Sex and the City, Girls Trip, Booksmart. Films that center female friendships feel good to watch. There is no real question as to why; these films weed out most of the realities of friendships we may not like, merge all the qualities of them we want to preserve, and play it all out in front of us, looping in a lighthearted plot to keep us engaged, so we can feel as if we, too, are a part of these fictional cliques. But where can we turn when we want to see a more nuanced take on friendship between women and girls? My answer is modern literature.

Shashi Bhat's The Most Precious Substance on Earth takes readers into a childhood friendship between characters Nina and Amy that breaks our hearts, because it reminds us of people we've known. We either knew a Nina-and-Amy or were part of a Nina-and-Amy. It seems portrayals of female friendships in contemporary literature, particularly books catered to an adult audience with some young adult appeal, tend to showcase both the good ...