What To Read If You're Missing 'Derry Girls'
Photo: Netflix
Derry Girls, created and written by Lisa McGee and streaming in the US on Netflix, follows the exploits and shenanigans of five friends coming of age in Derry, Northern Ireland against the backdrop of the decades-long conflict known as the Troubles. The comedy series won audiences over with its eccentric characters, 90s nostalgia, and the ride-or-die friendship of Erin, Clare, Orla, Michelle, and James who navigate adolescence, the strictures of Our Lady Immaculate College, and a multitude of mishaps (almost all of their own making) with a charming mix of cringe, hilarity, and heart.
The third season of Derry Girls recently aired and, sadly, it was the last one. While its tone and sensibility are all its own, we have some reading recommendations for fans of the show including learning about the history of Ireland, memoirs and fiction colored by the Troubles, and YA stories that feature strong group friendships.
About Ireland and the Troubles
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
by Patrick Radden Keefe
Patrick Radden Keefe's mesmerizing book on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the notorious abduction and murder of I.R.A. Troubles victim Jean McConville as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with.
The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966-1995 and the Search for Peace
by Tim Pat Coogan
The Troubles refers to a violent thirty-year conflict, at the heart of which lay the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. Over 3,000 people were killed on all sides, and many more damaged by a legacy that continued long past 1998. In this controversial volume, Coogan covers all parts of the war, from Bloody Sunday in 1972 to the Bobby Sands hunger strike.
Making Sense of the Troubles: The Story of the Conflict in Northern Ireland
by David McKittrick and David McVea
A clear account of what happened through the years in the Northern Ireland conflict, and why. After a chapter of background on the period from 1921 to 1963, it covers the ensuing period—the descent into violence, the hunger strikes, the Anglo-Irish accord, the bombers in England—to the shaky peace process. McKittrick and McVea describe and explain a lethal but fascinating time in Northern Ireland's history, which brought not only death, injury, and destruction but enormous political and social change.
We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland
by Fintan O'Toole
A celebrated Irish writer's insightful chronicle of the wrenching transformations that dragged his homeland into the modern world. Fintan O'Toole was born in the year the revolution began. It was 1958, and the Irish government, in despair, because all the young people were leaving, opened the country to foreign investment and popular culture. So began a decades-long, ongoing experiment with Irish national identity.
Memoirs of Growing Up During the Troubles
Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?
by Séamas O'Reilly
O’Reilly’s mother died when he was five, leaving him, his ten brothers and sisters, and their beloved father in their sprawling bungalow in rural Derry. It was the 1990s; the Troubles were a background rumble, but Séamas was more preoccupied with dinosaurs, Star Wars, and the actual location of heaven than the political climate. Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? is a book about a family of loud, argumentative, musical, sarcastic, grief-stricken siblings, shepherded into adulthood by a man whose foibles and reticence were matched only by his love for his children and his determination that they would flourish.
That's That
by Colin Broderick
Revisits the author's childhood in Northern Ireland—the heart of rebel country‚ during the period of heightened tension and violence known as the Troubles as he and his brothers struggled to understand the events happening around them only to be told by their mother that "That's that."
Thin Places: A Natural History of Healing and Home
by Kerri ní Dochartaigh
In this luminous blend of memoir, history, and nature writing, the author explores how nature kept her sane and helped her heal during the height of the Troubles in Ireland, and asks us to remember that the land we fight over is much more than lines on a map.
Inventory
by Darran Anderson
Growing up in Derry amid the unspeakable violence of the Troubles, Anderson was accustomed to poverty and fracture. Avoiding British soldiers, IRA operatives, unexploded bombs, and stray bullets, he and his friends explored their hometown with boundless imagination and innocence despite their dire circumstances. With great rhythm, humor, and sometimes painful detail, Anderson tells the story of his city and family through the objects and memories that define them.
Fiction Set During the Troubles
Milkman
by Anna Burns
In Northern Ireland during the Troubles of the 1970s, a middle sister stands out for the wrong reasons. She reads while walking, for one. And she has been taking French night classes downtown. So when a local paramilitary known as the milkman begins pursuing her, she suddenly becomes “interesting,” the last thing she ever wanted to be. Despite middle sister’s attempts to avoid him—and to keep her mother from finding out about her maybe-boyfriend—rumors spread and the threat of violence lingers.
All the Walls of Belfast
by Sarah J. Carlson
Fiona and Danny were born in the same hospital. Fiona’s mom fled with her to the United States when she was two, but, fourteen years after the Troubles ended, a forty-foot-tall peace wall still separates her dad’s Catholic neighborhood from Danny’s Protestant neighborhood. After chance brings Fiona and Danny together, their love of the band Fading Stars, big dreams, and desire to run away from their families unite them. Danny and Fiona must help one another overcome the burden of their parents’ pasts. But one ugly truth might shatter what they have.
