The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word ALICE
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
A
L
I
C
E
More clues leading to the result ALICE
- Bad blood initially denied young heroine
- Female shows spite rejecting male
- Fantastic girl, elected, having triumphed over the German state
- She who adventured despite no longer wanting money
- A lousy bunch book girl
- Carroll’s lead in a story
- Parasites battening on a woman
- Girl having nibble from cake in a story
- Celia turned out to be a young Victorian heroine
- Young Victorian heroine caught in a lie
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "book /gi/rl" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case book /gi/rl = alice.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.