I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review (and boy am I glad they let me have this book). It did not take me long to get through it but I wanted there to be so much more.

“All the moments where I was made to feel like an outsider in a group that was supposed to have room for me added up and left me feeling so much shame.”

Juliet Takes a Breath is an unapologetic, beautiful book about a young Puerto Rican queer woman from the Bronx who spends a summer in Portland, Oregon interning for a hippy queer white lady who wrote her favorite book all about “the power of the pussy”. But fear not, there is some major calling out later in the book about cissexist thinking. So anyone worried about that, it turns out good.

I’d also like to just get it out there that while I am a queer lady I am a queer white lady so just keep that in mind with my review of a very PoC centric book.

First of all, I’ve never felt so represented as a queer lady who is completely useless when I see a pretty girl. Just to get that out of the way. When I see a pretty lady I can’t articulate or really talk at all and Juliet is just like that. I love her.

This book really emphasizes the importance of PoC only spaces, especially within the queer community. Juliet is super new to the queer scene, and it really comes through in the writing. There are a couple points in the book where she gets overwhelmed with all the new information being thrown at her and she feels like she shouldn’t be asking what terms mean because all the people around her are “fluent in queer” (the words of a good friend of mine, not the book).

I also really loved how the book was written. Stylistically, it sounds a lot like how people talk and I really dig that. Although I could have done with less “yo’s” at the end of sentences, yo.

Some of my favorite moments in this book included “sacred period ritual kits,” an entire chapter titled “Ain’t No Party Like an Octavia Butler Writer’s Workshop,” all the wonderful girl flirting, and really at this point I’m going to list the entire book so I’ll just leave you with a few of my favorite quotes to tide you over while you go get your copy of this book.

“Reading would make me beautiful, but writing would make me infinite.”

“Always ask first and then kiss the way stars burn in the sky.”

This book started kind of slow but became very good once the story started. It is an important book to read for every young woman to better understand what feminism is why it is so important. The author drew such a great picture with the characters and made them each very personable.
However, I think my favorite part of the book was how "love" was portrait. It didn't just describe romantic love but also friendship and family love. Gabby Rivera has a special way to talk about love and what it means to the characters.
I would definitely recommend this book.

4.5 stars.

The prologue alone was enough to make this entire book worthwhile.

The MC was feisty and charismatic. She was fierce in one moment and vulnerable in the next. The author cleverly allowed her to feel ALL the feelings of a late teenager just starting school. She 'knows' everything and 'knows' nothing. She's so sure of herself and deeply needs the love and acceptance of her family, some of whom need some time to get to know this new (and newly out) Juliet.

The prose was masterful, especially in the beginning.

The only downside was the inclusion of all the Lesbian/Queer 101 information that slows the tempo of the book. And for something that starts to whippy, snappy, clever, and fast, this change is noticable.

Then again, this is a question of who the book is meant for. For someone like me, who has lived through it and reads lots of coming out/coming of age novels, it's old hat (though to look at Juliet's hat is refreshing). For allies who haven't been through it, it could be helpful. For a kid coming out, this could be life-saving.

I wish I didn't mean that literally.

Really, truly -- I highly recommend this one and will very likely read it again.

Let’s get the negatives out of the way first: this book is fairly plotless. Despite Juliet Takes' A Breath's short length, I found myself bored for most of the first half.

However, my disapointment at the plot was outshined by my love for pretty much everything else.

The character work here is sublime. Juliet is a funny but believable protagonist. Her emotional journey was easy to connect with, and I’m sure it will be for anyone who feels disenfranchised in society. This is Juliet's specific journey as a lesbian woman of color, and the author makes that very clear. It’s amazing that Rivera managed to make this journey so specific yet so universal.

The side characters shined here too. All were complex and developed, even in very little pagetime. I feel like I know these women. I feel like Gabby Rivera knows these women. I was just incredibly impressed by the amount I connected to this story.

The integration of social issues here was also amazing. I’ve never read a book that represented so many issues so well! There’s a focus on lgbt issues, on women’s issues, on how women’s issues and trans issues need to be connected, and on racism issues. It’s revolutionary that this book got published by an agency. Juliet would be proud.

I almost wish Juliet’s brave women heroes had been integrated more into the latter half of the book. It seemed like an amazing concept that almost got abandoned. I understand why it happened, though; there was a lot to resolve in the latter half. Again, the pacing needed a little editing.

This book definitely comes highly recommended, and thanks again to the publisher for sending me this arc!

Reading about a thick brown queer feminist was a joy to behold! She painted vivid imagery into that world! And her growing understanding of white supremacy was illuminating.

