Review: Golden Hills - Jennifer Weiner

Review: Golden Hills - Jennifer Weiner - June 2023

I'll be honest – I've been in one of those reading slumps that every book lover dreads. You know the feeling: picking up book after book, only to set them down after a few pages, nothing quite clicking. So when I spotted Jennifer Weiner's "Golden Hills" as an Amazon Original Short Story, it felt like exactly what I needed: something quick, digestible, and from an author I trust to deliver emotional depth without requiring a massive time commitment.

What I got was so much more than a slump-buster.

"Golden Hills" centers on Ida Berkowitz, a senatorial candidate whose seemingly assured victory gets complicated when her past resurfaces in the form of Marissa Schuyler – her former camp bunkmate and the keeper of a decades-old secret. Weiner masterfully captures that stomach-dropping moment when your carefully constructed adult life collides with the messy realities of who you used to be.

Ida and Marissa's relationship – one girl authentic and scrappy, the other polished and privileged – feels achingly familiar to anyone who's ever felt "less than" in the presence of someone who seemed to have it all figured out.

Reading this during my slump was perfect timing. At just the right length to consume in one sitting, it reminded me why I fell in love with short fiction in the first place. There's something magical about a story that can capture an entire relationship, decades of regret, and the weight of political ambition in such a compact space. Jennifer Weiner doesn't waste a single sentence, and every detail feels purposeful.

 Ida's campaign represents the kind of authentic, working-class candidacy we're all hungry for, making the threat to her future feel genuinely stakes-raising. But at its heart, this is a story about how our teenage selves continue to haunt us, how the power dynamics we learn as children follow us into boardrooms and campaign headquarters.

My only minor complaint is that I wanted more – which, for a short story, might actually be the highest praise. Jennifer Weiner has created characters rich enough to sustain a full novel, and I found myself craving more details about their camp days and the specific betrayal that now threatens Ida's career.

This story pulled me out of my reading funk completely, reminding me why I love fiction that digs into the complicated ways our past selves shape our present choices. Sometimes the perfect read isn't the 500-page read you've been putting off – sometimes it's the perfectly crafted short story that delivers exactly what you need, exactly when you need it.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3VGlqEG