LONG ISLAND GIRLS

The life of a queer, music-loving Long Island girl, 2005-2025.

In a major pivot, Korn’s third novel leaves dystopian speculation behind for a queer coming-of-age novel structured as six deep dives into the story of Susan Goldstein as it unfolds over two decades. At 17, Susan and her best friend, Katie, are the quirky music girls of their high school. Though Susan is the truer music nerd, somehow Katie’s thrifted outfits always turn out a notch cooler. Then one evening at a concert by Susan’s favorite up-and-coming indie band, ?? (pronounced What-What), critical encounters occur. Susan meets the lead singer, Jonny Lakes, a young gay man who instantly pegs Susan as a “baby gay”—something that had never occurred to her before. And that is the night she meets the beautiful Eliza Klein, who’s at the concert with Kyle Fishman, Susan’s former crush, and whom she soon recognizes as the subject of an almost-nude photo she’s seen on Katie’s twin brother’s computer. All these characters will play central roles in the rest of the novel, with Jonny becoming a key mentor, Eliza a lifelong obsession, and Kyle a problem that deepens over time but won’t go away, as he’s best friends with Katie’s long-term boyfriend. The story of Susan’s career and financial situation follows a classic millennial path—her first job at a Brooklyn-based indie record label pays so little she has to commute from her parents’ house on Long Island. Her unfolding career mirrors the profound changes affecting artists, musicians, and writers in the aughts, teens, and pandemic years, as Rider Die Records becomes Rider Die Media and ultimately Rider Die Studios, “abandoning editorial completely in favor of sponsored content,” at which point she is laid off in a company-wide Zoom call and moves on to become a freelancer and consultant; the sea changes of the #MeToo era also play a role. Susan’s emotional life also refuses to settle down. She gets involved with several interesting women—Korn writes lesbian sex scenes as few others dare—but the Eliza problem keeps coming back to haunt her, until the unexpected and satisfying denouement.

Could be the perfect lesbian romance novel. Partly for the sex, and partly for the classic yet surprising way it turns out.