This book was "bad azz" (and I mean that in the best way possible)!!! Funny, so real, and chock full of real emotions. I really enjoyed reading this book and I couldn't put it down until I finished. I want more from Gabby Rivera!

This book was seriously laugh out loud funny. I want to be friends with Juliet, her voice was so funny, poignant and compelling.

Our protagonist is a young Puerto Rican woman from the Bronx who travels to Portland to intern for a crunchy, white hippie who wrote a Cunt-esque, pussy-power manifesta, and it is through this mentor's fairly limited but ultimately "well-meaning" perspective that Juliet begins to identify with and define her own feminism.

The limitations of privileged, white feminism are portrayed really well through the novel, not just through Juliet's mentor but through Juliet's own experiences in an exceedingly white city. When Juliet is introduced to spaces carved out purely for people of color she is allowed to flourish and experience herself more freely without being blinded by whiteness.

This was a quick read, and a really fun one. I really want to continue to follow Juliet and experience her growing into herself as described by the author's vibrant and critical language. We need so many more Juliets in our books.

"Feminism. I’m new to it. The word still sounds weird and wrong. Too white, too structured, too foreign: something I can’t claim."

Though this is the opening of the book, it sets a tone that defines the rest of the novel. It is a rare book that from the very beginning I can feel it sinking into my bones, but that is exactly what this felt like. And despite the fact that I kept worrying maybe that feeling would go away, I was entranced from beginning to end, and sobbed through the epilogue. This is a book that has power. And a book that will stay with me.

Juliet is a 19-year-old Puerto Rican lesbian from the Bronx who goes to be an intern for a hippy white feminist in Portland, and who also happens to have written Juliet's favorite book. It is a book about pussy power. But fear not, those worrying (as I did) about the cissexist nature of that book: it is called out frequently in the latter half of the novel! Just as so many other things are. In Portland, Juliet is part of an incredibly queer community. The number of queer women around at all times in this novel was impossible to ignore and it made my heart sing. Queer women of color, specifically, were essential in Juliet coming to understand the terminology she needed to define her own identity and to help offer new definitions of feminism and queer identity that can feel more inclusive to her.

It feels rare to experience such visibly queer spaces in books. Not just queer spaces that happen in one scene, but a constantly queer environment that is full of support but also critique and questioning of white feminist structures. Beyond the presence of queer spaces, there is also so much emphasis on POC-only spaces and the importance that they have. Over and over again, the bullshit complaints of white feminists are shot down and intersectionality is emphasized, explained, and made the most important part of the feminism Juliet is trying to learn. A feminism that includes her, in all her Puerto Rican lesbian glory.

Not to continue gushing, but some of my other favorite moments include: an entire chapter dedicated to making the period a celebrated experience, the strained but intensely loving relationship between Juliet and her mother, the entire chapter entitled "Ain't No Party Like an Octavia Butler Writer's Workshop", girls flirting, close family relationships, mini history lessons about amazing forgotten women of color, and about a hundred other things.

OH OH OH and I almost forgot: the almost embarrassing amount of realism that queer women become completely useless in the presence of other beautiful lady-identified individuals. Every time Juliet saw a fabulous queer lady and lost the ability to speak or spit out coherent sentences I was on another planet of joy.

This is the coming of age story of a fierce, funny, nerdy, chubby, intelligent Latina. It was breathtaking and sharp, full of so much goodness I know I'll be able to find new things again and again. It acts as an intro for those who don't know queer and feminist terminology, but also serves as a critique of the whiteness of those structures if you already do. It is ownvoices and vibrant and incredible. I'm begging you to read it.

I loved Juliet, her experiences, her relationships, her growth. The characters were excellent all around. One thing that took away from the story a bit was that sometimes the messages were so overt it felt a bit like sitting in a lecture. I think they could have been woven into the story a bit more. Still, a very enjoyable read.

3.5
I’m conflicted about this book. In so very many ways I loved it. I loved Juliet. I loved her family (once the ones that needed to come around came around). Special shout outs for how much I loved Melvin and hope he gets his own book when he’s a little older and the Miami branch of the family. I loved the Portland crew, problematic as some of them were. I liked the way white culture and people were othered in a manner only a non-white author could write them. I loved the way Phen’s use of words highlighted how language, even inclusive, social justice language, could be used as a weapon and/or to alienate someone. I appreciated the themes of the book and the engagement of White Feminism. I loved the diversity. There is so much to appreciate here.

