At fifteen, sick of her unbearable and increasingly dangerous home
life, Janice Erlbaum walked out of her family’s Brooklyn apartment and
didn’t look back. From her first frightening night at a shelter, Janice
knew she was in over her head. She was beaten up, shaken down, and
nearly stabbed by a pregnant girl. But it was still better than living
at home. As Janice slipped further into street life, she nevertheless
attended high school, harbored crushes, and even played the lead in the
spring musical. She also roamed the streets, clubs, bars, and parks of
New York City with her two best girlfriends, on the prowl for hard
drugs and boys on skateboards. Together they scored coke at Danceteria,
smoked angel dust in East Village squats, commiserated over their crazy
mothers, and slept with one another’s boyfriends on a regular basis.
A wry, mesmerizing portrait of being underprivileged, underage, and underdressed in 1980s New York City, Girlbomb provides an unflinching look at street life, survival sex, female friendships, and first loves.
"Janice Erlbaum has all the stuff that cult icons are made of. Women everywhere will find their Basketball Diaries in Girlbomb." -- Koren Zailckas, author of Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood
Recent Comments