This is an incredible debut about two best friends who have grown up having a strained relationship. Holding onto each other through good and bad even when maybe they shouldn’t. Then told between two points in time were given the chance to see how this friendship combined with the relationships and experiences they go through with the boys who later become men all rears it’s head on them. Secrets are exposed, bringing the past and exposing them to the truth about themselves and those they think they know.
My heart aches for Brisma and Kelly, their friendship was strong one who’s foundation was deeply cracked. They hung on for so long and had so much trauma; one ready to face it the other not and it most definitely couldn’t have been done together
This was an engrossing read such an amazing tale on friendship, finding yourself and the difference between being “kids” and confronting friends who for their actions

The Girls in Queens is about friendship, growing up, and the test that it puts relationships through. It shows how messy things get once boys get involved and ultimately what that could mean for the once inseparable friends, but that when life happens and things get complicated sometimes those friendships become more clear. It's not easy growing up and learning to navigate big emotions that come with it, growing as a person outside of your friends and learning life on your on terms.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This debut novel tells the story of the multicultural friendship of Brisma & Kell, Latinx neighbors growing up together in Queens. These close friends share everything but are complete opposites. Brisma is sweet, sensitive and observant. Kelly is bold, outgoing & flirty. As they enter high school cracks in their friendship start to grow. Brisma has her first boyfriend, Brian, and is excited to finally have something all to herself.

Years later, as young adults, the girls are reunited with Brian while watching the Mets have a chance at playoffs. Brian is accused of sexual assault and the friends must pick sides. Will their friendship stand this new test?
Told with authenticity. The details about growing up in Queens and the Mets season are spot on. Christine Kandic Torres tackles difficult topics about sexual abuse accusations and female roles in communities of color. The alternating timelines create a suspenseful pace while the dialogue is well written and believable.

A stunning debut! I can’t wait to see more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperVia for the opportunity to review this title.

Included in Apartment Therapy's June New Book Roundup: An intoxicating debut that explores race, coming-of-age, sexual assault, and more as readers follow two Latinx women growing up in Queens, New York.

“‘Imagine if Queens was just filled with girls. Wouldn’t it be so much more…peaceful?’
‘A Queens filled with queens?’ I smirked.
‘Yes! Yes, you’re right. Fuck that, I don’t want to be a girl. Definitely not a princess. I want to be a queen.’”

I requested an advanced copy of this one solely because I was a Queens girl — holla, Jackson Heights!!!

This book centers around the friendship of two ride-or-die besties Kelly and Brisma in Woodside, Queens (New York). Their girlhood is marked by hot summers, Mets games, first crushes, single parents, and, most importantly, a friendship that is conflicted between unconditional love and backstabbing envy. How far does/can a friendship planted in the cracks of concrete and rooted amongst rocks grow? Can their friendship make up for the gaping holes in their hearts?

First couple of chapters confused me but once I got a hang of the timeline jump and identified the 4 main characters, the book moved along fairly quickly. I was awash in major flashbacks speed-walking along Northern Boulevard as a young gal trying to get to school without getting catcalled and avoiding eye contact with strangers. Flipping through these pages, I could hear the bachata and reggaeton blasting from cars and friends’ houses. I remember my friends laughing at my inability to move my hips and the sizzling summer heat that seemed to tinge all minor crushes with something sexual. I remember being filled with curiosity and exhilaration (and sometimes annoyance) when rap & R&B at the max volume would blast out of cars sauntering the streets. Queens was a magical place in the 90s and I miss it but I also know I’m glorifying the past and what’s gone. THE GIRLS IN QUEENS is a glimpse into some of the darker corners where danger lurks in some of people we trust the most.

Overall, I enjoyed TGIQ and am v biased bc it resurfaced all of the above memories and brought Queens to life for me 3000 miles away.

Thanks @netgalley and @harperviabooks for the advanced read!

