A People magazine Best Book of Fall 2019An Amazon Best Young Adult Book of 2019“F***ing outstanding.”–Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling authorJuliet Milagros Palante is a self-proclaimed closeted Puerto Rican baby dyke from the Bronx. Only, she’s not so closeted anymore. Not after coming out to her family the night before flying to Portland, Oregon, to intern with her favorite feminist … to intern with her favorite feminist writer–what’s sure to be a life-changing experience. And when Juliet’s coming out crashes and burns, she’s not sure her mom will ever speak to her again.
But Juliet has a plan–sort of. Her internship with legendary author Harlowe Brisbane, the ultimate authority on feminism, women’s bodies, and other gay-sounding stuff, is sure to help her figure out this whole “Puerto Rican lesbian” thing. Except Harlowe’s white. And not from the Bronx. And she definitely doesn’t have all the answers . . .
In a summer bursting with queer brown dance parties, a sexy fling with a motorcycling librarian, and intense explorations of race and identity, Juliet learns what it means to come out–to the world, to her family, to herself.
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Beautiful, witty, coming-of-age story told from a (sadly) often unheard perspective. I kept laughing out loud and reading passages to anyone around me. It forced me to check my biases a few times and I loved this book so much for doing so. A lot of issues of White privilege come up and one of the themes is finding space for POC with special attention to the LGBTQ community. Personally, I think every high school student should read this book.
Okay! So lots of things I enjoyed about this book a something that I could have lived without. I really enjoyed the story of a young woman who is a closeted lesbian, and wants to come out to her family. It really showed the strength of the character and how she loved her family but was ultimately worried about being shunned, if you will. You could tell that she loved her family and just wanted to make them proud but at the same time wanted to be who she knew she was. I really enjoyed her adventure of her own self discovery. There was even some funny parts threw in, maybe to lighten the load a little. However, I’m no prude. I like sex. I’m pretty open, and having a gay daughter I was hoping this book would give me more insight which it did. But, I mean the word p**** or *cunt was thrown around a ton. I know it’s about sexual self discovery. But now I feel like I should hide it on my shelf before one of my kids swipe it. Lol
I want to start off by saying I liked this book, it’s definitely eye-opening, empowering, beautiful feminism literature. With that being said, this is not a book that everyone is going to enjoy. Do I completely think that every girl, boy, trans, straight, bi, gay, white, black, Latina, Native American person should read? Hell yes! Do I think they would like it? Some may not, but it’s something that needs to be shown to everyone. There are so many aspects in here that everyone should learn and know. The LGBTQ+ nods were honestly amazing, and I absolutely loved them. The feminism, empowerment nods were so amazing! I loved every second.
Wins:
-the characters. I loved Juliet. Hella relatable. I remember coming out to my parents. Is it a fond memory I cherish? No. Did my mom react in a very similar manner? Yes, and reading that in literature, had I read that before, seeing the fact that her and her mom do end up patching things over, is something I would have needed. Anyone who’s struggling should definitely read it just for those moments.
-LGBTQ+ friendly af. Brings up super important subjects in the community, that people outside of the community should know, and people who think they’re apart of the community but aren’t sure what they are, should also know.
-story telling. A first person, telling the story of how she changed her life around, it was told so well, the wording was quite amazing.
-feminism! Empowerment! How many times am I going to bring this up? As many times as Raging Flowers says the word pussy (based off of context in the book, I don’t think I’ve gotten close. But here’s hoping!)
Opportunities:
-slow paced. There’s really no fix for this. It isn’t an action packed thriller that you can gobble down in just a few hours because of the intense topics and the important things that the book talks about.
-due to the intense and important topics, I found myself taking many breaks during the book, and needing them. It is entertaining, it is important, but it is something that you need time to digest.
-it’s a book about acceptance but a lot of times white allies are not okay in the situation. Like I mean, I definitely get why. I understand, but i do thing that if a book is going to talk about how skin color doesn’t matter, excluding any race isn’t full acceptance or inclusion. I definitely understand the reasoning, and there will be arguments contrary to mine, and I respect that, and the authors decision.
-it’s supposedly set in 2003, it mentions that 9/11 was 2 years ago at one point, but a lot of the slang is very much 2019. “Hella” was the main one I noticed.
To recap. I did love this book, I think that there are plenty of people who need to read this book, even if it is just to understand me. I’m bi, and I have been in similar situations to some in the book. The slow pacing (understandable due to the content and genre) and hard to read topics made it a slow read for me. But that is more than likely going to be a me problem, and not a problem for this novel. I do have to be in the mood for contemporary, but being an arc, and having no idea when I’d be down for contemporary, I decided to push through. A very good and empowering read that i enjoyed!
Juliet Takes a Breath is a coming of age story about a Latinx lesbian from the Bronx who travels to Portland for the summer to intern with a feminist writer who she admires and idolizes. Juliet’s exuberant voice engages the reader immediately, and we watch her navigate coming out as a lesbian, discovering the LGBTQ community, family, relationships, feminism, and issues of race and privilege. It is a character and issue driven book rather than being heavy on plot.
I’m worried this book will be pigeonholed as an LGBTQ and/or Latinx book (which it is, of course), and readers who don’t belong to these groups won’t pick it up. Fundamentally, this book is very human and explores big issues like learning who you are, the consequences of making assumptions about others, respect for others and yourself, and establishing boundaries. We can all take something away from this book whether we are Juliet’s age or much older.
3.5 stars. A story about a young Puerto Rican lesbian from The Bronx, who goes to intern with her favorite author somewhere that is definitely not The Bronx, while trying to figure out where the hell she fits in all of this mess we call life.
This book gets very raw and some parts can make you uncomfortable. It didn’t for me but I can totally see why someone else would. Here’s another thing….the book basically has no plot LoL. Normally that would have annoyed and/or bored me but I was just so into seeing Juliet find herself. Also..it’s just 300 pages so there’s that.
This book is about a lesbian woman of color. BUT that doesn’t mean everyone can’t walk away with something from this book. No you’re not going to like every character (Like Harlowe…ugh..), but I feel like most of us know someone like most everyone in this book. It may not end up being your favorite book ever, but i still feel it’s a must read.
ARC received from Bookish First.