Cobble Hill

I was, obviously, way too into Gossip Girl as a teenager. And so when I found out Cecily von Ziegesar was writing an adult novel I, now an adult, was hyped. And the book was…fine. Nothing special, honestly. I had hoped it would be like a more hip version of The Gifted School or Happy and You Know It, but it was a little cobbled together (lol) with weird pacing. Though I liked the characters–maybe this, like her OG series, was destined for TV.

In this book, the Cobble Hill area of Brooklyn is full of unique people. Former rockstar Stuart Little (yes…I know, and no, it’s never addressed) lives with his MS-faking wife Mandy and their son, Ted. But Stuart’s developing a crush on Ted’s school nurse, Peaches, who everyone in the neighborhood comes into contact with in different ways. Peaches lives in a basement apartment with her husband Greg and her smart son, Liam. Liam, of course, has a crush on Shy, who is the daughter of British author Roy Clarke who just moved into the neighborhood with his wife, Wendy, and his daughter but cannot find his footing for his next book. There’s also an eccentric and often absent artist, a husband who builds things and scatters fake body parts in a park, a kid with a penchant for fire, etc

What happens over the course of the book? Not much. It’s kind of like Brooklyn-esque Little Fires Everywhere–the character dynamics matter way more than the plot, including the fire at the end, and you don’t really know what happens next to these people–frankly, you don’t care. But the characters are interesting, so it wasn’t a bad way to spend a few hours.