This book ended up being a little tough for me to review, because the quality of the book and my enjoyment of it diverged a little. On the one hand, The Girls in Queens is a thoughtful look at the complicated issues of sexual assault and growing up and understanding that your perspective can change - but some people won't change with you. Brisma's change of heart - her growth - is laid out gracefully, allowing the reader to come along with her on her journey. I thought that the time shifts - from childhood to young adulthood - were particularly effective, bringing the reader into these formative moments of Brisma's life.

And yet, I didn't quite enjoy this book. Maybe that's a consequence of the fact that a lot of it felt simply too real to be totally enjoyable, or because despite all of the hope in the end, there's also a lot of bleakness. Maybe it was because I found Kelly to be deeply frustrating or that certain parts of the book felt like they were walking a well-trod path. Whatever the reason, I was a little relieved when I was finished.

So reviewing The Girls in Queens is difficult, because while I can acknowledge that it's a Good Book, I'm not sure I liked it. Still, a contemplative and realistic portrait of what it's like to have to realize that the people you thought you loved weren't good after all.

3.75/5

The Girls in Queens is a debut novel that is narrated by Brisma, a young Latina woman who dreams of working in TV. She’s known her best friend, Kelly, since they were children and only one person could get between them - Brian, a high school baseball star who begins dating Brisma. Years later, Brian reappears in Kelly’s and Brisma’s lives, but when a girl accuses Brian of sexual assault, the trio is splintered again and the women are forced to choose sides. The accusation is only the tip of the iceberg of secrets and betrayals that finally come to light, and change Brisma’s life forever.

I found it really difficult to rate this book. The first half was so slow and so lacking in proper action that I was tempted to just give up on it. I decided to soldier on and that was a good choice because the second half was much stronger. I loved how Kelly and Brisma illustrated two completely opposite ways of dealing with trauma and abuse; denying it to the point of normalizing it, and fighting against it. It was also very interesting to see Brisma grow throughout the book and watch her deal with the toxic relationships in her life. Unfortunately, I found a lot of this novel heavy-handed; there wasn’t much space for reflection and uncertainty, which is a shame because I believe this book would gain a lot by not holding the reader’s hand. Also - and this is completely personal - baseball comes up in the plot again and again, and because I have no interest in it whatsoever, some parts of the book were simply boring.

TLDR: The Girls in Queens is a novel that deals with very difficult issues like abuse, race, class, and sexism. Unfortunately, the pace and the lack of subtlety take away from what could’ve otherwise been a very strong debut.

Title: The Girls in Queens
Author: Christine Kandic Torres
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5

Best friends growing up along Clement Moore Avenue in Queens, Brisma and Kelly will do anything for each other. They keep each other's secrets, from their mother's hidden heartbreaks to warding off the unwanted advances of creepy neighbors. Their exclusive world shifts when they begin high school and Brisma falls deeply in love with Brian, the local baseball legend. Always the wallflower to the vibrant and alluring Kelly, Brisma is secretly thrilled to be chosen by the popular athlete, to finally have someone that belongs to her alone. But as she, Brian, and Kelly fall into the roles that have been set before them, they ignite a bonfire of unrealized hopes and dreams, smoldering embers that finally find some oxygen to burn.

Years later, Brisma and Kelly haven't spoken to Brian, ever since a backyard party that went wrong, but their beloved Los Mets are on a historic run for the playoffs and the three friends--no longer children--are reunited. Brisma finds herself once again drawn to her first love. But when Brian is accused of sexual assault, the two friends must make a choice. At first, both rush to support and defend him. But while Kelly remains Brian's staunch defender, Brisma begins to have doubts as old memories of their relationship surface. As Brisma and Kelly face off in a battle for what they each believe they are owed, these two lifelong friends must decide if their shared past is enough to sustain their future.

This was not an easy read, although it wasn’t too time-consuming. Brisma and Kelly’s friendship was sometimes hard to read, as the way Kelly treated Brisma was at times harsh and ugly. The culture of the neighborhood they grew up in was terrible: hurtful, angry, and full of pain, but those things affected each girl differently. Their relationship with men was also a challenge to read about, but I enjoyed Brisma’s growth thoroughly, even when I wanted to throw the book across the room a few times.

