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Reviews

“The title of this assured début novel is taken from Freud’s description of cocaine’s effects. That drug, combined with prescription medications, sex, and alcohol, fuels the narrative, which is closely modelled on the real-life death of a Manhattan teen-ager in 1986—the so-called Preppy Murder case.”—The New Yorker “Dazzling.”—Oprah Daily “A Gorgeous Excitement is a thrilling coming-of-age narrative set in 1980s Manhattan, featuring twists of humor, vulnerability and, of course, excitement . . . brimming with beautiful prose and suspense.” —Shelf Awareness “Informed by the author’s real-life acquaintance with ‘Preppy Killer’ Robert Chambers, this 1980s coming-of-age tale is chillingly compelling.”—People “AN ABSOLUTE MUST-READ. A Gorgeous Excitement will be a top three book of the year for me. It’s a fictionalized account of the summer leading up to the Preppy Murder case. It is brilliantly written, the character development is outstanding, the suspense crackling. Just trust me, you will love this NYC-in-the-’80s-based novel. Every detail exquisite. Brava.”—Elin Hilderbrand “Lush and thrilling.”—Publishers Weekly “Cynthia Weiner condemns the callous attitudes and conspicuous consumption of an entire strata of society ready to believe the worst of an outsider while refusing to see the truth of one of their own.” —Crime Reads “I love this novel, from its gripping first sentence to its chilling last, and the relentless drumbeat of menace in between, capturing all of the things that were thrilling and wonderful and scary and horrible about growing up in New York City in the mid-’80s, which are all the same things that teenagers go through everywhere, in every era, just more of it.”—Chris Pavone, author of The Doorman “Throughout this absorbing, astute novel, she endures painful parenting, scurrilous gossip, and regular old teenage indignity.”—Town & Country “Carefully paced and beautifully written, this edgy coming-of-age novel succeeds on all counts.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review “Weiner incisively captures the timbre of the time; the city’s beauty, madness, and terror; the stunning recklessness of young women; and the endless complexities of families.”—Booklist “A gripping, juicy, fascinating glimpse into a rarified world of a realm by now transformed.”—Tama Janowitz, author of Slaves of New York and A Certain Age “Delightful and terrifying, an expertly written non-coming of age that also serves as cautionary tale, as quintessentially haunting as New York City itself.”—Elisa Albert, author of After Birth and Human Blues “I read this brilliant debut with my heart in my throat.”—Daisy Alpert Florin, author of My Last Innocent Year “Cynthia Weiner offers a delicious response to Bright Lights, Big City, capturing vividly what it was like for a young woman in the louchely glamourous, cocaine-fueled, privileged white Manhattan of the 1980s.”—Susan Jane Gilman, New York Times bestselling author of Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress and The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street “A Gorgeous Excitement is a propulsive read filled with vivid characters and a uniquely hilarious, if impossibly sad, mother-daughter dynamic.”—Holly Brickley, author of Deep Cuts

Author Information

Cynthia Weiner has had a long career writing and teaching fiction. Her short stories have been published in Ploughshares, The Sun, and Epiphany, and her story, ""Boyfriends,"" was awarded a Pushcart Prize. She is also the assistant director of The Writers Studio in New York City. A Gorgeous Excitement, her first novel, was inspired by her upbringing on New York's Upper East Side in the 1980s, and particularly by the notorious ""Preppy Murder"" of 1986. Weiner now lives in New York's Hudson Valley.

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