This debut novel, which is set in the summer of 1986 amid Manhattan's glittering, gritty setting, presents a gripping blend of family dysfunction, coming-of-age anguish, and the sinister draw of privilege and peril. The protagonist of the tale is 18-year-old Nina Jacobs, a perceptive but unsophisticated young woman negotiating a perilous social environment and a turbulent home life.

The social order of the Upper East Side, the charm of Flanagan's bar, and the perilous peaks of 1980s excess are all vividly depicted in the book. However, at times, the novel feels overstuffed with its ambitious examination of weighty subjects like mental illness, substance misuse, and sexual awakening, leaving key narrative threads undeveloped.


A Gorgeous Excitement is a captivating book with incisive social critique and a moving representation, even though it falls short of its full potential of young people getting out of hand.

We appreciate Crown Publishing and NetGalley giving an eARC of A Gorgeous Excitement before it was published.

A Gorgeous Excitement follows Nina's last summer in New York City before heading to her first year of university. Nina is transfixed on her virginity, an experience she hopes to get through before heading off to Vanderbilt. In the midst of her weekly dive bar drinks, crushing on Gardner Reed and feeling isolated within her affluent community due to her Jewish heritage, Nina is silently facing issues related to her moms mental health. Nina is introduced to Stephanie, which leads her down a summer of breaking Nina's norm, drugs and trying to get Gardner's attention.

For me, a few areas in the story were a bit undeveloped. I found the initial mention of Nina's affluence with her Jewish background very interesting, as it suggested that although Nina was in with the wealthy, she was still left out. This crossover did not seem to develop much from the beginning sections of the book, only a few comments here and there where Nina would mention she was taken back from the use of derogatory language. I would have liked to see a deeper dive into her struggle with this since it was brought up a lot but remained fairly surface level. I never grew to love Nina throughout the story which made it hard to fully immerse myself into it. Although Nina is young, she remained a fairly selfish character throughout the novel, and even when offering help for others it usually reflected on what worked the best for her. I know all stories do not need a miracle moment for self realization but having a stagnant character and knowing how it would end based off of the real life murder made it a bit difficult to connect to Nina and her choices.

A Gorgeous Excitement follows Nina through the summer before she goes to college, in 1980s NYC. This was a fun read for me due to a couple of personal connections to the place and era; I enjoyed the vivid window into Nina’s life and relationships. The climactic event occurs toward the very end of the book, and I felt that we didn’t have quite enough time to understand the impact it had on the characters. Still, it’s an enjoyable read depicting a really unique moment in time and place.

Whew...I am so glad I do not have to be 18 ever again. Things were so much darker and grittiier in some ways in the 80s and this book showed that off spectacularly. The darkness of realizing your power over yourself and getting lost in it was portrayed in a glittering , coke infused hue. Growing up and being grown are 2 things our Nina had to learn throughout the book.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for the free e=ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A domestic drama focused on wealthy teenagers in NYC during the 1980s. This also is a retelling of the Preppy Murder case. Its the summer before Nina heads to college and she is determined to lose her virginity. She becomes obsessed with a popular boy in her inner circle, setting her sights on him as her suitor. She also deals with a mother who is mentally ill and a grandfather struggling with dementia.

This is an interesting perspective of NYC's Upper East Side social hierarchy, the allure of Flanagan's bar, and the dangerous highs of the 1980s excess. The book dives into heavy themes of mental illness, substance abuse, and sexual awakening. Having lived in the 1980s, I found this to be an engrossing read.


Recommend!

This book highlights 1980s Manhattan centering on Nina's coming of age, a jewish teenager growing up in the glitz and privilege of the time. While a good read, this story is complex and hard. There's drug use, extreme teen angst, mental illness, family dysfunction and murder. It's hard to 'like' a book with these topics. It's a difficult read purely based on the topics, and it almost reads like a mix of character study with some true crime documentary. If you are in the mood for this type of story or have some kind of connection to the the characters or moment in time, I think you'll enjoy it.

A Gorgeous Excitement is a beautifully written and profoundly evocative novel that kept me intrigued from start to finish. The story’s strength lies in its ability to capture the complexity of young adulthood with characters who feel vividly real and relatable. While I occasionally yearned for a more suspenseful, thriller-like twist (despite knowing that’s not the book’s intention), the narrative’s emotional depth and authenticity more than made up for it. The book evokes a poignant nostalgia for lost youth but manages to also contend with the bittersweet reality of how quickly a young person may have to grow up and shoulder responsibilities beyond their years. Overall, a solid 4-star read that leaves a lasting impression.

