A Gorgeous Excitement

A Novel

By: Cynthia Weiner

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman

One young woman’s summer of infinite possibility takes a turn she never saw coming in “this 1980s coming-of-age tale [that’s] chillingly compelling. Get ready to be transported.”—People (Best Books of the Month)

AN OPRAH DAILY AND KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

“I haven’t felt this kind of excitement reading a story set in the ’80s since I first discovered Jay McInerney, Tama Janowitz, and Bret Easton Ellis.”—Margarita Montimore, bestselling author of Oona Out of Order

There are two things Nina Jacobs is determined to do over the summer of 1986: avoid her mother’s depression-fueled rages, and lose her virginity before she starts college in the fall. Both are seemingly impossible—when her mother isn’t lying in bed for days, she’s lashing out at Nina over any perceived slight. And after a blowjob gone spectacularly wrong, Nina is the talk of Flanagan’s, the Upper East Side bar where young Manhattan society congregates. It doesn’t help that she’s Jewish, an outsider among the blue-eyed blondes who populate this rarified world. She can fit in, kind of, with enough alcohol and prescription drugs stolen from her parents’ medicine cabinet.

Flanagan’s is where she pines for the handsome, preppy, and charismatic Gardner Reed. Every girl wants to sleep with him and every guy wants to be him. After she’s introduced to cocaine, Nina plunges headlong into her pursuit of Gardner, oblivious to the warning signs. When a new medication seemingly frees her mother from darkness, and Nina and Gardner grow closer, it seems like Nina might finally get what she wants. But at what cost?

Freud called cocaine “a gorgeous excitement,” but a gorgeous excitement for the wrong guy can be lethal.

Incredible in every way.

Read this book. The characters are human and likable, the story is brilliant. My only criticism is that the author’s note at the beginning gave too much away. Still, brilliant book.

Juicy, but wise, but touching too

Such an easy read, like a summer book, but at the same time a thoughtful account of a girl growing up with a mentally ill mother, and being ambitious and smart, and finding valuable comfort, and needed fortitude, in drugs.....also some hilarious insights into the do's and don't of upper east side prep school girls, "Dont ever wear pearls whiter than your teeth."
SOOO good.

Good Read!

I liked the story it was different than so many story plots out now. The narrator was not my favorite to listen to at times.

Not what I expected, but that's more than okay

While it was not at all what I expected, it is an excellent, solid, well told story with a lot of emotional depth.
I could not stop listening as the plot offered up surprising twists along with a poignant tale of a teenage girl trying to navigate serious family issues and still find joy in life.
I think the author did a fantastic job of staying inside her main character's teenage mindset. I was able to hark back to the emotions and tunnel vision of those early crushes, the abject desperation to get someone to "like" you back, the ability to bend what was actually going on to fit your heart's narrative.

Felt it needed more editing and maturity

It’s too bad cause I was excited to read a fiction story of that era in Manhattan. I found the narrator’s voice to be annoying and that distracted me from enjoying the book. It was all the same tone no dramatization.

Finally!

I have been waiting for a gripping story. This one had me. The 80’s don’t feel that distant to me, but hearing the every day lives of these characters in late 80’s NYC reminds me how much has changed…also, how much has not. Amazing read!

Slightly monotonous

It was easy to feel like you weren’t going anywhere because the entire story took place between a girl’s house and a bar. And back-and-forth they went… There’s something very immature about the way. It was written as well. Parts were well written, however the majority of the dialogue felt like it had been written for a teenager, not about a teenager. It was easy to think you would read the same passage over and over again as there was no distinction in scenes.

It was long and drawn out, could have made it much shorter.

This book started off as orh potential, but it is q long drawn out plot-centered around only really a single event.

Night Club Scene

This book will transport you to the late 80s/early 90s nightclub scene and touches on class/society, family dysfunction, mental illness, and murder. While it’s inspired by the preppy murder, the story can stand on its own and doesn’t feel like a rip off. The character development is great—everyone is flawed/human. In addition to being well written, the dialogue is realistic, particularly for the time and place. I’m looking forward to the author’s next book!

Interesting references to Manhattan life but..

The repetitive chapters about drug use by teens (I don't believe it was that rampant.) and empty lives becomes boring and silly. I'm sorry I bought it thinking it a smart edgy read about Manhattan in the 1980s.