GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS

A young queer woman moves across the country in order to live her truth.

During the summer of 1996, best friends Hannah and Sam leave Long Beach, New York, to embark on their cross-country move to San Francisco just after they graduate from high school. The girls want to leave their hometown for many reasons—including Hannah’s difficult relationship with her Orthodox Jewish mother—but primarily because they are secretly dating. Once the girls get to California, they realize two things: They can finally be out as a couple, and there’s a good chance they cannot afford to stay. Semireluctantly, Hannah and Sam begin stripping at the Chez Paree. As their money troubles fade, a distance slowly opens between them. Sam happily trades fantasy for cash while Hannah resents the job. Sam yearns to meet other lesbians while Hannah struggles to feel at home within the community and herself: “I want to belong too much. I want to belong so much, I end up not belonging at all.” When Hannah meets Chris, an older, troubled lesbian at the club, her relationship with Sam begins to crumble—and she begins to find herself. Though craving a safe space for her queerness, Hannah’s biggest worry is leaving her Bubbe behind. When Bubbe travels to San Francisco to visit, she tells Hannah, “When you’re older you will look back at this time in your life, and then you will be able to see yourself very clearly. You will say, How on earth did I get all that chutzpah?” Their relationship serves as the tender and emotional throughline of the novel, as Hannah finds connection to her family, religion, and herself through her grandmother. Despite the dense plot, von Blanckensee deftly explores Judaism, addiction, grief, queer desire, found families, generational trauma, and cultivating the courage to be yourself. This debut is a beautiful portrait of being young, queer, and free (or “frei,” as Bubbe would say).

Though steeped in nostalgia, this coming-of-age debut is timeless.