Juliet Takes a Breath Review

Author: Gabby Rivera
Published On: September 17, 2019
Publisher: Penguin
Genre: Fiction, YA, Contemporary, LGBTQAI+, Intersectional Feminism
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“I wanted her to change my world.”
“Mi amor, only you can change your world.”

Disclaimer: Before I review this awesome book, I just want to say that I can in no way speak for the representation present in this particular story. Juliet is a Puerto Rican lesbian female from the Bronx who has her own unique voice, and while I’d like to think that this representation is kickass, I am not in any of the represented groups in this book and cannot make such claims!

Happy pride month ya’ll! This June, I’ve set a goal for myself to only read books that feature POC and/or LGBTQ+ stories. As a white, cis, straight female, I recognize that it’s so so crucial that I read these kinds of diverse books to not only support POC and queer authors, but also to listen, learn, and understand these stories and experiences.

This particular story features Juliet, a Puerto Rican girl who’s living in the Bronx with her family. Juliet is attracted to girls, and as we see throughout the book, she struggles with her identity. After announcing to her parents and extended family over dinner that she’s gay, Juliet packs these feelings up and moves to Portland for the summer to intern with her idol – Harlowe Brisbain. After reading Harlowe’s book, “Raging Flower”, Juliet discovers her inner feminist and decides that she just must live and breathe in the same space as Harlowe to soak up as much knowledge as she can.

This book explored intersectional feminism pretty deeply – something I’ve never really engaged with before! As a newbie to this stuff, it was easy to write Harlowe off as this crazy hippy lady who smokes a lot of weed and talks about her body too much, but there were moments of clarity that presented the ideas and theories as actual feminist practices. These were, surprisingly, actually pretty cool to read about.

I found Juliet and Harlowe’s relationship to be tragic, yet truly necessary. Juliet is constantly looking to Harlowe as a mentor figure, and we learn towards the end that Harlowe is probably less deserving of this than we first thought. It was heartbreaking to watch their relationship crumble under the weight of internalized racism and misguided intentions, but despite this, we did get to see Juliet blossom into a self-aware, confident lesbian woman, and that was pretty damn awesome.

This book packed so much into 304 pages. Juliet’s relationship with her family, her mentor(s), her significant others, and herself are all explored and broken down, sometimes more heartbreakingly than not. It was refreshing to read about a young woman who’s family were (for the most part) completely accepting of her identity and who broke out of her comfort zone to find her inner peace. By the end of the book, I felt 100% certain that Juliet had grown as a person 10 fold, and that she was truly ready to take on the world.

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