Review: "The Maidenheads" by Benny B. Peterson

The Maidenheads by Penny B. Peterson
Published May 2026 via Dutton
★★★★

For a moment in high school, Jamie dreamed of something big—she and her girlfriend Mari had a band, and though they were young and largely untried it was clear that if the stars aligned they could go somewhere with it. But the stars didn't align, and instead, as an adult, Jamie is working a job she can do in her sleep, and drinking too much, and sleeping with her ex-boyfriend just to not feel alone. And then her past comes calling.

I read Long Island Girls recently, and while they're very different books it's fascinating to see what historical fiction looks like when it's about an era I lived through. I was never involved in any kind of music scene, of course, while for Jamie and her cohort music is something as natural as breathing. And: if I'm honest, my decisions were mostly a bit less chaotic than Jamie's.

At the core is this messy, unresolved relationship between Jamie and Mari. It fell apart in high school in large part due to (let's keep it vague) a big mistake of Jamie's, but in becomes clearer and clearer in the present-day story that their relationship was never going to be, is never going to be, easy. In a lot of ways this is a book full of bad decisions, but human ones; in other ways it's sort of a stand-in for millennial uncertainty.

It's not always an easy read, and I took a few short breaks in reading when I needed a step away. There are a number of places where you just kind of want to reach through the pages and say "whoa, slow down, think this through"—but at the same time, while I can't necessarily imagine Jamie's life for myself, it feels viscerally possible.

Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.