Juliet Takes a Breath
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4.3 • 6 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
"F***ing outstanding."--Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author
“Rivera captures both the disappointments and the possibilities that come with realizing that your life’s solution cannot be figured out by someone else.”—The New York Times Book Review
Juliet 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 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this retooling of her YA debut, Rivera explores intersectional feminism through a self-described "closeted Puerto-Rican baby-dyke from the Bronx." Juliet Palante has just finished her freshman year of college, and after seeing her girlfriend off and coming out to her family, she's headed to Portland, Ore., to intern for "the Pussy Lady": Harlowe Brisbane, author of Raging Flower: Empowering Your Pussy by Empowering Your Mind. Brisbane, who is white, is awfully relaxed about the internship and their living arrangements, and her brand of feminism seems limited to Juliet, who is not sure she can be comfortable in New Agey, predominantly white Portland. But Palante means "to move forward," and in Rivera's expansive prose (a mix of letters, book excerpts, and narration), Juliet does. In trying to keep it together, and sometimes succeeding, she comes off as wonderfully human, worrying about her first girlfriend (and maybe her second); her mother's bad reaction to her coming out; and navigating micro aggressions, new ideas, and research before Google. Best of all, Juliet's eye-opening summer of identity research reflects early adult life intense experiences and relationships, and the work of finding oneself in all its messy, confusing splendor. Ages 14 up.
