Title: Juliet Takes a Breath

Author: Gabby Rivera

Publish Date: September 17, 2019

Publisher: Dial Books

Format: Hardcover

Page Count: 320 pages

Source: Library

Date Read: March 14-21, 2020

Review

I read this book as part of the Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge 2020 prompt "debut by queer author." Ms. Rivera's book was a great YA/NA story of Juliet, a NY Puerto Rican lesbian who earns a coveted summer internship as an assistant to her favorite author (Harlow Brisbane) in Portland, Oregon. Juliet has just came out of the closet to her family the night she leaves for Portland, she has a relationship on the down-low with a college friend (who is doing her own internship with the DNC in Washington DC), and she is very new to feminism. It's a lot, but Rivera really keeps the different strings neatly tied together into the plot without getting tangled up.

Harlow Brisbane is the white, hippy-dippy version of feminism that comes to mind when someone thinks of Portland. She is the book Pussy Power, the book that brought Juliet to feminism and awakened Juliet to the female power within her. However, Juliet soon learns Harlow has no problem using Juliet's brown skin as a shield for Harlow's biased word and actions towards the BIPOC members of Portland's lesbian community. Juliet does make connections with BIPOC lesbians and they come to her rescue when Harlow's overt damage makes Juliet flee Portland to the safety of family in Miami for a long weekend. 

That was my favorite part - seeing Juliet learning about her auntie and cousin, her cousin taking her to a party where Juliet sees herself as just one of the community and not just the brown unicorn, seeing Juliet start to rebuild the bridge toward her mom - it was nothing but joy and color and acceptance. This time strengthens Juliet in a way that makes the reader know Juliet is really coming into her own and that she is going to have a good life with good people around her. The scales fall from her eyes so to speak.

I can recommend this book, but be warned Harlow's microaggression may hit close to home for some readers.

Status #2:

Got another 3 hours and 15 minutes of reading in and finished Juliet. I also listened to the FB Live event for COYER - we are not having a summer edition; instead they are going to go the full year, starting with COYER Quarantine theme, starting in April and going through August. After that, another theme for the next few months. They were planning on going to a full year COYER in 2021, but thought now was the time since some people are home a lot more to read. I'm in!

Also during my social media break from reading I found out my kids' school is moving our Spring Book Fair (which was supposed to start tomorrow) online, so family/friends of students can purchase books as well as parents. Hopefully, we can still meet our goal - we have a new school building being built right now and new books are needed to fill those shelves!

Up next, Golden in Death (In Death #50) by JD Robb. It came in through ILL on Thursday and I picked it up Friday. I need the comfort of the return of the In Death gang but I am not one for re-reading, so this installment came at the right time. And of course it's not in the book database here at BL. *SIGH*

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Status #1:

Woke up and made tea, let the dog outside to do her thing. Got all nice and settled while the house was still quiet. Read for one hour, then took a break to make myself some breakfast and a second cup of tea. Currently reading Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera for the Book Riot Read Harder challenge. It's also due back at the library soon; even though the library is waiving all fines during the isolation period, I just can't shake the rule follower in me and I want to give the book back on time. I'm at 32% read and will probably finish by the end of the afternoon. 

This task was hard.

And because I'm clearly lacking books that feature women holding flowers, I had to stretch my interpretation of the task. And by stretch I mean, stopping just short of a post-modern expressive dance interpretation of what can be understood as woman holding a flower. 

It would not have been a pretty sight.

So, count yourselves lucky to not have to see it.

Anyway, I have listed my covers above and there are a few more than five, just in case some should not work...

So, we have one actual cover with a woman holding flowers. Atwood to the rescue. 

Then we have a girl holding flowers - Heidi. Still close enough, I guess.

Then we have a Vera of Ladies of Letters sporting a buttonhole flower. 

The Deceased Miss Blackwell on top the grave is holding a rose. 

Juliet has a flower-shaped earring.

A flower in a hat on the cover of A Talent for Murder, and finally...

Flowers in hair on the cover of Geisha, a Life.

