We Want Book Girlfriends

The term book boyfriend is a merch magnet, the topic of much conversation, and a perennial discussion on social media. But what about book girlfriends? The characters – of any and all genders – who you’d love to be friends with? I have several, and it kind of shocks me that I hadn’t thought to ask this question before. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the number of man-centered women in romance and how that affects and shapes the genre and its community, and the way in which heroines are written about, critiqued, and judged hasn’t slowed down since romance as we know it was born. Heroines are much more harshly criticized than heroes in romance, and have been since the 70s. But there are some heroines I love, who I would love to spend time with in my real actual life, from running errands with iced coffee to fluffy-socks-and-wine sleepovers. NB: despite using the term “girlfriends,” I am not restricting your fictional friendships to specific genders. “Friends” didn’t seem strong enough to depict the loving, supportive relationship I’m speaking of. Honestly, we don’t have enough words for the different relationships we have in different venues. But to be clear: there is no res...