This one found its feet about two thirds of the way in, rather like the central character. Previously there had been something rote about the tale of two gay girls fleeing their conservative East Coast lives for the freedom of late-twentieth-century San Francisco. All very meat and potatoes, especially the narration, but also the slightly plodding progression through arrival, sex work and slow separation.
Eventually the author finds her feet, around the character of Bubbe who is a bit of a caricature herself but whose demise touches some emotional depths. There’s nothing unpredictable in the closing chapters, but there IS a dimension of acceptable conviction in the narrator’s emergence as herself.
The novel is plain and straightforward, but engaging enough.

Grateful to NetGalley for the ARC of this read that comes out on June 17!

I enjoyed this book & got through it pretty quickly, but it wasn’t an absolute favorite. I do acknowledge that someone who is not Jewish & not part of the LGBTQ+ community may not be able to relate to this book as much as others, though.

I really did love the main character, Hannah, & the growth this story provided her. The shy girl that started this novel isn’t the bold, confident girl at the end, which I deeply loved. Set in the 1970s in San Francisco, this is a coming of age story that comes with a lot of growth. That being said, the first 60% of the book & last 40% of the book have dramatically different vibes. What started as a journey of sexuality, identity, & relationships turned into thoughts of family & deep feelings of grief. Personally, I preferred the last 40% of the book to the first 60%, but Hannah’s entire journey was well written.

I recommend this book to anyone finding theirselves in a complicated world or dealing with the loss of someone special.

ABSOLUTELY LOVEDDDDDD. The writing was beautiful and I felt as if I really got to know Hannah and her struggles with young love and identity, her found family and the journey she took with her birth family and accepting herself. This was clearly a book of the author's heart and it made sense that the author's also an oncology nurse for a day job.

a love letter to being queer, finding peace, forging a new path, forgiveness, and going after what you know you deserve. i loved this story and the main character, hannah, so so much. it is rare for me to connect this deeply with characters, but it felt impossible not to root for her, ache for her, and want the very best for her. this book touched on a lot - on coming of age in the 90s, being queer, sex work, grief and loss, break ups, addiction, religion - without feeling overbearing or forced. all elements of this book worked so beautifully together to create a whole, multifaceted and deeply rich story, and i feel so fortunate to have read this book

also, i cannot believe this is the author's debut novel. i'm blown away and cannot wait to see what she comes out with next!!!

thank you to netgalley and shoshana von blanckensee for this arc ❤️

I LOVED this book. I didn’t want it to end and devoured it in a few days. It was such a fun concept and well written. Thank you Netgalley for the arc.

I really enjoyed the setting of this book, 90's in SF was a cool vibe to read about. However, I had a difficult time getting into the book. I enjoyed the writing and the end left me wanting a little more for these characters. So, not really sure why I had a difficult time with this story. Could just be me, and not in the right headspace for this book. Nevertheless, this was enjoyable.

Thanks NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for a copy of this ARC!

You know, there are some books that really speak to me—and then there are the ones that reach into my soul and yank something loose. This one yanked.

Girls Girls Girls by Shoshana von Blanckensee isn’t just my first five-star read of the year—it’s an instant favorite. No hesitation. No doubt. And considering it’s only mid-February, that’s saying something.

To explain just how much this book meant to me, I need to take you back to baby queer me in the ‘90s.

Picture this: I’m 16 years old in 1996, and my brother brings home a pile of books from a used book warehouse. Among them, I find an ARC of Ain’t Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice by April Sinclair. It’s about a young Black girl navigating her sexuality, moving to San Francisco in the ‘70s, and stepping into a world of self-discovery—all while dealing with her family’s expectations back home. That book changed my life. For the first time, I saw myself on the page. I saw a possible future. I still own that book, I'm 44 now, and I treasure it. The following year, in 1997, I had my first real girlfriend.

Reading Girls Girls Girls transported me right back to that feeling—like I was 16 again, discovering a piece of myself through a book. But where Ain’t Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice showed me a possible future, Girls Girls Girls showed me a possible past.

I don’t think I’ve read a book that captures this pocket of the ‘90s this well in the last 20 years. Or is it 25? Omg i just stopped and did the math. it's 28?! *sigh* What even are years anymore when the ‘90s still feel like a decade ago? Anyway…

At first glance, these two books share a common thread: young queer women feeling trapped by their hometowns and running off to San Francisco, hoping to find themselves and their community—while still tethered to their families’ love and expectations. But beyond that premise, the stories are wildly different.

