Juno Love Legs is a coming of age story which follows a young adolescent girl, Juno, as she painfully navigates who she is and who she will soon become. Alongside Juno, we also get to see the story of Legs, her faithful childhood friend, as their friendship blossoms into a stunning display of platonic love. Set in bleak and sorrowful Dublin during the 80s, the book details the many struggles they face but also the many amazing experiences they have along the way.

While set in those bleak and poverty stricken streets of 1980s Dublin and reeking of the stench of the Catholic Church and its vice-like grip, the book somehow manages to maintain an air of hope and beauty that you cannot resist smiling at. This is carried by a stream of beautiful and colourful characters alongside some simply stunning prose.

Geary has woven an evocative, vivid and immersive telling of the stories of those kids who just don’t fit in, who are made of pure grit and stubbornness that somehow manage to dig themselves from the dirt they were landed in to create something so much more.

I never cry at books, in fact I could probably count the number on one hand, but this left me devastated with more than a few tears. I implore you to read it but with the warning and promise that it will break your heart in the most stunning of ways.

"Even horrible people can have their hearts broken."

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while it took me forever to get to this book, i loved it so much. full of emotion and sometimes depressing, these characters will stay with me for a long time.

read if you loved:
-shuggie bain
-lyrical prose, amazing writing
-flawed, characters full of heart
-set in Ireland

the audio was FANTASTIC!! highly recommend this format

Beautiful, heartbreaking. The world seems to be against Juno and Legs, but they have each other (for a bit, anyway).

Great story elevated by the terrific audiobook narrator.

Duplicate review due to approval for eARC and audiobook.

"Juno Loves Legs" by Geary presents a unique perspective on relationships. Geary delves into the protagonist's emotional journey, though the narrative structure can be disorienting. Geary's writing showcases moments of insight, yet the overall impact feels inconsistent. The book offers an unconventional exploration of love and self-discovery, but its fragmented storytelling may not resonate with all readers.

Thank you to the publisher for the ALC. Such a good book and the narration added so much to it. Loved.

A celebration of platonic love and once in a lifetime friendship. An unspoken agreement to stand up for one another, Legs and Juno are responsible in one way or another for eachother’s survival. Moody, descriptive literary fiction told with care and hurt. 1980s Dublin has broken my heart yet again.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

Beautifully heartbreaking story. The characters draw you in and make you feel for them. The narrator was perfect and I enjoyed listening to this.

this is such a beautiful book and definitely one of my favourites of 2023 so far. i listened to the audiobook which was beautifully narrated and felt incredibly authentic, but i also feel like i need to get a physical copy of the novel to be able to read each sentence again and fully appreciate the beauty of the writing. the language feels almost lyrical at times, while being very down-to-earth and perfectly reflecting juno’s working class upbringing in dublin at the same time.
juno loves legs is one of the most heartfelt stories about love and friendship i have ever come across. the characters each face terrible hardships that are devastating to read about, but there’s something so hopeful about their relationship to each other that the novel still left me feeling uplifted more than anything else. an absolute masterpiece and i cannot recommend it enough!

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape for the audiobook.

Beautifully written and narrated, this is the story of the friendship between Juno and Legs in Dublin during the 80's.

This book has very heartbreaking moments that made you feel for the characters although sometimes is a bit difficult to connect with them. Overall, I don't think this is the type of book I enjoy the most.

I loved this tale of a couple of misfit kids who gravitated toward each other and bonded over their shared ostracism, poverty, and troubled home life.

Legs, is gay in the 80's, when being gay meant sure and swift exclusion outside of very limited communities. Juno navigates a violent home and the community's judgment of her family's poverty. It wouldn't be a tale of Ireland if this story wasn't a tear-jerker, but suffice it to say that almost every bad thing that could happen to Juno and Legs does, and while they are driven apart for years, they eventually find one another again and learn what it is to have someone who truly cares about you and supports you, even if it can't last.

The audio narration is fantastic.

Format: audiobook ~ Narrator: Alana Kerr Collins
Content: 5 stars ~ Narration: 5 stars

Juno and »Legs« are teenagers in Dublin in the 1980s. They try to defy Sister's and Father's bullying in school and are labeled as delinquents. But there is so much more to their story. After an event that separates them, they later unite again, and their bond is still strong.

Juno Loves Legs is a beautiful and sad coming-of-age story about platonic love. But even though the story is dark, you can sense some sparks of hope and optimism. I loved it. Well deserved 5 stars.

The narration by Alana Kerr Collins is perfect, and I enjoyed the Irish accent. She made this experience even better.

Thanks to Dreamscape Media for the ALC and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review and all opinions are my own.

