Long Island Girls

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

"As much about friendship, self-knowledge, and coming of age as it is about young love. (Fellow millennials: you will also absolutely eat up the nostalgia factor in this one.)" -- Them, Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Books of 2026

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.

Gabrielle Korn is the author of Yours for the Taking, The Shutouts, and Everybody (Else) Is Perfect, and the former editor in chief of Nylon. Her writing has been published across the internet since 2011, with bylines in Elle, McSweeney's, The Millions, Literary Hub, InStyle, Domino, Oprah Daily, Refinery29, and more. Originally from New York, she now lives in Los Angeles with her wife, and together they run the Pink Door artist and writer residency.