Girls Girls Girls follows Hannah, a young Jewish girl who escapes to San Francisco in the mid-‘90s with her best friend and first love, hoping to finally explore their queerness freely. The first part of the book beautifully captures the intense, complicated love between two high school girls in the ‘90s. When they get to San Francisco, it’s harder than they were expecting. They’re broke. They’re struggling. And they soon discover the easiest and fastest way to make money while trying to survive in a new city.

A big part of the story takes place in a strip club, and prostitution plays a significant role in their journey. While the book isn’t overly sexually graphic, there’s a lot of focus on these aspects, making it something I’d consider more for both adults and mature/older young adult readers.

Hannah’s relationship with her grandmother, Bubbe, is also woven throughout the story—and let me tell you, it wrecked me. I was SOBBING into my pillow at midnight, unwilling to put the book down and just go to sleep.

And the writing? Stunning. Beautiful. Zero notes for improvement. How is this her first novel?! I found her Instagram and saw that it took her something like 20 years to finish writing it. I desperately hope I don’t have to wait another 20 years for her next book because this—this is one of the best queer novels I think I’ll ever read.

My deepest thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for an advanced copy of this incredible book so that i may share my honest thoughts and feelings.

Ive posted this to Goodreads.

I think the world can use more queer sapphic stories like this - it's rare that I see it so well-executed. This was great.

despite my three-star rating, i truly did enjoy this book. the plot was really interesting and kept me intrigued all the way through. although, about 60% of the way in, i was left confused about the change in focus in the plot. (no disrespect to bubbe - i love grandmothers!) i just wanted to hear more about hannah coming into herself and consequences or lack thereof from her chosen profession. overall, the book left me wanting more at the end. perhaps this would better suit someone else. but i did really love the setting of 90s san francisco and the focus of queer women discovering their sexuality.

i received an advanced readers copy of this novel, courtesy of netgalley and penguin group putnam. all opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publishers for this eARC!!

This coming-of-age book thoroughly delves into the challenges of growing up as a queer individual. It also highlights the beauty of discovering and being a part of a supportive community. This was such a beautiful and touching story about navigating your first serious relationship while simultaneously exploring your identity. It was also great to see Hannah's relationship with her family as she struggled to build a new life while also feeling pushed and pulled by her grandmother, sister, and mother.

This coming-of-age book really explores the hardships of growing up queer, but the beauty of finding community. So much happens in such a short time, that I almost had whiplash, but it all felt realistic to their situation. This was darker than I expected because it was so incredibly raw, but I appreciated the honesty of it.

This was a deeply moving, heartbreakingly relatable story for many female readers who have struggled to place themselves in the world. Hannah is experiencing the life alternating notions of finding her identity; struggling with acceptance around her sexual orientation, pushing back on her religious views and feeling trapped in the box society has put her in, while trying to not end up like her mother. Hannah leaves home with her closest friend, leading to codependency and hard circumstances that ultimately force her to leave, finding her own path while dealing with life alternating news.
This story was so well written, emotional impactful from the start and garners the readers attention from the start. This story walks the reader along the characters journey of love, acceptance, finding their true identity and finding a found family that allows true acceptance as you are.

I think this was a well written book and had characters that had a lot to explore but for some reason I could not get into it. I found that it was hard to get into the story which caused me to not enjoy it as much as I wished I did because I do think it has a lot of potential and reasons to love it

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam Books for the ARC!

What a sweet book! It read a bit YA for me, but a wonderful queer coming of age story. Themes of grief, identity, complex relationships, and queerness stuck out to me. It makes sense that this is a debut novel.

I wish we would’ve seen more of the unraveling of Sam and Hannah’s relationship and gotten more clarity but I do feel like at their age it made sense with their lack of emotional maturity.

I really enjoyed the plot and would love a sequel where we follow Hannah’s new life of acceptance and self discovery! The characters were all very compelling and mostly well developed.

I definitely recommend this as a quick lovely lesbian read!

(4.5/5) This is what a book should be. I thoroughly enjoyed every second of reading this and did think about it every moment that I had to put it down to do work. It was a heartbreaking tale and incredibly well done. The writing was well done and didn't detract from the story. The plotline was amazing, and I didn't feel like it was predictable or cliche in any sense. This book took me through so many ups and downs; truly an experience. My only wish was that more of the (what I assume was) Yiddish was translated so the average reader could understand instead of struggling to piece together context clues. However, this was a very interesting take on the intersection of being queer and Jewish which I loved reading about. Would highly recommend.