Set against the glitzy, gritty backdrop of Manhattan in the summer of 1986, this debut novel offers a compelling mix of coming-of-age angst, family dysfunction, and the shadowy allure of privilege and danger. The story belongs to Nina Jacobs, a sharp yet naive 18-year-old navigating a volatile home life and a treacherous social scene.

The novel captures the period with evocative detail: the Upper East Side's social hierarchy, the allure of Flanagan's bar, and the dangerous highs of 1980s excess. However, the book’s ambitious exploration of heavy themes—mental illness, substance abuse, and sexual awakening—sometimes feels overstuffed, with certain narrative threads left underdeveloped.

While A Gorgeous Excitement doesn’t fully deliver on its potential, it is an engrossing read with sharp social commentary and a poignant portrayal of youth spiraling out of control.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for providing an eARC of A Gorgeous Excitement prior to publication.

This book was set in 1980s Manhattan and definitely takes you back in time to what life was like there. The main character Nina, is a young woman who is about to leave for college and is learning about herself and discovering life as an 18 year old woman. She struggles with being an outsider being Jewish, something I can relate to, but then there are her struggles with drugs, and it can be a difficult and challenging topic to read about. The book was well written and I appreciate that it addressed topics such as mental illness, and family relationship issues.

Thank you Crown publishing, and PRH audio, for review copies! A Gorgeous Excitement is a mesmerizing novel, one that stands out to me for the immersive writing and evocative scene descriptions and also for the way that the author generates compassion, and connection, for the main character Nina and her somewhat typically tumultous coming of age journey in 1980s NYC. Themes may feel familiar, coming of age being somehow a unique story yet filled with similar beats and themes across books, but Weiner's balanced approach to storytelling, pulling back to avoid sensationalizing behaviors and actions and offering an insightful examination of Nina's behaviors and risk taking with her mother's depression and bouts of mania, brings a structure and depth to this novel. This is a book to sit with, it is character driven and filled with that fragile tension of wanting desperately to grow up, to achieve adulthood, while still clinging to the uncertainty of identity and self that is the hallmark of adolescence.
Fantastically and thoughtfully narrated on audio, the audiobook production captures Nina's voice and the unfolding story expertly. What are the costs of growing up, leaving behind youthful naivete for the darker, edgier awareness of adulthood and adult relationships?

This was a fine read, not horrible but not great. It was perfectly readable, but it just gave me the feeling of having read this book a million times before. Everything was very middle of the road, the characters were your typical contemporary characters, complex and slightly damaged, and the plot was a plot I've read many times over. This was perfectly readable, it did not bore me which is why I am giving it 3 stars, if you're the type of reader that feels the need to complete every single book you start, you won't have any problem with this as it's engaging enough to make it easy to get through. The writing itself was above average, but nothing spectacular, it was compelling enough to get you to the end without being memorable.

Appreciate the arc but I don’t think this novel was for me. There are definitely people who will enjoy it but I am just not part of that crowd.

DNF'd this one because it wasn't really for me. I do have a few people in mind that I do think it will work for, though. I will suggest it to them and also suggest that my local library retrieve a copy so that others can read it.

coming of age story set in classic New York with a very realistic protagonist who feels very human in all her flaws and foibles and a sorta thrillery sidepart. 4.5 stars, rounded up. tysm for the arc.

What an enormous pleasure it was to read this truly well-crafted novel. This is the best example of contemporary realism in fiction I've read in a long time. The story is based on a true crime that took place in the 1980's in the Upper East Side of New York City. I lived in New York City then, and Cynthia Weiner took me back there with such specificity and authenticity of detail that I had to reorient myself to the present at the end of each chapter. The author is a master of chapter structure. It felt like the best kind of old-fashioned reading experience in that each chapter was its own journey, with a satisfying conclusion. Even though we think we know what's going to happen, the author maintained our interest with her compassionate concern for the fate of her characters. I especially appreciated the presence of Brian, the kind observer and friend. This could have been a thoroughly gruesome tale, with its graphic descriptions of cocaine use, the images of sex shops in Times Square, and the sad descent into mental illness of Nina's mother. But the author saved it from sensationalism with moments of real humor and glimmers of hope. I deeply appreciate this author's care for the characters of Nina and her friends. I "knew" these girls. Their humanity is in good hands with Cynthia Weiner. I will read anything and everything she writes.

Set in the summer of 1986, the novel follows Nina Jacobs, a Jewish outsider navigating the polished yet toxic social circles of Manhattan’s Upper East Side. With its vivid depiction of youthful recklessness, strained family dynamics, and the consequences of escapism, the novel hits familiar beats, though it doesn’t always bring enough depth to stand out.