But I found that while reading the book, I wanted more. But any time I set it down, I didn’t want to pick it back up again. I had to sit on this review a little while to figure out why. And I think it’s just that, as much as I appreciate the themes of the book and the journey Juliet takes, the book itself is too heavy handed with them. It often felt didactic. Rivera had to make Juliet too clueless to be believe for a 19yo, brown, lesbian in a liberal arts college, taking Women’s History classes in order to impart lessons to the reader through Juliet. I felt battered by them and it took a force of will to subject myself to more, even as I thought, ‘hell yeah’ about most of them.

The writing is beautiful, though there is an awful lot of telling involved. All in all, however, I’d be up for more of Rivera’s writing. I loved a lot more than I didn’t.

This book was simply amazing. I wasn't sure, after reading the description, if it would fall a bit flat, given that it is set in 2002, or if it would seem a bit preachy. It was neither. Juliet is a well-crafted character, full of life, wonder, curiosity, and hope. She popped off the page, asking all of the questions I had as a young queer woman just a few years before her. Her quest to find the intersection of feminism, gender, sexuality, and race was realistic, heart-wrenching, and emotionally fulfilling. The characters, situations, and dialogue never seemed forced; even the unexpected-but-once-it-happened-totally-expected "twist" didn't seem out of place, rushed, shoe-horned in, or otherwise "written" - this was a text that will feel real and authentic to the students who encounter it, and it is one that I will recommend wholeheartedly. I look forward to more from this brilliant author!

https://bibliophilefeminist.wordpress.com/2017/03/02/juliet-takes-a-breath-review/

Already looking forward to Gabby Rivera's next book. The main character Juliet Milagros Palante takes readers on a journey from her home in the Bronx, where she just came out to her family, to an internship with a hippy author of a Pussy Power book in Portland, OR. Juliet is a great character and takes a lot in, meeting new people and learning new things (What respecting one another means in intercultural relationships, being lesbian/queer, what polyamory is, and what it means to feel at home and affirmed.) There is a lot of she learns about the world and communities (Intersectionality specifically regarding race/ethnicity and LGBTQ) and about herself as it is happening. Not only is she kick ass, but the other characters is the book grapple with their relationships and the challenges they experience without blowing up and cutting others off. There is a lot of respect, which gives this book a feel-good tone, even if you suspect in real life people wouldn't have been so civil.

From page one I knew that this book and I would become friends. I can't describe it better than that it feels like a warm hug!

This story follows Juliet Milagros Palante, a Latina asthmatic lesbian with anxiety problems. There's a special place in my heart for characters who are allowed to exist with more than one label. Because sometimes us disabled lesbians need to be able to read stories about other people like us, instead of having to choose a disabled or a lesbian character.

On top of being entertaining and moving, Juliet Takes A Breath is a highly informative novel. It is definitely going to widen many readers’ minds, and educate them on queerness, religion, race, gender, intersectionality, polyamory, and the importance of proper communication in relationships.

Great book for teens struggling with self love and conflicting feelings of acceptance with friends, family and themselves. Empowerment is a strong heady feeling which should be shared by all

From the second page I was completely hooked. So far "Juliet Takes a Breath" is definitely my favourite book this year and it will be a tough one to beat. It deals with the nuances and intersectionality of Queer culture in a straightforward yet interesting way and is filled with a variety of wonderful moment varying from humorous through to touching and thought-provoking.
I connected with the characters in ways that i didn't expect but loved wholeheartedly. "Juliet Takes a Breath" is not afraid to question the world and the people in it, it is unapologetic and demands that the rest of the world rise to its level rather than sinking down to theirs. It is a book that has turned out to mean much more to me than I ever anticipated, and I look forward to reading Gabby Rivera's further fictional works.

“Read everything you can push into your skull. Read your mother’s diary. Read Assata. Read everything Gloria Steinem and bell hooks write. Read books about your body written by people who have bodies like yours. Read everything that supports your growth as a vibrant, rebel girl human. Read because you’re tired of secrets.”

I can’t even bring myself to name all of the reasons why I love this book. If I did, I would probably have to write an entire essay, which, honestly, I wouldn’t have minded doing a year ago while working on my Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies minor. That’s because this book is an incredibly diverse and feminist YA novel, about a girl who struggles to find where she belongs. The novel unapologetically tackles many topics, from the importance of intersectionality to the underlying racism of white feminism, making it an absolute standout novel in YA that should be on everyone’s required reading list.

Here are just some of the reasons that make Juliet Takes a Breath phenomenal:


It’s intersectional!
The main positive of this novel is how incredibly diverse it is from page one, written by a queer woman of color, for queer women of color. Its protagonist, Juliet, is a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx who is also gay, and reading the story through her perspective is like a breath of fresh air. The novel is so rich with Puerto Rican culture, from the way Juliet describes her neighborhood and her life back home to the way she interacts with her family to the Spanish words embedded throughout.

