Robin Talley's books are always good, but they vary in how much they're my thing. Actually, they're generally only my thing in terms of rep, because they don't tend to be romances, even though they're often about romantic relationships.

What I Liked:
- The concept: I'd never heard of lesbian pulp fiction, so that's a really cool thing to learn about.
- The message about the importance of representation: Those pulp novels sound like terrible representation (because it wouldn't have been legal to publish lesbian romances that ended happily), but they meant so much to lesbian readers. It really goes to show that any rep is better than no rep at all, because, even if these books said you were strange, they also said you weren't strange alone.
- Janet's plot line: Though I'm not one for doomed romances, I didn't like this one for the romance but the history.

What I Didn't Like So Much:
- The modern timeline: I never really connected to Abby, and I find it hard to understand her emotional motivations.
- Well, sort of. It's more that I wasn't CONVINCED by her emotional motivations, which are all tied into her parents' divorce. She becomes obsessed with a particular pulp novel and its author to not think about that, but it's all so obvious that it wasn't believable to me.
- The pulp novel sections: I get that these would be super exciting if you didn't have anything else, but a modern teen has some great f/f options, so it's really hard to believe that Abby thinks Marian Love's book is the best ever. Like, when she lets her ex-girlfriend read part of it, she comments accurately on the cheesiness. If the sections from Love's book had been better, I might have bought the concept more, but I really didn't see it.
- The audiobook performance: Okay, so mostly it was fine, but for some reason Stephanie Cannon reads all the love interests in these high-pitched "very sexy baby" voices, and it drove me up the wall. Especially since Marie's meant to have a deep voice. Like, dear god, why.

Maybe I would have liked this more if I hadn't gone the audiobook route, but I do think it's an interesting book, and one I would recommend to certain readers. If you generally really like Talley's books, I doubt you'll be disappointed.

I’ve been waiting to read more Robin Talley, having read her in Toil & Trouble and Feral Youth. I also want to read more f/f romance, making Pulp the perfect choice.

The basic premise of Pulp is told in two alternating timelines, modern day, where Abby is studying 1950’s lesbian pulp fiction, and 1955, where Janet can not be open about her love for Marie.

Oh, how I loved this story.

First, I love books told in alternate voices. Alternate timelines. Intersected in so many ways. It worked BIG TIME in this book and spoke to how far we’ve come (and reality in where we still need to go). I was interested in Janet’s story in her own right and also through Abby’s eyes. To say I marathoned this book is an underestimate.

It was heartbreaking to read Janet’s story and know that so many people lived that experience. I can only imagine what Robin’s research process for this story was like. Also, can we get a room at The Ripped Bodice full of lesbian pulp fiction? #automaticTBR

Abby is also trying to find her way and to see her explore who she is through fiction (and reality) is such a treat. To see herself and her community in books. Her overall development through the story. Ugh, it’s just SO. GOOD.

This story was educational on so many levels. I hope it makes its way into many classrooms, book clubs, and libraries (it landed in mine!). The audio is fantastic and I love that Robin read the author’s note!

I went outside my genre for Pulp, but I am glad I did.

This book is about two queer women in the 50's. Abby is a member of a family in turmoil in the present day. She finds solace in pulp fiction comics. She centers around one book particularly and becomes obsessed with the book and the author. Since the author had only written one book, Abby takes on the task of finding out why and what happened to her.

This dual POV takes us to Janet, a queer teen who also finds comfort in pulp fiction. With the books to keep her leveled, she finds solace in the fact that she is not alone, and that there are others just like her. Inspired, she sets out to write a book of her own. That brings us to the two periods and discover how they intertwine.

I loved the world building. You can feel how different the two periods are, and the character development was top notch. The themes of love and loss are present and done beautifully.

I have never read a book like this before, and I hope there are more like it to come.

"Pulp" is an excellent exploration of what it was like to be lgbtq+ during the McCarthy era, as well as what it is like in the present day. Not only is it entertaining, it is also educational. My knowledge was minimal about the "Lavender Scare" and I didn't even know about the popularity of lesbian pulp fiction during the 1950s. It's led me to do further research into the subjects. Recommended!

