cover image Girls Girls Girls

Girls Girls Girls

Shoshana Von Blanckensee. Putnam, $29 (384p) ISBN 978-0-593-71844-5

In Von Blanckensee’s propulsive debut, a gay teen comes of age in oppressive 1990s Long Beach, N.Y., before heading west in search of freedom. At 18, Hannah and her girlfriend, Sam, hatch plans to leave Long Beach and drive across the country to San Francisco, where they can live openly as a couple. In Reno, they meet another lesbian pair, each of whom earns a living by stripping. After Hannah and Sam arrive in San Francisco with little money, they rent a small room and desperately try to find jobs. Inspired by the couple they met in Reno, Sam pressures Hannah into auditioning with her for a strip club whose manager is open to hiring girls without experience. While Sam takes to dancing and soon meets new friends, Hannah doesn't like it and instead finds work as an escort, which strains their relationship. When Hannah finds out her grandmother is terminally ill, she returns to Long Beach, where she reconnects with another close friend and attempts to chart a path forward. Von Blanckensee pulls the reader in with this voice-driven and heartfelt narrative, and adds texture with gritty details of 1990s San Francisco. This delivers the goods. Agent: Amanda Orozco, Transatlantic Agency. (June)

Correction: A previous version of this review misstated which of the main characters takes to stripping and which finds work as an escort.