Girls Girls Girls - by Shoshana Von Blanckensee (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"Girls Girls Girls floored me. . . . It's completely extraordinary." --Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich

A vibrant queer Jewish debut "teeming with heart, angst, love, and self discovery" (Emily Austin) about a young woman who, caught between the expectations of others and her own evolving desires, is forced to make a series of fraught, life-altering decisions.

It's the summer of '96 and best friends (and secret girlfriends) Hannah and Sam are driving across the country from Long Beach, New York, to the fabled queer paradise of San Francisco, free from the harsh gazes of their neighbors and the stifling demands of Hannah's devout Orthodox Jewish mother. In San Francisco, they will finally be together as a real couple, out in the open, around other queer people . . . even if the move means leaving behind Hannah's beloved Bubbe.

When the financial strains of West Coast living push the girls to start stripping at The Chez Paree--yet another secret Hannah must keep from her family--Hannah feels trapped. Sam wants her at the club, but Hannah hates stripping nearly as much as she hates disappointing Sam. Then Hannah meets Chris, an older butch lesbian, who is immediately taken with her. Desperate to stay in San Francisco and away from the leering men at the club, Hannah proposes an escort arrangement.

But as Hannah falls deeper into Chris' world and Sam starts to meet new queer friends, a rift forms between them. Without Sam, who is Hannah? And what does San Francisco mean to Hannah alone--a space rich with queer possibility or an intimidating, unfamiliar place just as lonely as the one she'd left behind? An achingly tender and resonant story of survival, first love, and growing up queer in the '90s, Girls Girls Girls is a piercing exploration of the choices we make in the thrilling and often confounding search for ourselves and home.

Review Quotes

One of Debutiful's 10 Noteworthy Debuts June 2025
One of Autostraddle's Most Anticipated Queer Books of June 2025
One of LGBTQ Reads's Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Books of 2025

"Girls Girls Girls floored me--the nostalgic angst and agony of it, the heat and beauty and tenderness. Shoshana von Blanckensee puts it all on the page so viscerally: lust, hunger, death, sex, grief, love and every other thing a human body is and does. It's completely extraordinary." --Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich and We All Want Impossible Things

"A propulsive and compulsively readable debut! Girls Girls Girls is jam-packed with queer angst and queer joy, filled with a memorable cast of characters and a truly incredible amount of heart. I devoured this novel." --Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author of Stop Me If You've Heard This One

"Girls Girls Girls tackles addiction and depression, loneliness and otherness; it's a teary-eyed love letter to the San Francisco that remains and to its establishments that are long-gone. But above all it tenderly tells the story of a vulnerable young queer person in an unfamiliar place, just trying to create a new version of home." --San Francisco Chronicle

"A queer coming-of-age story and a nostalgic trip to the mid-'90s, this has all the makings of a breezy-yet-thought-provoking beach read." --TheSkimm

"We're in for a fun-as-hell ride with this one. It's raw and authentic, nailing what it's like to be weird in high school." --Debutiful

"Be still my beating queer heart! It's time to cancel your weekend plans and prepare for a glorious sojourn in San Francisco, AKA the LGBTQ+ capital of the USA." --Glamour UK, "Best New Books of June"

"An immersive and emotional debut teeming with heart, angst, love, and self-discovery. This is a queer, touching, and charming book that makes you feel at home in 1990s San Francisco through the eyes of a messy and endearing lesbian." --Emily Austin, author of Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead and We Could Be Rats

"A breathtaking coming-of-age debut that had me laughing, crying, and growing alongside Hannah. . . . A story full of highs and lows, Shoshana von Blanckensee deftly depicts ways to be young, queer and Jewish, all while navigating life, death and what it means to be frei." --Ms. Magazine

"Girls Girls Girls is an exploration of first love, queerness, survival, and faith, and will resonate with anyone who came of age in the '90s, or anyone who's ever fought to define themselves." --Avocado Diaries

"With heartfelt introspection and refreshing self discovery, . . .von Blanckensee's fast-paced debut sensitively portrays how the process of showing one's authentic self is a return home. Readers may be taken by the novel's exploration of what it means to '[b]egin and end. Then begin again.'" --Booklist

"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." --Kirkus Reviews

"[A] propulsive debut. . . .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." --Publishers Weekly

"Girls Girls Girls is girly indeed, in the best way, as well as queer and young and retro and joyous and fraught and heartbreaking and hopeful, also in the best way. Shoshana von Blanckensee's debut is a moving coming-of-age romp about friends, families, and forgiveness, the endless ways they overlap, and all of their many wonderful, difficult, beautiful complications." --Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of One Two Three

"Finally, a novel about being queer, Jewish, and obsessed with your grandmother. Shoshana von Blanckensee's Girls Girls Girls is a tender and electric coming-of-age story. Come for the shenanigans, stay for the textured portrait of grief, desire, and the making and remaking of what it means to be family." --Ruth Madievsky, bestselling and award-winning author of All-Night Pharmacy

"Girls Girls Girls is the rare many-layered coming-of-age novel that addresses lust, confusion, longing, and grief in equal measure. I wanted to live inside Shoshana von Blanckensee's vivid evocation of 1990s San Francisco queer community long after I finished reading--and I can't remember the last time I had such a big crush on a fictional character." --Amy Shearn, award-winning author of The Mermaid of Brooklyn and Animal Instinct

"Girls Girls Girls is a gorgeous, tender, and hopeful coming-of-age novel. von Blanckensee writes with wisdom and insight about self-discovery, first loves, queer community in 90s San Francisco, what it means to carve out a life for yourself, and ultimately, what and who makes a home. It's a road trip novel in the literal and metaphorical sense, a love letter to queerness, youth, and the courage it takes to leave so that one day you may return. Girls Girls Girls is a triumph, a big beating heart of a book, full of hard-fought victories. I loved every second of it." --Marisa Crane, author of A Sharp Endless Need

"Shoshana von Blanckensee has crafted a stunning debut full of heartache and hope. I loved this book." --Michelle Tea, author of Knocking Myself Up

"Shoshana von Blanckensee's first novel is luminous, insightful, tender, and hot." --Andrea Lawlor, recipient of the 2020 Whiting Award for Fiction

About the Author

Shoshana von Blanckensee lives in Berkeley, California, with her partner and kids. She is an Oncology Nurse by day, and a writer by any available moment. Girls Girls Girls is her debut novel.