I have been loving Irish novels of late. This is a new to me author and I can’t wait to read more. Geary’s writing has a quality that I have a hard time defining. It sucks me in, I become attached to the characters (in this case, Juno) so much so that I start having fantasies about how I’m going to help Juno solve her problems. I feel tenderness, guilt, anger, grief, as if Juno is a real person that I love.

The first half of the novel follows Juno and Legs through Catholic school, where they face the brutality of it together. The second half, after a few years apart, Juno and Legs find each other again. It was almost a five star read, but the second half felt hurried compared to the first, and as a result I felt more removed from the characters. I would gladly have read a longer book to have experienced the conclusion more slowly. I won’t soon forget about this book or these characters.

The audiobook narrator was excellent, I highly recommend this format.

I will never pass up the chance to read a LGBT book with a black and gray cover. this book did not dissapoint. 10/10 would recommend to a friend

This was a tough read but also a beautiful one. I loved the 1980s setting in Dublin, and the friendship between Juno and Legs was so heartwarming. It was tough to read their various struggles. I appreciated the discussion about religion and sexuality.

I really enjoyed Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary! I listened to the audiobook narrated by Alana Kerr Collins and her voice fit Juno’s character perfectly. I really enjoyed the 80s Dublin setting and the focus of friendship. It’s about two friends who are outsiders and their struggles with class, religion and sexuality. This book captures perfectly Juno’s feelings of finding herself and her place in the world as she grows up. Each had to deal with troubles in their home life and there were some sad parts. I think if you enjoyed Mayflies then you’d enjoy this one too.

Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary
Colleen Chi-Girl's 5 ***** review on Apr 20, 2023
GR Bookshelves: 2023, audio, europe, historical-fiction, illness-suicide-addiction, ireland-irish, netgalley, women-centered

5 BIG STARS for this audiobook (there is no choice at this time to choose the audio format)

This is a very, very special novel and is IMO award worthy. I immediately got sucked into the wonderful audiobook by Dreamscape Media and narrated by Alana Kerr Collins, who has a lovely, Northern Irish accent.

What an amazing, sad, and heartfelt story set in 1980’s Dublin, Ireland, featuring the compelling main character, Juno, and her sole friend, Sean, who she meets in school and nicknames “Leggy”. They are the oddballs, misfits and outcasts, and your heart goes out to both of them as we learn of their imperfections and vulnerabilities due to poverty and difficult (near impossible) home lives.

Beautifully written by the Irish author, Karl Geary, with many poignant and alarming situations for such young children to live through and be subjected to…from caustic, horrific neighbors to strict and punishing Catholic religious leaders, which leads to their own overworked and underpaid strict parents (most likely uneducated), who barely sustain a living and survive their forced inertia and poverty.

It is painful. But also poetic, sadly beautiful, and so compelling.

Thanks so very much to NetGalley, Dreamscape Publishing, and the uber-talented author, Karl Geary, for this advanced copy, which I wholeheartedly loved and will be pondering long after my next read.

This was a gritty, heartbreaking read. Juno and Legs were amazing, bold and unforgettable characters.
This is a story of lifelong friends who experience much trauma individually and find their way to each other after being separated for years.

With that being said, I hated to see the ending of Legs' story and all the character development sort of halted for Juno. I wanted to see her win so badly but her character is also one that loves deeply and selflessly so her choices ultimately aligned with her deep and extreme spiritual connection with Legs.

The narration on this was really enjoyable as well.

Beautifully written. Heartbreaking. Utterly honest.

I am not sure what else can be said about this book. A story following two troubled teens as they navigate tumultuous life journeys both together and apart. I connected to Juno on an unexpected level. Legs felt like her balance. His arms are where she needed to be when all the world felt turbulent. I felt sad, yet hopeful overall.

Thank you NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and author Karl Geary for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary.

This is a story of a friendship between to young people in Ireland, Juno and Legs, and listening to it is a delight for the soft Irish accents. This is a essentially a love story, but they are each only able to love each other in their own way, making it a tragic love story.

I can see how everyone is falling in love with this book, but I just couldn't get into it. I never fully invested in the characters, or their relationship. It just wasn't my cuppa tea.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for gifting me with an ALC of Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.

The comparisons to Douglas Stewart’s novel Shuggie Bain are understandable, as this too is a grim coming of age story set in 1980’s Ireland, where being different can come at a terrible price. For schoolmates Sean ( aka Legs) and Juno, it’s not the students they fear but rather their strict Catholic Church leaders who constantly berate and humiliate them, however this only creates an unbreakable bond of friendship. It’s only when tragedy and an unforeseen act separates the pair that Juno and Legs discover just how rough life can get.

While there were some fleeting moments of joy and light ultimately this book was a bit too heavy and dark for my personal reading tastes. Achingly beautiful prose and fantastic narration elevated the novel and kept me engaged. This story would make for worthy book club discussion.