College Girl is a vivid portrait of life on a college campus and a poignant look at what happens to a twenty-year-old college senior (and her self-esteem) when she loses her virginity and falls for the wrong guy.

Just as Curtis Sittenfeld’s bestselling Prep drew us into the world of boarding school and its social relationships, College Girl perfectly captures the experience of college, of being a student at a big state university— complete with its jocks and hipsters, frats and sororities, drinking rituals and cafeteria food, its economic, academic, and social pressures—and how it gets funneled into the campus culture of collegiate sex and dating. In particular, College Girl reveals what all this means for a girl inexperienced in sex and romance, dealing with the demons she’s brought from home.

College senior Natalie Bloom is beautiful and ambitious, but also incredibly insecure and painfully uncomfortable with the subject of sex—let alone the act. She’s awkward at developing friendships with girls, but it’s sexual attention from boys that really makes her lose her cool. At age twenty, she’s a virgin—never having had a boyfriend. Avoiding her peers, Natalie hides out most weekends in the library. That is, until she meets Patrick, her fantasy (she thinks) of a cultured, intellectual Prince Charming—and everything changes. But the more time they spend together, the more Patrick brings out her worst insecurities. Natalie loses her virginity before she’s ready, and as their sexual activity escalates, Natalie’s emotional responses become dangerously self-destructive. Ultimately, she must take extreme measures to reclaim her sense of self, her confidence, and her ambition.

An insightful, moving, and achingly self-aware novel that offers the psychological and emotional insight of Judy Blume and Ann Brashares, College Girl will resonate with anyone who remembers the often awkward transition from adolescence to adulthood.

“College Girl is a sensitive, yet laser-precise look at the joy (and indignity) of college life. Weitz’s prose is lovely, direct, and wincingly honest.”

— Diablo Cody, Oscar-winning screenwriter of Juno and author of Candy Girl

“A raw and resonant debut novel. Readers will recognize themselves in Weitz’s very real narrator— I know I did. Like Natalie Bloom I hovered on the fringes of frat parties, wondering why everyone was having the time of their lives except me. In the end, Patricia Weitz’s novel is not only compelling and compassionate, but a page- turner. Natalie’s transformation, drawing on strengths she doesn’t even know she has, had me cheering.”

—Megan McCafferty, New York Times–bestselling author of Second Helpings and Fourth Comings

“Weitz’s assured debut follows the trials one painfully shy college student faces when she ventures beyond the safety of the library. . . . Weitz masterfully captures the collegiate atmosphere as seen through the eyes of a troubled, sympathetic young woman.”

—Booklist

“This debut novel unwraps an intriguing downward spiral, deftly portraying social and psychological implications of college life. Natalie’s need to come to terms with her history, slowly revealed throughout, is well worth the read.”

—Library Journal

“Both cringe-worthy and compelling, self-absorbed Natalie will remind many readers of their own awkward youth. . . . A deft, modest coming-of-age tale from debut author Weitz.”

—Kirkus

“With College Girl Patricia Weitz has created an everywoman for our bewildering times, a woman who transforms before our eyes into a philosopher of heartbreak and redemption.”

—Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City

“Sharply observed and unflinchingly honest, College Girl is a sexual coming of age novel that will resonate with anyone who remember the bitter sweet emotions of their first love affair. Weitz’s depiction of the underbelly of the student dating scene is so uncannily perceptive that it will make you squirm.”

—Fiona Neill, author of Slummy Mummy