I rated this closer to 3.5 stars than 4, but don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the premise of the plot, and the way the stories of Janet and Abby were interwoven. My main issue was how hard it was to keep track of everything going on, what with the pen names and the excerpts from Janet's and Abby's OWN books included in Pulp as well. It got overwhelming after a certain point to keep track of everyone and everything going on. The other issue I had with Pulp was that I just didn't really care too much about Abby, one of the main characters. I enjoyed her as a character, but she just kind of fell flat for me in a way I'm not quite sure how to describe.

Other than those two issues, I really liked Pulp. The writing style was great, and as someone who spent their formative years in the Washington DC/northern Virginia area, it was great to read a book that takes place there, and to actually know where things are and what people are talking about in the book! I was especially thrilled to see mention of Danica Roem and I really, really enjoyed the sense of realism that the setting in Pulp gave me.

Overall I really liked Pulp, and would recommend it to friends and interested readers.

This was...an okay book. I didn't love it and I didn't hate it. It was just an eh book. That mainly had to do with the fact that I liked certain POV's better than others. Even the fact that it was a queer historical fiction book kept me wanting to read on.

This was my first book by Robin Talley that I've read and if I'm being honest like I am in every review, this one just didn't do it for me. I did like the writing style but the story just was meh. I'm not sure if I should give this author another shot or not, we shall see.

A beautiful story of love and the troubles they went through trying to just love another. Janet is strong and tough and takes on bravery in a new way.

I felt like the story jumped too much between the present and the past. While the present story was somewhat interesting, the flashbacks were actually the most interesting of the story.

I really wanted to love this book. I wanted it to be the queer book that I could go to for teen readers but sadly I had to put it down because it wasn’t anywhere what it could have been. If nothing else it was an enlightening educational resource

I'm doing it. I'm DNFing this book. It's been too long on my "currently reading" shelf and after reading 61%, I still don't really enjoy it. It was way too easy for me to put this book down and not wanting to pick it back up. Pulp was just not very engaging to me. The premise was great and I had high hopes for it. I wanted to love it but it's not the case. I didn't really like the characters all that much and the fact that the MC was looking for the real identity of an author who used a pen name for a reason didn't sit well with me. (even though the MC had good intentions) If the author wants or needs to be anonymous, let them be anonymous! You don't get to dig into their lives like it's nothing.

(Thank you for letting me read and review an arc of this book via Netgalley)

there is something relentless and powerful about the heart it takes to be queer – to live in the shadows of the past and to work so hard in the present. to love someone in the shadows, to risk your social status and your job and your family simply to be yourself, to be alone no longer, is an inherently brave act; to be in love is brave but to hide it and fight for it is braver. and yet at some point queerness is no longer about some grand romance, but about the freedom to be, the community created by a shared experience that is as horrifying as it is beautiful.

and to all of those who fought so hard in the 1950s for the lives they wanted, and all of those who fought their battles and waged their wars in the name of community – thank you.

review to come. (god can you tell I’m crying writing this)

Entertaining and informative, however there were two large issues for me. The first is the portrayal of the life of Abby in current times. I found her overly accepting family and LGBT friends to be a bit too ideal. There are still a lot of issues faced today that I would have liked to see highlighted, such as those who still grow up without any LGBT role models around them, or supportive parents/friends. The second was the characters themselves. While the story was fine, I wish the characters had a little more to them.

This book is about a young teen by name Abby who sets out to Do a huge school assignment for her writing class but she is not sure what she should do the assignment on. So with a little help from her teacher she ends up exploring the Careers of original Lesbian Literature authors from the 50s. Along the way we also have the story Janet Jones who lives in the 1950s. Janet is a Lesbian but cannot be out and the open for the fear of Death. But Janet stumbles on Lesbian Romance and learns to better Understand who she is and what she wants. Eventually through the love of Literature, Politics and discrimination these two young women stories cross and end up exploring so much about life.

I rated this book a five stars because it was the first real new adult LBGTQPlus novel that deeply explore so many amazing topics. I love how Robin put in the real research behind a book and literature in general. So much of this book explores the deep ends of writing and researching an actual story that will become a book. I love how much Robin explore the 1950s and the history of Lesbian Authors. I can't begin to explain how amazing the writing was develop in this book. So worth the read and I will recommend it to everyone

Robin Talley is usually a hit or a miss for me and unfortunately, this was a miss. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an E-ARC of Pulp.

I’ve been waiting to read more Robin Talley, having read her in Toil & Trouble and Feral Youth. I also want to read more f/f romance, making Pulp the perfect choice.

