was "The former resident" and in Swedish "She who came before".

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Heidi And why is there ALWAYS a dead cat / dog / other pet? Please just stop! We get it, the protagonist is despicable and evil, your writing alone should tell us that, we shouldn't need yet another dead animal to illustrate the point.

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Alison Giese I can see your point, but you're missing out on some awesome books! As they say, don't judge a book by its title. Oh wait, that's not what they say. ;-)

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Beth Tovar Hopefully this is the last one.

Trying to play off the success of Gone Girl? The author might not have even called it that.

And I'm 62 and don't mind being called a girl at all.

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Jay Many times, authors don't have title approval; even those with approval will often be pressured by editors to "change with the market". Combine that with the huge sales of certain "Girl" thrillers, and you get a trend. Arguments can be made over whether or no art is a commodity; books are. Given the dwindling state of the industry, pubs will grab any available magic feather.

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Susan

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Susan Biscay-Hopkins Because of "Gone Girl" of course. I am not offended by it, but it is ridiculous how many authors must use this ploy.

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Aine Girlfriend and wife are also popular at the moment!, lol

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paola I agree I am hesitating when there is 'girl" in the title nowadays. This book was pretty good though for the most part and aptly titled. Hopefully authors will continue to evolve and get more CREATIVE and get beyond girl stuff

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Meg Lelvis At first I figured the writer was capitalizing on the Gone Girl success, as many are. But after reading others' opinions, I'll reserve my answer until I read the book.

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Robert Blumenthal I'm with you on this. However, I'll still listen to The Girl With The Flaxen Hair (or La fille aux Cheveux de Lin) by Debussy anytime.

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Lauren Stevens This book was really unique, though.

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Gina Carroll I think "girl" is often used to either suggest a certain vulnerability-- to set the reader up with an expectation that the "girl" character has a certain weakness or arrested development that she has to overcome or that will be her undoing (as in, Gone Girl--character was used as a child character in a children's book which was a root to her pathology; Girl on the Train-- deeply troubled character with arrested development issues). In this book, this is also true, but also, one of the girls "before" was actually a little girl and another was a baby girl.

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