I honestly have no memory of reading this, it just wasn't for me since it didn't really stick out. I requested it because I absolutely adore the cover, but that's really all I can say about it.

A beautiful coming of age story that deals with difficult themes in ways that feel empowering for character development without judgement. I loved the story and was in a similar place of understanding faith after the loss of my grandmother, and this was exactly what I needed.

𝓦𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓲𝓼 𝓱𝓸𝓶𝓮? 𝓘𝓽’𝓼 𝓷𝓸𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮, 𝔀𝓱𝓲𝓬𝓱 𝓶𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓼 𝓲𝓽 𝓬𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓫𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝔂𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮. 𝓘𝓽’𝓼 𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓘 𝓪𝓶. 𝓘’𝓶 𝓱𝓸𝓶𝓮.'

"𝓘 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓫𝓮𝓵𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓼𝓸 𝓶𝓾𝓬𝓱, 𝓘 𝓮𝓷𝓭 𝓾𝓹 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓫𝓮𝓵𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪𝓽 𝓪𝓵𝓵"

This was soooo good!? What? I'm really getting spoiled so early in the year with such great arcs to read!

Set in 1990s San Francisco, we follow Hannah, our FMC, a queer Jewish teenager grappling with first love, family secrets, and the burgeoning awareness of her own sexuality. At only eighteen, she doesn't fully know who she is or what she wants and seeing her growth as she goes through the good and bad of self-exploration was moving.

I have this bad habit of skimming over the blurbs of arcs and it's like key words stick out to me and I forget the rest lol. I'm not sure if the synopsis to this story even hinted at the emotional rollercoaster it was going to take me on, but I'm so glad I picked this one up and I'm blown away again by another debut novel this year.

This story tackles so many different things. Being Jewish, being gay in the 90s, not being able to talk about being queer or thinking you have more than platonic feelings for your close friend. Starting a relationship and having all of these emotions and not knowing what to do with them.

It dives deeply into first love, into family issues, grief, death, life lessons - at times some pretty questionable things happen, and it gets a little dark.

This is a poignant coming-of-age story that beautifully captures the complexities of young love, friendship, and identity.

Shoshana's prose is lyrical and poetic but it's also so raw and unfiltered. The descriptions of San Francisco and New York are so descriptive and vivid that it was so easy to transport myself there and the nostalgia that just popped off the page.

I'm such a 90s girl... I was not the age of these girls during that time, but I love being transported back. The dialogue is sharp and authentic, capturing the awkwardness and intensity of teenage relationships with remarkable honesty.

What an emotional ride, there's really so much packed within these pages. Epic emotional highs and lows - this is one that will stay with me for a long time. I honestly can't recommend it enough.

💖Sapphic Romance
🍭Coming of Age
💖1990's Era
🍭New York to San Francisco Setting
💖Self Discovery
🍭Family Struggles
💖Nostalgia
🍭Lyrical Prose

Expected Release Date 06/17/25

Many thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the complementary advanced digital copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 🌈💐

⋆✴︎˚｡⋆ Connect with me on Instagram ˗ˏˋ★‿︵‧ ˚ ₊⊹

All I can say is wow. This book hit home for me! This book exceeded all my expectations.
Shoshana von Blanckensee's "Girls Girls Girls" is a poignant coming-of-age story that was a beautiful and touching story. It captures the complexities of young love, friendship, and identity. I enjoyed reading about our main character Hannah (queer Jewish teenager) who is exploring her lesbianism, family secrets, first true love, and Judaism. Shoshana von Blanckensee did an excellent job at setting the scene. It felt real and I cannot say enough about it! A huge thank you to NetGalley & the publishers for this ARC.

Girls Girls Girls blew me away. What an incredible debut.

From the first few pages I knew I was in for a treat. von Blackensee is a spectacular writer - lyrical without being flowery, concise without compromising on detail.

And then the story itself absorbed me completely. I want to tear up when I think about Hannah; I rarely say characters feel like friends (they're characters), but Hannah feels like a friend.

The blurb describes this as Emma Cline's The Guest meets Haley Jakobson's Old Enough. I have to say I don't really get the Cline reference (maybe the perpetually observant state of finding oneself in an unfamiliar world? if that's the case, I'd have compared it to Win Me Something by Kyle Lucia Wu) but the Jakobson one felt spot on. Girls Girls Girls is tender and heartrending - a character-driven story that's genuinely riveting.

I work at a bookstore in San Francisco, where the story takes place, and stocking this book will be a no-brainer for us. I can't wait to rave about it. This is my favorite book of 2025 so far.