The basic premise of Pulp is told in two alternating timelines, modern day, where Abby is studying 1950s lesbian pulp fiction, and 1955, where Janet can not be open about her love for Marie.

Oh, how I loved this story.

First, I love books told in alternate voices. Alternate timelines. Intersected in so many ways. It worked BIG TIME in this book and spoke to how far we’ve come (and reality in where we still need to go). I was interested in Janet’s story in her own right and also through Abby’s eyes. To say I marathoned this book is an underestimate.

It was heartbreaking to read Janet’s story and know that so many people lived that experience. I can only imagine what Robin’s research process for this story was like. Also, can we get a room at The Ripped Bodice full of lesbian pulp fiction? #automaticTBR

Abby is also trying to find her way and to see her explore who she is through fiction (and reality) is such a treat. To see herself and her community in books. Her overall development through the story. Ugh, it’s just SO.GOOD.

This story was educational on so many levels. I hope it makes its way into many classrooms, bookclubs, and libraries (it landed in mine!). The audio is fantastic and I love that Robin read the author’s note!

Pulp was a fantastic look at LGBTQ history seen through the eyes of two teenage girls. One as she discovers the history of lesbian pulp fiction, and the other as she lives it. Talley does a superb job with both viewpoints. Equally heart-wrenching and encouraging, I recommend Pulp to anyone interested in queer history and seeing while some things have changed, we still have so far to go.

Separated by decades and a tumultuous political history, two young girls learn their true identities through lesbian pulp fiction. As one girl risks her personal safety to write a pulp novel in Washington, DC at the height of the Lavender Scare, her contemporary has to navigate a tense family life while also trying to get over her ex-girlfriend. Abby, the modern girl, throws herself into the world of 1950s lesbian pulp fiction, and comes out of it desperate to unravel the mystery of her most treasured author in the field. This book was absolutely wonderful, tearing at your heartstrings while also educating readers on the lesser-known danger of being gay at the height of the Cold War.

Thank you for the early copy.

The historical fiction element was interesting and I liked how it went back and forth between the past and present. I will be checking more of Robin Talley's novels in the future.

I wish I had finished this book earlier so I could have put it on my best of 2018 lists. This book was great, one that I won't forget about any time soon.

The book tells two stories, one in 2017 of Abby Zimet a senior in high school, dealing with about 50 million things that every senior in high school has to deal with, plus her parents are getting divorced. It's a lot, and to deal with it, Abby does something that I strongly relate to, she found something she liked and held on tightly with both hands. When Abby finds 1950's lesbian pulp novels she finds a project and an idea that consumes her, takes her away from the terribleness of 2017. (I know you've blocked it out, dear reader, but 2017 was a literal dumpster fire. Dumpster fire might even be too good of a word for it to be honest.) Since the narrative takes place mostly in Washington D.C. Abby and her friends are in the thick of going to protests and being social activists. It was fun to see something like that in a book.

The second story is of a woman, Janet, in 1955, also living in Washington DC. She comes to discover that she is attracted to women and I think this book really shows just how scary and awful the world was for LGBT+ people in the 50's. There is a certain image that pops into your head when you think of the 50's, and sometimes it's hard to balance the McCarthyism and J Edgar Hoover literally creating task forces to find LGBT+ people and get rid of them from the government with the version of the 1950's we see in Back to the Future. Not everything was soda fountains and sock hops. Life sucked if you were different, and the government would literally destroy your life.

I think this book does a great job saying "Everything still sucks, but it sucks differently." There's hope in the narrative that I love. We see how far we've come. Abby is able to kiss her girlfriend in public, at a fast food restaurant similar to the one Janet worked at in 1955 whereas Janet had to hide everything about herself and was worried she'd be found out and being found out would ruin not only her life but the life of her family and her best friend, and first love, Marie's life as well.

This book was very well done, and extremely well researched and presented in this amazing narrative. Abby and Janet's stories are easy to relate to, both their struggles and their fears are laid out for us readers in such a beautiful way.

If I do have a critique, it would be to let Abby know that The Erotic Adventures of Gladys and Henrietta is a perfectly good title for a book and not to change it.

Overall, this one is for sure one that you should pick up. It's just plain good, and I'm glad I got the opportunity to read it.