All Girls Be Mine Alone

by Sophie Strohmeier

Set among high school music students and opera fanatics in Vienna, Sophie Strohmeier’s All Girls Be Mine Alone spins a tale of obsessions, monsters, and romantic conquest.

An unnamed lesbian narrates the demise of her friendship with her high school classmate, Joachim, and their rivalry over his girlfriend. She then recalls an anecdote overheard years earlier, when a former opera singer confides her own haunting memories from her time studying at the renowned Mikhail Glinka Conservatory. In a crowded dormitory late one night, a group of student singers accidentally conjures the spirit of an excommunicated monk living in agony over the tragic death of his beloved. When one of the students becomes convinced that she has been possessed by the monk, she discovers a new sexual appetite. Together, the two narratives form a single fugue of memory and eroticism.

Marked by hypnotic precision and frank humor, All Girls Be Mine Alone is an inventive and deeply felt novella of queer awakening, artistic fixation, and the strange intimacy of rivalry.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Lesbian, Literary Fiction

155 pages, Paperback

Published October 14, 2025

Reviews

[Fiona W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uhhhh guys I’m actually obsessed!!!! Structurally musical. Perfect balance of sentence-level beauty and readability. Made me want to live somewhere freezing and stir jam into my tea.

[marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Both stories revolve around obsession and jealousy, yet I struggle to see why they must be presented together as a single story, as there is a slight disconnect between them. Of the two, Stasia's story is definitely stronger: the premise is more compelling, the characters are more fleshed out and their bonds are more believable. Still, I enjoy how atmospheric and evocative it is. Whenever I think about this book, my mind immediately jumps to those cold, miserable winter nights in Vienna.

[Joyce]

- gorgeous and melancholy. years written with detached inevitability, moments written with heartbreaking warmth
- being a teenage girl really does feel like that. a part of you never leaves

[Flynn Gilmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow wow wow. I loved this. One of my favorite reads of the year.

[Maddy Fay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok so this is interesting because #wlw it’s beautiful but also it’s basically two stories that only kind of connect and the first one felt unfinished but omg the second one I’m gagged someone else please read this

[Madi · Rating 4 out of 5]

perfect book to break my reading slump. feels spiritually connected to sunburn by chloe michelle howarth

[Ruby Summer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was comforting, and fueled my dream of singing old songs all day even more💖 the American girl getting 2 generic lines of dialogue throughout the second chapter was really funny too

[Clarissa Worthington · Rating 3 out of 5]

thank u rusty for this rec!!! much better for the winter but a delicious snack of a book. not necessarily great but interesting and a good pride month selection!

[Bea RH · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was more like 3.5 for me but it was so well done that it gets a four, i just am not personally into certain topics. i also loved the unnamed lesbian’s voice, more so than stassi’s, so i felt slightly cheated but so funny and evocative

[annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

surreal, weird, gay little book. enjoyed the atmospheric nature of the writing and the palpable queer longing and repressed sexual desire at the heart of this story, but found it a little confusing at points and i also preferred the unnamed protagonist's voice to that of stasi's so i wish we had more of her. but still a fun read, just not an all time fave

3.5 stars

[Livia Svenvold Mcphee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spooky and lesbian

[Nina Lidar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful prose - the sentences are as musical as the music the story itself dreams of. This - the living, tingling descriptions of scenery, the at all times precise and sometimes revelatory language for emotions - is where the novella truly shines.

Where I found it wanting was in the way the structure tried, and in my opinion, was not altogether successful, in diffusing the plot through a nostalgic haze of association. The story lacks connective tissue between the narrator’s first-person account and her (structurally, more heavily weighted) retelling of Stasi’s lesbian affair with Tanya. I quite admire the inventiveness of Strohmeier’s narrative approach - linking two stories more through their shared affect and parallel plot points (e.g. the Magic Flute heralding an end, or even more basically, the setup of a lesbian entanglement fraying and ultimately breaking over a man) than through any explicit cause-effect pattern. But I longed for some sort of return to the origin - a frame structure, perhaps, that might take back up Joaquim’s death and Lea’s taking the veil. It is certainly possible to do the work and connect the two fragments as a reader, but the novella would be stronger if it connected them more itself.

[ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

the worst part of this reading experience was reading about characters living in the winter while it was 100 degrees outside where i am. otherwise i love my freaky and messy lil lesbian stories.

[naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

”Like that one sex scene that’s in Mulholland Drive, I wanna know baby what is it like?”

[Ren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Am a little bit surprised at reviews on here saying the first story feels unfinished. I think it's complete, if you consider the second part as the *conclusion* to the first, or rather, an answer. It is true the first part about the narrator/Joachim/Lea seems to go nowhere, but really both halves are discussions on desire, how it *possesses* a person, the externalization of an taboo (lesbian) desire as an irresistible/uncontrollable force, originating outside of oneself, against one's will. The first story: the narrator possesses a man (his penis) to experience 'true' sex with her crush. The second story: Stasi is 'possessed' by a man (and his heterosexual desire for women), 'causing' her to desire Tanya, liberal Western nonchalance towards homosexuality vs externalization of abnormal desire into folklore to absolve the self of actually having said desire; the mysticism of sexual desire, the feeling that one is possessed, driven by outside forces when in love, the need to reassert control (=narrator possessing Joachim’s body, she possesses that which she is jealous of, erasing the self that is infatuated?)... side note, kinda intrigues me (or weirds me out haha) that lesbian romances, at least the ones I've read thus far, have the same sort of fixation/attitudes towards having children as straight romances. That is, a child is tangible proof of a couple's love for each other, it's the end goal, the natural conclusion/culmination to any coupling. I don't know how to feel about that...

