This is an original, accessible and wide-ranging study of girlhood trauma, an underanalyzed topic in the literature of Aoteraoa New Zealand. It offers a comprehensive and much-needed discussion of trauma-telling across various genres, historical periods and cultural perspectives, informed by culturally sensitive trauma-reading theories and methodologies. Berthiot provides us with a useful tool to understand the many faces of pain and to envision safer and fairer futures for girls and women.

Paloma Fresno-Calleja, Senior Lecturer, University of the Balearic Islands, Spain

This manuscript interrogates gender-based violence and the decolonization of Aotearoa New Zealand literary studies through the lens of culturally specific trauma and girlhood studies. From Reneé to Fiona Kidman to Patricia Grace to Alice Tawhai to Courtney Sina Meredith, Berthiot examines Aotearoa New Zealand literature to illuminate how women writers challenge male-dominated genres in in a male/mainstream Pakeha-led society. In doing so, she interrogates the idea of consent and illuminates the ways in which literate can create awareness using trauma-reading practices.

Emer Lyons, Postdoctoral Researcher with Active* Consent in the School of Psychology at the University of Galway, Ireland

This book provides a timely and engaging study of the far-reaching political and socio-psychological causalities of girlhood trauma for Aotearoa New Zealand. Bringing together five decades of multicultural and multilingual Women's Writing, this integral and highly accessible analysis significantly enriches not only the discourse in Anglophone Studies specialising in this region of the world, Women Writing Girlhood Trauma in Aotearoa New Zealand (1975-2025) is an invitation to enter the wharenui (communal house) and witness the meaningful changes (and possibly liberation) that can be accomplished through telling trauma, actively reading trauma, and translating trauma.

Angela Kölling, Professor of Anglophone Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany