The phenomenal success of Helen Fielding and Marian Keyes inspired more and more authors, which led to lots more good books and many bad ones. It also made the genre more complex, and unfortunately, chick lit has become a pretty generic term for virtually all fiction written by and for women since about 1996.* Harlequin romance-type books are a notable exception: they came long before and are completely different from chick lit and never the twain should meet.

Chick lit can cover a huge range of topics. I personally prefer light-hearted chick lit – the stuff that’s funny and fun, with the occasional bizarre adventure or dilemma, and sex (if any) that’s not of the “heaving bosoms and throbbing manhood” variety. But there are plenty of really superficial chick lit novels that deal almost entirely with shopping or fashion (e.g., Sophie Kinsella’s books), for example, or that have completely unrealistic characters (like The Devil Wears Prada). And at the other end of the spectrum, there are plenty of books that are more serious, like The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing, by Melissa Bank, and most of Anna Maxted’s novels. What do all of these have in common? They’re written by women and for women, the characters can be neurotic but they’re usually fun, and there’s usually a happy – though not fairy-tale – ending. The bottom line for me is that it’s a good book if I want to be friends with the characters and/or author.