Nina’s struggles are central to the story—her mother’s depression and volatility loom over her life, while her desperation to lose her virginity and fit in among her WASPy peers drives many of her questionable decisions. The bar Flanagan’s becomes the center of her world, a symbol of both opportunity and self-destruction. Gardner Reed, the unattainable golden boy, represents everything Nina believes she wants, and her pursuit of him—fueled by alcohol, drugs, and misguided hope—forms the novel’s emotional arc.

While Nina’s voice is compelling, her story treads familiar ground, particularly within the coming-of-age genre. Themes of substance abuse, parental neglect, and societal pressures are explored but, at times, feel surface-level, lacking the nuance that could make them more impactful. The novel shines brightest when delving into the mother-daughter relationship, offering glimpses of a household teetering on the edge of collapse and the toll it takes on Nina’s sense of self.

The 1980s setting is richly evoked, with details that capture the excess and contradictions of the era—cocaine-fueled parties, preppy fashion, and a culture obsessed with appearances. However, relying on these nostalgic markers sometimes overshadows character development, leaving secondary figures like Gardner feeling more like archetypes than fully realized people.

Ultimately, this novel succeeds as a portrait of a girl on the brink of adulthood, grappling with her identity and desires amid chaos. While the narrative occasionally stumbles, the novel’s longing, belonging, and self-destruction themes will resonate with readers who appreciate coming-of-age stories that don’t shy away from life’s darker edges.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Gorgeous Excitement is a compelling coming-of-age novel set in the 80s that seems to perfectly capture the essence of growing up during that time. This book is right up my alley: compulsively readable, sprinkled with humor, and really relatable.

Nina’s crush on Gardner is written with such authenticity, bringing all those messy, teenage pedestal moments to life—excusing bad behavior and seeing what you want to see in someone. The depiction of Nina's bipolar mother is another standout aspect, portrayed with sensitivity and realism. I also loved the portrayal of teenage friendships, especially Nina’s dynamic with Stephanie. We've all known a friend like her, and those moments felt so true to life.

While the story was memorable and truly great, there was something intangible missing that kept me from giving it a full five stars. Still, A Gorgeous Excitement is an excellent read, balancing humor and heart with relatable themes that will stick with you long after you turn the last page.

"A Gorgeous Excitement" is being marketed as a roman à clef of the 1986 Robert Chambers "preppy murder" case. And it is that, to some degree, but also much more. The true heart of the story, imo, is the relationship between protagonist Nina, whiling away her last summer on the Upper East Side before heading to college, and her mentally ill mother, Frances. Frances's severe depression morphs into a mania that's echoed by the euphoria Nina periodically experiences after discovering a new best friend, who in turn introduces her to cocaine and encourages her infatuation with the enigmatic Gardner. There's a scene with the manic Frances and the coke-charged Nina that all but left me gasping as if I too had snorted a few lines too many.

There are times when Nina gets tiresome, in the way that 18-year-olds do, and the middle sags a bit. But as the story races to its conclusion as the sense of foreboding deepens, I couldn't read fast enough. And the final chapters are close to perfect.

Thank you, NetGalley and Crown Publishing, for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Given the subject matter…and the author’s proclaimed proximity to the crime upon which the book is based…this is not a book that can be “liked” or “enjoyed”. It contains interesting, although generally unlikable characters and is filled with the angst of privileged teens. I would describe the book as fraught…jamming in way too many social commentaries: drugs, mental illness, family drama, violence, predatory sexual behavior, anti-semitism, bullying/mean girls… It was all just too much.

I was completely bowled over by this incredible debut novel. Cynthia Weiner has transported us back to 1980s Manhattan through the eyes of Nina, a recent high school grad who is trying to survive living in the city in the 3 months before she leaves for college. She discovers a love for cocaine, grappling with her mom's mental illness, and harboring a massive crush on Gardner, a guy who runs in the same circles as her and frequents the same bar.

Seems like a straightforward coming of age story right? Well, as the author's note at the start of the novel tells us, this is anything but. Inspired by the true murder of a girl who was killed by the "Preppy Killer" in Central Park the same year this book is set, I was shocked to learn that Weiner actually knew the killer (the thinly veiled Gardner in the novel) and composited girls she knew to create other characters in the book. I lived in the same neighborhood 30 years later, and also frequented the bar the killer hung out in, so it was fascinating reading about this world at a very different time.

I had a hard time putting this novel down. I loved the Nina and seeing the world through her eyes, and felt for her so much. I just wanted her to survive the book and had no idea if she would or not. Weiner does an excellent job keeping us engaged, toeing the line of fiction vs. true crime, and paying respect to the victim of this terrible crime. It's a fascinating book and will definitely be talked about next year.