Juliet the Maniac

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY MAR 18, 2019

Escoria's searing autofictional debut follows a teenage girl from Southern California also named Juliet as she navigates her high school years, which are marked by not only the more typical adolescent tumultuousness of drugs, partying, and social machinations, but also an eventual diagnosis of bipolar type I. Juliet's first suicide attempt at 15 leads to a stay in a psychiatric hospital, and over the next two years, she moves from high school to high school, all the while grappling with addictive behavior, mania, and an urge to self-harm. When she attempts suicide a second time, Juliet's parents send her to a rural boarding school, where she meets other teens, each with their own demons; adults, capable of both comfort and abuse; and opportunities for uncomplicated joy, as well. Escoria rejects a traditional structure, opting instead to tell the story in vignettes reminiscent of Eve Babitz's work, including handwritten notes, official reports and logs, and other paraphernalia from that era. The specificity lends the novel an immersive feel. Interspersed with letters from a future Juliet, who offers a glimmer of possibility if not exactly blind optimism, Escoria's novel is a moving and intimate portrait of girlhood and mental illness.