I had to wade through more than 2500 covers on my combined shelves to even get the ones I listed. Seriously, this was a hard task.

Again, I like America.  I really, really loved her in Young Avengers, but that whole run was amazing.  And I keep reading great things about Gabby Rivera's novel; she is Latina, queer, and a writer who's book was lauded by Roxanne Gay.   So I went into this, figuring it probably would be five stars. 

I ended up liking this, loving some of the concepts, but not quite enough to give it five stars.   America wants to go to college to better herself, and her girlfriend, Lisa, has suddenly decided not to make the move with her.   America is angry, mostly because they'd spoken about this before and Lisa always seemed to be fine with this plan.   I want you to be happy, Lisa says, but I think this is your journey and not mine - and I only said I'd go so you'd be happy.   I actually like that Lisa realizes that she can't sacrifice her own happiness or journey for America's, and I think that's healthy.   I don't think America had the best reaction ever, although I understand why she lashed out like she did: she was blindsided, and truly cares for Lisa.   Losing her so suddenly must be crushing and it's not a huge shock that anger was her reaction. 

I kinda liked the college she goes to, because it's for superheroes, or ex-mutants who are geniuses, and it's got the whole Xavier vibe: holomatter, taking powers into account, etc.   It's Xavier's for college students.   And yet when the resident ex-mutant who is a genius - Prodigy - shows up, I wanted it to be more.   See, he's not going to be America's new relationship, but he knows her.   And while I enjoyed seeing him again, I also felt that I liked Lisa and America's interaction better: they didn't take shit from each other, but they clearly loved each other very much.   (Lisa isn't angry at America for saving the world, but if she doesn't get word for two hours at a restaurant, she'll take it upon herself to go home and get shit done instead of waiting around.)   Prodigy just fell flat compared to Lisa, so...

Also, the meta in going into an old comic book at the end didn't feel nearly as clever as Deadpool.  Which means that, yet again, I was comparing it to something within Marvel that I enjoyed more.   

And maybe, just maybe, how sore I am from that Pilates class is making me grumpy.  I'm still gonna go online and see if I have some Pilates I can do at home until I see about what I can do at Simmons.

Juliet was holding onto a dream. She found her dream inside a book and she hopes that by meeting the author of this book, she would finally be set free. She is tired of hiding, she wants to live, and she wants to breathe. What Juliet actually finds in the end was not the freedom that she expected but something much more, something the book and the author could never provide for her. Juliet finds her own voice and more inner strength than she thought she possessed.

Juliet was looking for a safe haven, somewhere where she could be herself. Living in the Bronx, Juliet has been living a lie for many years. With her Puerto Rican heritage, Juliet is afraid of telling the world actually who she is until the night before she sets off to do her internship with Author Harlowe. Things at Harlowe’s house are a bit “free” and it reminded me of the 1960’s as Juliet is met with individuals who feel free walking around naked, smoking drugs and drinking without reservation. Juliet is shocked of course at this behavior but considering this is the author’s home and knowing the author’s mindset and being in a new city, Juliet knows she must adjust.   It was Juliet attitude and energy at Harlowe’s that I enjoyed most about this novel.   Juliet went into this internship with the attitude that she wanted to set free and she hoped she would accomplish that with Harlowe. Reading Harlowe’s novel, she felt a connection and she knew that just being with her they would bond and Juliet would feel more relaxed with her sexual identity. Juliet hoped the internship would empower her so when she went back home, she would not be terrified about what awaited her since she came out. Juliet had hoped that she would be more relaxed now that she was not living a lie yet as the days go by Juliet is the same person.   Juliet tries to be focused, she tries to be composed, she tries to be reserved but life there was different and these new individuals that are in her life are trying to help her relax and change but Juliet can’t. I loved this conflict.

This novel was not what I was expecting; there were parts that I thought were fantastic and parts where I wished that the author could have written more. Juliet thought she would find her freedom from someone else but the truth was, she first needed to discover herself and how she felt about herself. The novel tackles some great issues for young adults: self discovery, friendship, and heritage.