Christine Kandic Torres was born and raised in Queens. The Girls in Queens is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of HarperVia in exchange for an honest review.)

Kelly and Brisma are best friends in the borough of Queens. But an incident and Brian will threaten to tear apart their tight friendship.
It’s a provocative novel about a contemporary issue. Hard choices have to be made. Who should you be loyal to? Is one accusation a reflection for more? What it boils down to is trust.
Readers will come away with much food for thought after finishing it.

3 ⭐️
contemporary fiction
cw: rape, sexual assault

thank you to netgalley and harpervia for the advanced copy!

this book has all of the right ingredients - an exploration of female friendship and the way it ebbs and flows throughout our lives, how speaking our truth can uncover so much of what we have spent our lives hiding from or refusing to see, and a reckoning with the variety of ways sexual abuse is inflicted on us. i enjoyed the novel, but to me, it lacked an emotional depth leaving me feeling disconnected from the story.

I wasn't sure what to expect going into this book, but I was pleasantly surprised with both the story itself and the way I was able to get attached to the characters and the situations they were in. Although I found the plot to be a little slow-moving and disjointed at first which ended up with me being more confused, especially with the time jumps, as I got into the story, I found myself liking it more and more and rooting for the characters to be on the right side of things.

This book deals with some heavy topics, and the characters were not always in the right, but I think that the writing of the book did a good job with this and having the characters be kind of morally grey. I do, however, wish that some of the side characters, particularly Kelly and Pablo, were a little more fleshed out. At times, I feel like the only characters that I really got to know were Brisma and Brian.

Overall, although I think that the timelines got a little confusing and were a bit abrupt, this book was a good read, and I'm really glad that I chose to pick it up despite knowing almost nothing about it. If you're considering reading this, please check trigger warnings!

(3.5 stars rounded up)

Difficult subjects but a good read with what felt like a tight yet hasty finish.

I can't believe this is a debut novel. I loved the writing and will definitely read more from Torres.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

"It’s frightening what we choose to remember and what we choose to forget .... The pieces of our lives we cherry-pick to form our identities along the way—different pinches of clay molded together to create a new thing entirely. How quickly we discard whole fragments of ourselves to survive inside these newly formed beings."

The Girls in Queens follows the story of Brisma and Kelly, best friends coming of age in Queens, NY, trying to find their way in the world through the trials and tribulations of growing up as girls of color, told through Brisma's perspective exclusively. As it addresses issues of racial and class divides, the book gives a voice to young girls who are simply craving acceptance and learning who to trust.

When Brisma's former boyfriend Brian is accused of sexual assault, Brisma, Kelly and Brian discover their lives will be turned inside out. What happens when something challenges everything you thought you knew about someone you loved? How do you see the truth in the secrets and betrayals without falling apart?

As someone born and raised in Flushing, Queens, home to Shea Stadium and the NY Mets, I expected more from this book but it just didn't resonate with me. Slow moving, the multiple timelines often felt disjointed while the details of the Mets seemed excessive at times. The story could also have benefited from the addition of Kelly's point of view. Her character possessed a layered complexity that would have added so much more especially with the sadness and pain she had experienced. I also didn't always find Brisma to be likable, so unsure of herself and easily manipulated by Brian and Kelly. Additionally, while I appreciate what the author was trying to say regarding racial and social prejudices, I often felt the specifics played into the stereotypes rather than fight against them. I further thought the sexual assault allegations would have played a more significant role earlier in the story and the failure to do so made the story drag until the 70% mark. At this point, everything came together nicely but not enough to add much to my opinion overall.

While I did not find anything original here, this book would be an invaluable learning tool for young girls, especially those from minority or disadvantaged communities. It could help foster change while giving girls the courage to choose self respect and value their worth. Important themes were addressed throughout including jealousy, guilt, shame and trying to prove oneself to others in the midst of unrealized hopes and dreams. Perhaps most importantly, the book asks the question: how do you accept the truth when it contradicts the foundation of loyalty and friendship?

"I think that’s all we have in the end ... the opportunity to make better choices. Or our own choices, anyway."

