Nineteen-year-old Zippy can hardly believe it: she’s the newest and youngest salesgirl at I. Magnin, “San Francisco’s Finest Department Store.” Every week, she rotates her three spruced-up Salvation Army outfits and Vaseline-shined pumps; still, she’s thrilled to walk those pumps through the employee entrance five days a week as she saves to buy something new. For a girl who grew up in a one-bedroom apartment above a liquor store with her mother and her mother’s madcap boyfriend, Howard; a girl who wanted to go to college but had no help in figuring out how; I. Magnin represents a real chance for a better and more elegant life. Or, at the very least, a more interesting one.
Zippy may not be in school, but she’s about to get an education that will stick with her for decades. Her fellow salesgirls (lifetime professionals) run the gamut from mean and indifferent to caring and helpful. The cosmetics ladies on the first floor share both samples and advice (“only date a man with a Rolex”); and her new roommate, Raquel, an ambitious lawyer, tells Zippy she can lose ten pounds easy if she joins Raquel in eating only every other day. Just when Zippy thinks she’s getting a handle on how to be an adult woman in 1985, two surprises threaten both her sense of self and her coveted position at I. Magnin.
Set in the Day-Glo colors of 1980s San Francisco, Shopgirls is an intoxicating novel of self-discovery, outrageous fashion, and family both biological and found. -harpercollins.com
I’ve loved every Jessica Anya Blau book I’ve read (The Summer of Naked Swim Parties, Wonder Bread Summer and Mary Jane.) She just has a way of completing transporting you to another place and time and fully immersing you in the story. Shopgirls is no exception. I loved meeting Zippy. My younger self could imagine being friends with her and my older self just wanted to hug her and give her some advice. I also loved reading about the various personalities of the ladies working at I. Mangin. I think everyone who has worked retail in their life could relate to some of the crazy experiences. Growing up in the 1980s, mall culture and department stores were thriving. I miss those days. Our mall and the big department store that anchors it are now just shells of their former selves. While we never had stores as luxurious as I. Magnin at home, our local big department store was pretty nice and I still remember how exciting it was the first time I could afford to purchase make up at Clinque counter or when my mom purchased me the prom dress of my dreams at full price (which was unheard of as we always shop the sale racks.) Shopgirls, like the other books by this author that I’ve read, immerses you not just in the nostalgia of the time period that will leave you yearning to go back but she also grounds it with some of the harsher realities of the past decades. I don’t want to give spoilers so I will just say that the Shopgirls does reference a crisis from the early 80s that will break your heart and make you think about how far we’ve come but also how much better we could be. Shopgirls is definitely one of my favorite books of 2025. I highly recommend it along with the author’s entire backlist.
I got my copy of Shopgirls at Barnes & Noble which since we're speaking about shopping is attached to one of my favorite malls which is about 2 hours from home but so worth the trip. You feel just for a little bit that you're back in the glory days of mall culture. Although if I was really going back to the 80s, I'd love to visit the B. Dalton where I spent so much time and my dad would generously purchase my Baby-Sitters Club books, Sweet Valley High, Sunset Island or any number of youthful favorites. Anyway you can pick up your copy of Shopgirls at your local bookstore, online shop or library.
For more information on Jessica Anya Blau and her novels, visit the author's website.
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