BookBrowse Reviews A Gorgeous Excitement by Cynthia Weiner

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An immersive and nostalgic true crime-inspired coming-of-age novel that takes us back to a 1980s Manhattan filled with yearning, drugs, family struggles, toxic friendships, and youthful insecurity.

A Gorgeous Excitement lets readers know from the first line this story won't have a happy ending for all, as it details the murder of a girl who was found dead in Central Park. Cynthia Weiner's author's note explains that her inspiration was her "teenage years in Manhattan in the 1980s and the horrific death of a young woman in the summer of 1986 that would come to be known as the 'Preppy Murder'" (see Beyond the Book). Weiner, who knew the killer, explains she had always wanted to write fictionally about the event to capture the era as she experienced it. In the novel, we are taken back to the June before the murder, where we meet our main character, Nina Jacobs.

Nina is a Jewish Upper East Sider, freshly graduated from an elite all-girls high school. She is counting down the days before she heads to Vanderbilt University in the fall, fixated on two tricky tasks: losing her virginity and avoiding her mother's depression-fueled rages. While she is setting her sights on Gardner Reed, who every other girl is also clamoring for, at home, her mother is immobile in bed, spewing words of contempt at her. Matters are made worse as she becomes the talk of the town when an intimate encounter with a boy goes embarrassingly wrong. She spends her days temping at offices and walking on eggshells with her father around her mother's fragile mental state: "His life's mission, for which he'd enlisted Nina, was keeping Frances on an even keel, whatever it took. When she lay limp and crying in bed, they canceled plans, brought her tea and rubbed her neck…Unless of course Nina had somehow provoked the explosion, in which case she and her father were no longer on the same team, and Ira would rebuke her for disturbing the calm."

She spends nights with her friends at Flanagan's, the only bar that doesn't card the underage and where young Manhattan congregates. Her summer gains excitement once she meets Stephanie, a Long Islander who saves her from a frightening encounter with a man in the park, and their friendship becomes tied up in a mutual addiction to cocaine. The title of the novel is borrowed from Sigmund Freud's description of a cocaine high: "a gorgeous excitement." With a new medication seemingly improving her mother's mental health and her fixation on Gardner enhanced with the support of Stephanie and cocaine, 1986 becomes a defining summer for Nina, marked by drugs, youthful insecurity, yearning, family and friendship struggles, and consistent looming danger.

Cynthia Weiner successfully transports us to New York City at the time. It seems as if we are living life alongside Nina, watching her navigate feeling like an outsider due to her sexual inexperience, hiding her mom's mental health struggles and her Jewish identity in a predominantly WASP social circle. She senses everyone has figured out belonging and adulthood except for her, and her insecurity and anxieties plague her. Nina is a likable and compelling character for whom you can't help but feel sympathy. Her inner monologue feels honest, even when it comes to her obsession and naivete with Gardner. I found Nina's inability to see beyond his shortcomings similar to how her father is with her mother. These situations highlight the way our desire to maintain a certain version of someone can conflict with the reality of who they are, and how we can rationalize away red flags.

The theme of danger to women, especially from men, is heavy and impactful. In Weiner's New York, we see a level of guardedness women have to possess for survival through multiple encounters Nina has with her doorman and homeless men in the streets, and the eventual murder that takes place.

Nina's friendships are complex, and once she meets Stephanie, she finally feels like she has someone she can trust and rely on. "Funny how someone who dropped into your life from out of nowhere could make more sense than the people entrenched from the start." But as we also see with her and Gardner, drug use as a basis for connection can muddy a relationship.

Nina's relationship with her parents, especially her mother, is one of the cornerstones of the book. She bears a lot of responsibility she shouldn't have to, essentially parenting her mother and trying not to be a burden on her father. Her constantly having to shrink herself in this way plays a large role in why she is highly insecure and overthinks her actions with her friendships and with Gardner. It is affecting to see how much a family member's mental illness shapes the whole family. Nina's mother's highs are the family's highs, and her lows are their lows.

The framing of the novel, as it starts with the murder, creates a mild element of suspense as we wait to know which character will be killed and who will be responsible. However, as the story went on, I almost forgot about the reveal, as I was immersed in Nina's daily life. One of the story's strengths is that it doesn't make the reveal too neat and obvious, while still introducing an element of surprise that readers will be content with.

Though a nearly 400-page book, A Gorgeous Excitement is so readable and well-paced that it never feels long. Nina experiences purposeful character growth in learning the value of being honest and advocating for herself in friendships and with family. Her mother's character arc regarding her mental health is moving, and the book ends with shifts towards a more hopeful and reliable future. Topics touched on in the novel, such as mental illness, complicated family relationships, addiction, insecurity, friendships, and navigating being a young woman in a city with constant threats, are explored in an engaging and honest way. A Gorgeous Excitement is a nuanced look at coming of age in New York City that takes the bones of a true crime and adds meaningful and emotive depth.

This review first ran in the March 12, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.