Long Island Girls

If you’ve ever felt nostalgic for indie rock music or the 2010s, you need to read Gabrielle Korn‘s new coming-of-age novel, Long Island Girls. It starts when Susan is a teenager in 2005; she meets a girl from a different high school, Eliza, and thus begins her queer awakening and a decades-long obsession. Susan meets Eliza twice more over the following decades, and while her career starts to ascend, her romantic life continues to leave her wanting. Will Susan and Eliza ever have the kind of relationship Susan dreams of? Or is there too much in their shared past to overcome?

What I Liked:

• Revisiting the 2010s. I’m only a couple years younger than Susan, and equally obsessed with music, so most of her “music snob,” millennial characterization rang true for me. (Though I argue it’s not music snobbery, just passion!) From the references to specific artists and movies, to cultural events like the #MeToo movement, the Covid pandemic, and Trump’s harmful presidencies, Long Island Girls is firmly rooted in a world I know well.
• Coming of age in the lesbian scene. At its core, this book is about Susan coming into herself. She’s awkward and self-conscious at first, a “baby lesbian” working as an assistant and trying to find her footing. As the years pass, her career and confidence grow, but she’s still held back by things (and people) she clings to from her past.
• Career in music and media. At the beginning of the book, Susan has the kind of job I used to dream of for myself: working an indie record label, discovering artists, and helping them reach a wider audience. Susan lives and breathes indie rock, but as her friend/mentor Jonny can attest, the music industry isn’t always kind. Her job changes a lot over the years, passing through so much in media and marketing that mirrored similar roles I had during those times.
• Nostalgia. By the end of Long Island Girls, I was struck by how nostalgic the book ended up being for me. Maybe it’s cliché to say, but it feels so millennial. Like Susan, I’m a nostalgic person at heart, still obsessed with the same music I loved in high school. It can be a joy to indulge in the nostalgia sometimes, but it’s also vital to keep moving forward.

Audiobook:

Bailey Carr does a fabulous job of narrating Long Island Girls. She captures Susan’s personality well, especially as she evolves over the years. She also gives distinct voices to the other characters, making it easy to envision the scenes. I really enjoyed this book in the audio format.

Final Thoughts

Long Island Girls caught me by surprise, and I ended up falling in love with the whole book. It spoke to my nostalgic, music-loving, millennial soul, and I loved watching Susan come into herself as she reached her mid-thirties. This is the kind of rare coming-of-age novel that makes a true impact. I look forward to reading more from Gabrielle Korn.

Special thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy Long Island Girls here – it’s available as a hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

Long Island Girls by Gabrielle Korn
Audiobook Narrator	Bailey Carr
Audience	Adult
Genre	Contemporary Fiction
Setting	New York; California
Number of Pages	304
Format I Read	Audiobook & Ebook (NetGalley ARCs)
Original Publication Date	June 23, 2026
Publisher	St. Martin’s Press

Official Summary

A sharply observed, deeply nostalgic coming-of-age story set against the indie music scene of the early 2000s.

It’s 2005, and Susan is barreling down the Long Island Expressway driving a car full of friends to an indie rock show. Eliza is a surprise addition in the backseat—unexpected, out of place, and impossible to ignore. Their connection is immediate, electric, and complicated from the start, shadowed by the kind of small-town rumors that have a way of sticking. As quickly as they come together, they part.

As Susan moves from Long Island to Brooklyn, from college to the insular world of indie labels, she begins to carve out a life in music, and the future she always dreamed of. Yet the scene that once felt like home reveals its limits, forcing her to confront who gets to belong, who gets to create, and what it costs to stay.

When Susan and Eliza reconnect years later, the pull between them hasn’t faded—but neither have the unresolved histories that first drove them apart. As past and present collide, Susan is caught between two worlds—where she’s from, and where she’s trying to go.

Moving between the raw intensity of youth and the clarity of hindsight, Long Island Girls captures the ache of growing up, the messiness and joy of queer identity, and the way music, memory, and desire shape who we become.