[eva mcmillan · Rating 5 out of 5]

YEAH

[Sara Luzuriaga · Rating 4 out of 5]

love novels that start somewhere, go someplace else, and don’t look back

[Sydney DenHartigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story I’ve been craving for a lifetime.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like magical realism, but I don’t think I’ve ever read a book wherein the characters explicitly discussed whether a magical element that exists in the story is a rhetorical device. That kind of took the fun out of the second story for me, as I prefer to make that kind of decision on my own. That being said, I think this book has an interesting perspective on queer identity— I like how it’s kind of constructionist. You don’t see a lot of that these days I feel.
+ 1/2 star for mild Stuart Murdoch worship

[Meg Brewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 — just as weird as I hoped it would be. Some lovely passages and interesting characters. I feel like I should read again while listening to all the music they mention.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though it takes a bit to get going, All Girls Be Mine Alone is an intriguing story of obsession, art, and the possibility of spirits. The unnamed lesbian narrator is in a complicated situation with her friend Joachim and his girlfriend Lea, but it is Lea's friend Stasi's story of her past relationship with fellow opera classmate Tanya and her belief in being possessed by the Vile Monk is really the center focus of the novella. This material is so good I would have done away with the unnamed narrator all together. That story never seems to cohere into anything tangible. Stasia's story, on the other hand, is extremely compelling: sapphic love, burgeoning sexuality, the background and drama of opera... I would have read a 100 more pages of that.

[sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was made for lesbian opera lovers (me)

[Kim Narby · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short, stunning, elegant, bewitching novel about girls in a musical high school in Vienna exploring the bounds of friendship and sexuality.

[Briana · Rating 4 out of 5]

opera, monk, apple

[Madeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an eARC copy for my honest review.

This worked really well for me. I had a few issues, hence it not being a five star, but this was great.
The main character, an unnamed lesbian, is wonderfully pretentious and messy- Though I think that is a good way to describe the novella itself. It was great. The humor hits where it's needed and while it does occasionally assume the reader can't make certain connections that are obvious if you use your head, it still does make you think.

Despite this being set in two different schools of music I don't think one needs to be well versed in Opera and classical music to understand what is going on, though I'm sure the background knowledge would add to the experience. This is a slow-paced read. Despite this being just a little over 100 pages on my eReader it took me almost four hours and two sittings to finish. Which is not a complaint, but is something to be aware of if you pick this up expecting a quick read. It is not.
Of the two stories in this, I did prefer the first one but I think when it comes to exploring one's self the second one does a much better job. The first story, in which the unnamed narrator is speaking of the downfall of her closest friendship- if you could call it that- is much more about the exploration of relationships. Both stories have their own purpose.

I think when it comes to the complex feelings of lesbianism, specifically when you just figure it out was well done. It got that sickening worry over and intrusive thoughts about being around other women or girls or the feeling of disassociation and alienation of those around you. How sometimes you just push it down and project onto the closest, decent-ish, guy.

Now the reason why this didn't get a five star is two things: One, it took me a hot second to get into the story- the first 20 pages took me an hour before I got into the more steady 1.5 minutes per page. Second is something that I mentioned before. In some cases when the author is trying to make a point, paint the story though metaphor, in some cases the true meaning does just get spoon fed to the reader. Which, while annoying, luckily didn't get done every time. Just enough for me to notice.

Anyway, I recommend this novella heavily! Already planning to get a physical copy after it releases.

[Rimini · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wonderful little Austrian novella is a duet of discovery and obsession. Set in a music conservatory in Vienna (and to the soundtrack of famous operas), our lesbian narrator falls first for her friend’s girlfriend and then is told the story of a student years earlier, possessed by monk who discovers a new sexual (and lesbian) appetite. This is a tale of hunger and ripening desire. A gothic fairytale of queer awakening.

The second story is definitely stronger than the first (which didn't quite feel complete), I could so clearly imagine the freezing winter in which the story takes place. It is always a joy to have more complex lesbian literary fiction to read, I look forward to reading what Strohmeier (and separately Joyland editions) publish next.

To quote Mozart’s The Magic Flute (referenced in the book) ‘If all the girls were mine, I’d trade my birds for sugar, and the one that I loved the most, I’d give my sweets to her’.

All girls be mine alone please.

[Lizbeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird but cool. Hypnotic. I think this counts as magical realism. The writing is simple while still getting so much across in its descriptions. I needed a unique spin on yearning, singularly obsessed, artsy sapphics.

[R B · Rating 5 out of 5]

elite

[malena steelberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really got going with Stasi’s section

So to speak