Factory Girls
by Michelle Gallen
It’s the summer of 1994, and all Maeve Murray wants are good final exam results so she can earn her ticket out of the wee Northern Irish town she has grown up in during the Troubles. Maeve’s taken a summer job in a local shirt factory working alongside Protestants with her two best friends. What seems to be a great opportunity to earn money before starting university turns out to be a crucible in which Maeve is tested in ways she may not be equipped to handle. Seeking justice for herself and her fellow workers may just be Maeve’s one-way ticket out of town.
Tresspasses
by Louise Kennedy
Amid daily reports of violence, Cushla, living a quiet life with her mother near Belfast, finds herself caught between allegiance to her community and unsanctioned love when her affair with a married, Protestant barrister, who’s made a name for himself defending IRA members, threatens everything and everyone she most wants to protect.
Country
by Michael Hughes
A suspenseful reimagining of Homer’s Iliad is set in 1996 Northern Ireland and follows the experiences of an IRA fighter whose efforts to reignite the war against the British are complicated by a vengeful sniper’s defection.
For the Good Times
by David Keenan
Sammy and his three friends live in the Ardoyne, an impoverished, predominantly Catholic area of North Belfast that has become the epicenter of a country intent on cannibalizing itself. They love sharp clothes, a good drink, and the songs of Perry Como. Keen to make a difference, the boys find themselves in the incongruous position of running a comic-book shop taken over by the IRA. But when punk rock arrives and the hard edge of the decade starts to reveal its true paranoid colors, Sammy finds himself increasingly isolated and his world starts to shrink as he is assaulted by terrifying visions
Offcomer
by Jo Baker
Against the backdrop of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, recent Oxford graduate Claire is a mess. She's trapped in a disastrous relationship with a young academic, working a dead-end job, stunned by the emergence of secrets from her mother's past, and seemingly addicted to self-destructive behavior. But like the ceasefire that has brought renewed hope to Belfast, Claire too is afforded an opportunity to reflect, gradually learning to accept herself and to discover her sense of self-esteem and self-worth.
Squad Goals: Group Friendships in YA Fiction
The Resolutions
by Mia Garcia
Jess, Lee, Ryan, and Nora have always been inseparable. But now with senior year on the horizon, they've been growing apart. And so, as always, Jess makes a plan. Reinstating their usual tradition of making resolutions together on New Year's Eve, Jess adds a new twist: instead of making their own resolutions, the four friends assign them to one another. But as the year unfolds, Jess, Lee, Ryan, and Nora each test the bonds that hold them together.
The Flyy Girls series
by Ashley Woodfolk
Meet the Flyy Girls. The group of girls who seem like they can get away with anything. Woodfolk pens a gorgeous and dynamic series of four Harlem high schoolers, each facing a crossroads of friendship, family, and love.
Famous in a Small Town
by Emma Mills
For Sophie, small-town life has never felt small. With her four best friends, she can weather any storm. But when Sophie’s beloved high school marching band is selected to march in the Rose Parade, it’s her job to get them all the way to LA. Her plan? Persuade country singer Megan Pleasant, their Midwestern town’s only claim to fame, to come back to Acadia to headline a fundraising festival. What ensues is a journey filled with long-kept secrets, hidden heartbreaks, and revelations that could change everything—along with a possible fifth best friend: a new guy with a magnetic smile and secrets of his own.
Immoral Code
by Lillian Clark
Ocean's 8 meets The Breakfast Club in this fast-paced, multi-perspective story about five teens determined to hack into one billionaire absentee father's company to steal tuition money.
Undead Girl Gang
by Lily Anderson
Veronica Mars meets The Craft when a teen girl investigates the suspicious deaths of three classmates and accidentally ends up bringing them back to life to form a hilariously unlikely—and unwilling—vigilante girl gang.
Wash Day Diaries
written by Jamila Rowser; art by Robyn Smith
The story of four best friends—Kim, Tanisha, Davene, and Cookie—told through five connected short story comics that follow these young women through the ups and downs of their daily lives in the Bronx. The book takes its title from the wash day experience shared by Black women everywhere of setting aside all plans and responsibilities for a full day of washing, conditioning, and nourishing their hair. Each short story uses hair routines as a window into these four characters' everyday lives and how they care for each other.
The Babysitters Coven series
by Kate Williams
Adventures in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this funny, action-packed novel about a coven of witchy babysitters who realize their calling is to protect the innocent and save the world from an onslaught of evil.
Watch
Our Girls (DVD)
In 1990s Scotland, a group of Catholic school girls get an opportunity to go into Edinburgh for a choir competition, but they're more interested in drinking, partying, and hooking up than winning the competition.
Based on the novel The Sopranos by Alan Warner (not circulating in our collection).
Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.