City of Girls Book Review: The Book That Made Me Rethink Everything About Female Desire

Rating: ★★★★

"City of Girls" Book Review:

City of Girls is Elizabeth Gilbert's love letter to women who refuse to apologize for wanting pleasure. Set in 1940s New York City, it follows Vivian Morris, a wealthy young woman who gets kicked out of Vassar for failing her classes and is sent to live with her Aunt Peg, who runs a crumbling midtown theater called the Lily Playhouse. What follows is a headlong plunge into the world of showgirls, nightclubs, and sexual freedom that Vivian never knew existed.

Gilbert writes Vivian's sexual awakening with a frankness that feels genuinely liberating. Vivian sleeps with actors, soldiers, random beautiful people she meets in bars, and Gilbert never once makes her pay the expected narrative price for enjoying it. When consequences do arrive — a scandal involving a married man that gets splashed across the tabloids — the punishment doesn't come from the sex itself but from a culture that demands women be ashamed of having had it.

The Lily Playhouse is where this novel sings. Aunt Peg, her partner Olive, the showgirls Celia and Jennie, the costumer Edna — these women are vivid and specific and working in an industry that doesn't care about respectability. The wartime sequences, when the Playhouse pivots to staging shows for soldiers, have a propulsive energy that carries the book through its middle section.

Where the novel wobbles is in its framing device. The story is told as a letter from elderly Vivian to someone whose identity is withheld until the end, and that reveal — while touching — doesn't quite justify the structure. The pacing loosens in the second half, and some of the later relationship material feels rushed compared to the rich detail of the 1940s sections.

Blair Brown narrates the audiobook with a warmth and sophistication that captures Vivian's voice perfectly — reflective without being regretful, amused without being detached.

Four stars. A big, generous novel about a woman who lived exactly the life she wanted and doesn't owe you an explanation.

If You Liked City of Girls, Try:

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid — Another woman looking back on a life of desire, ambition, and refusal to conform. Different setting, same unapologetic energy.

• Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid — The oral history structure gives you a similar kaleidoscope view of creative people living wildly and beautifully.

From Luke Stoffel's Bookshelf

If you enjoyed this book review, check out How to Win a Million Dollars — a story about someone who also had to learn the difference between the life everyone expected and the life actually worth living, sharing City of Girls' understanding that the most interesting people are the ones who stopped apologizing first.

Learn More: How to Win One Million Dollars and Shit Glitter

How to Win One Million Dollars and Shit Glitter by Luke Stoffel