Girls Girls Girls

GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS by Shoshana von Blanckensee was an immediate "must read" for me, especially because of the 1996 San Francisco setting. The world of this book felt very grounded and real; it was easy to picture all of the locations. The San Francisco descriptions were so nostalgic, a glimpse into a city that no longer exists in the way it did in 1996.Another key reason I wanted to read this book is because the characters work at a strip club. Hannah does particularly well there and does not show any shame about it. That's extremely refreshing. It's rare to read characters who strip and even rarer to read about characters who strip and do not have issues with addiction, self-esteem, trauma, etc.Sam tries stripping and does not like it. She falls into a depression, which seems less related to stripping and escort/stripping work and more to do with struggling to find her place--and her people--in San Francisco. She lights up once she works with the queer work crew.Although it's difficult to read, it makes sense that Hannah and Sam drift apart, and it's very rooted in character. I wanted to savor every page, but found myself rushing to find out what would happen to the two main characters. I will be re-reading it to savor the world and characters!

I was not expecting the emotional rollercoaster this book brought me! This coming of age story shows the ups and downs of Hannah, suffocated in her childhood town and fleeing across the country with her first love. For a debut novel, it does a fantastic job of putting the viewers in the shoes of Hannah. We get to see a well-rounded portrayal of everything that makes her, her. Which isn't always pretty. She falls head over heels in love with the first girl she's ever crushed on, and allows herself to get swept up in the fantasy of living somewhere she can be authentically herself for the first time. She burns down bridges with loved ones in doing so and lets her girlfriend Sam take the reins of her life. All is well in her eyes, until slowly everything starts falling apart one by one and she struggles to put the pieces back together again.This book is incredibly moving and shows how identity is so integral to a young girl living in a place where she is forced at every corner to be who she is not. Pacing was smooth and fast and I found myself bingeing most of it at once. My only issue with the novel was it's hesitancy to commit to some of the darker themes it touches on, like sex-work. It took me a little out of the story when everything was so clean-cut, but the raw vulnerability that shows up with Hannah and Bubbe's relationship definitely balances out the novel.

4.5 stars.Woowwww this just brought me to tears!This book was a stunning portrait of coming-of-age queerness in the early 90’s. Our main character Hannah is from a New York suburb, and is a closeted lesbian high schooler with an orthodox Jewish family, an overbearing/protective/emotionally dismissive mother, older sister, and a beautiful relationship with her Bubbe. She decides to move to San Francisco with her best friend, and first love, Sam, leaving New York, their families, and hopefully a closeted life behind them. But quickly, they realize that life in a city without financial stability isn’t easy, and they are forced into sex work- both dancing at a club nearby, an eventually Hannah becoming an escort. It also explores their eventual falling out, the growing pains of coming into yourself, and how to rectify a painful, complex, and needed relationship with a family that might not accept you, a religion you no longer feel connected to, and the life you left behind.This book was sensational in how it describes that push and pull you can feel in your early 20’s of wanting to be far away from your family and a small town that feels oppressive and constricting, but also feeling so separate from everything you know that you no longer recognize yourself. It dives deep into the complicated feelings that come with grief, loss, mother/daughter relationships, sister/sister relationships, faith, queerness, isolation, and class. It also respectfully shows how sex work can become a necessary part of someone’s survival, especially queer folks, with no other option. I love how complicated Hannah’s character is too- at times you hate her selfishness and inability to speak up, and other times you admire her strength and resilience. She is “literally just a girl” and I will be thinking about her character for a very long time.All in all phenomenal read. If you like books like Old Enough, Luster, The Rachel Incident, A Language of Limbs, or the movie Shiva Baby, or if you simply just miss your Bubbe- this one is for you.Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC!

I loved reading this book! Well written, beautiful story! I finished this book in 3 days! Hard to put down!

The book takes place in 1996. Hannah is the younger daughter of a widowed mother living in Long Beach, NY. Her mother has become Orthodox Jewish and wants Hannah to conform. But Hannah rebels and prefers her relationship with her grandmother, Bubbe. In her senior year of high school, Hannah and one of her best friends, Sammie, become lovers and make a plan to travel cross-country and settle in San Francisco. The book then describes their trip, their life in San Francisco, the fate of their relationship, and a difficult conversation Hannah has with Bubbe when she comes to visit.The book is written solely from Hannah's POV, and though it doesn't feel like YA, it has many of the elements of YA, including Hannah's arc of change and her growing understanding of herself, her mother, and how she fits in SF's lesbian community.While this is fiction, the book reads almost like a memoir, about a time in a late teen's life trying to make her way on her own. I greatly appreciated the Jewish representation in the book, including Bubbe's Yiddish, only some of which is translated, and how Hannah works to figure out what she wants to keep about being Jewish.Highly recommended, especially since this is a debut novel.