** Special thanks to HarperVia and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. Quotes subject to change at time of publication. Available June 14, 2022. **

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperVia for an early release of The Girls in Queens in exchange of an honest review.

I really really enjoyed this one! I did find the begging quarter or so rather slow.

Regardless, Brisma is an amazing main character and seeing her growth through the years was absolutely incredible. Seeing her finally value herself and her worth was a beautiful journey.

I think what was so interesting and compelling about this book is that its is both a book honoring sister like friendships but also discusses what can tear those connections apart. Additionally, I thought the commentary on how “monsters [can] hide in plain sight”, which is from the blurb, was so interesting and so important. As the years go on, we se more and more pieces interconnect for Brisma and see how it impacts her life. Overall, I think this was a super important and great read. 4.5 Stars!

A young woman growing up in Queens struggles with leaving behind her best friend and the only life she's ever known to become a writer.

A gem of a first novel! Don't we all have friends like Kelly regardless of where we grew up? I loved the gritty setting of Queens and the different characters and how the grew as the story progressed. There is so much here to dissect and discuss so I do think it would be an excellent choice for a book club to read, especially one focused on Latinx authors or issues.
Over and over again, I remembered my own youth and foibles so I feel there is a definite universality to this story and any reader will find something they can identify with.

this book was simply mediocre for me …

I enjoyed quite a few parts of this story - and I was very happy to see quite a few underrepresented groups in this story. the setting and historical elements were so beautiful and I wanted to stay wrapped up in the story forever.

however, the characters were not properly flushed out and I felt very meh while reading about them.

the suspense and intrigue was very well done, similar to black cake, but the story itself didn’t keep up the emotional impact.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

The Girls in Queens follows Brisma and Kelly as they navigate adolescence, sex, creepy neighbors and friendship. When Brisma’s high school sweetheart gets accused of sexual assault, it tears the girls apart. One believing the victim while the other supports Brian.

This book is raw and allows the reader to explore the complicated feelings of realizing you’ve been assaulted and that a person you love is a predator.

In The Girls In Queens by Christine Kandic Torres we read the story of two friends, Kelly and Brisma, on their journey from high school to college. We witness two girlfriends develop into different young women and the grief that comes with letting outgrown relationships go. We see how experiences of sexual violence often go unidentified and unaddressed when girls cannot be healthy mirrors for one another and adult supervision is lacking.

When Brisma starts taking writing courses at City College and meets her mentor, Jackie, she learns to name things she didn’t have language for before. She realizes that she has experienced sexual violence. It takes Brisma watching another girl defend herself against her abuser to fully embrace her own story.

When Brisma learns that Brian, her high school sweetheart, is being accused of assaulting someone she initially can’t believe it. That’s not the boy she knows. That is until she uncovers his secrets - how Brian has taken advantage of girls in the past, in ways known and unknown, and the long list includes her. When Brisma needs to decide what to let go of and who to hold onto she chooses herself. 🙌🏾

Brisma’s mother tells her: “You need to discover your own power.” And she does.

Brisma moves from judging the girl who accuses Brian to learning from her ability to demand respect, her right to heal, and hold Brian accountable for what he did. This isn’t a girl who thinks she’s better - this is a girl who has the gumption to fight back for her life. I enjoyed the overarching lesson: how as we learn and evolve we are allowed to make different and more empowering choices.

The Girls In Queens is a powerful story about how we often think we know who people are and they surprise us. Maybe who we perceived them to be was incorrect all along or maybe they changed before we could take notice.

this book is about the growing relationship between brisma and kelly. you will read about their ups and downs and you will learn just how strong their relationship is even when they don’t see eye to eye.

this book has a lot to do about their friendship, their relationships with their families and friends, their life struggles that shape them to be who they are. you read about how their lives in queens are when they are tweens and when they are young adults.

brisma has to make a few major life decisions that will change her life and also change the relationship she has with kelly.

this was a very well written book. i didn’t grow up in queens, but lived there for a few years and i have to say that there are a lot of details that seem to be on point. i loved reading about how strong brisma and kelly’s relationship was.