The story isn’t just intersectional in this way, though. Juliet ends up writing to the author of a popular feminist book, expressing how she wants to belong in feminism but often feeling like feminism is mostly just for white women. In response, the author–the illustrious Harlowe Brisbane–offers her an internship in Portland, Oregon, where Juliet learns more about intersectionality and feminism than she could ever imagine, and how the two correspond with her identity as a queer WOC. This book is such a good education on feminism and intersectionality, and weaves the two together so well throughout the story, showing how reliant each is on the other.

On being a good white ally…
With this, the driving theme of the novel focuses on the problematics and underlying racism of White Feminism. The novel frequently addresses the demand for POC women to have their own space, one where white allies don’t speak up over POC, and teaches others how to be a good white ally in general… and how not to be.

One of the prime examples of this is in Harlowe herself, who is a typical hippy feminist white lady and who, like many white feminists, praises feminism and women-loving yet misses the mark on sitting back to let women of color speak about their distinct oppressions. This comes up throughout the novel, but her biggest blunder comes when, during a reading, she uses Juliet as an example for why she’s not racist, basically using the ol’ “I’m not racist, I have a Puerto Rican friend” card. She then went on to paint Juliet as a poor Puerto Rican who managed to escape the terrible, crime-ridden, violent neighborhood in the Bronx to be taken in under Harlow’s wing, even though Juliet didn’t really tell Harlowe anything about her life back home. Needless to say, Juliet learns to find her voice and tell Harlowe that this was in no way okay for Harlowe to do to her. This perfectly highlights to feminists how to not use POC as a token to make themselves and their feminism look better

It addresses “Mansplaining” and why it’s extremely obnoxious.
Okay, so there’s this super nauseating male character in the book named Phen, who acts extremely know-it-all and superior over Juliet the second he meets her, completely going out of his way to patronize her and let her know that she doesn’t truly belong. Seriously, I hated him like nothing else. He is the most venomous, toxic male “ally” that all feminists should avoid at all costs.

When they first meet, Phen is naked in Harlow’s house (for some reason??), and when Juliet is noticeably uncomfortable at first, Phen acts offended and scoffs, Oh I’m sorry, does my naked body BOTHER YOU? (**Um, yes, you asshole. You’re a male and, having that privilege, can’t even understand the connotations of a dominating male body invading the personal space of a woman. Literally, shut up.) Following this, Phen only continues to exert his dominance by throwing out feminist terms that Juliet isn’t yet familiar with, almost taunting her with them and using them as a weapon to show how much he knows more than her. At one point, he even questions whether she belongs in Portland and whether she’s truly gay. People like Phen are exactly what can go wrong with male allies, who make it more about themselves than about actually supporting women, and the book highlights this problematic behavior really well. And with that…

…it conveys the message that it’s okay to not know everything there is to know about feminism, and that this doesn’t make you any less of a feminist.
This is such an important aspect of the book. Going from the Bronx to Portland, it feels like a completely different world to Juliet, and there’s so much she feels she has to learn. But rather than scoff at her and make her feel bad when Juliet asks questions, Harlowe and many others encourage Juliet to continually learn, to question, and to figure out what feminism means to her. And this is what feminism should be about. It can often feel daunting coming fresh into feminism, especially depending on where you live in the world and what you identify as. There’s so much to learn and take in. Along with this, feminism means different things to different people. There’s no one way to be a feminist. And so I really commend the author for showing readers this through Juliet’s own personal journey.

Some other things I liked about this book…

It paints a realistic coming out experience, where the parents are neither completely accepting at first nor completely unloving. Just before leaving Portland, Juliet spontaneously decides to come out to her family. While most everyone else is okay with it, her mother takes it harder. While Juliet does her internship in Portland, she misses her mother yet simultaneously feels that her mom doesn’t truly understand her. Each time they speak over phone, they both feel a disconnect, that the other isn’t really hearing the other’s point of view. But over the course of this novel, Juliet and her mom gradually begin to open up to each other, showing that their relationship is stronger than anything.

I think with coming out stories, we’re so used to vilifying the parents who don’t always accept or understand their child’s sexuality right off. But it’s important to be aware that there are other coming out experiences that are more complicated and full of grey areas… and more importantly, this doesn’t always make these kinds of parents “bad parents.” When we vilify parents and coming out stories like these, it takes all of the learning and growth and underlying love out of the parents’ relationship with their child, something this book brings to light and works to develop really well. I love how in the end Juliet’s mom admits she’s still not all the way there yet, but that she’s trying, which just shows how much she really loves her daughter and wants their relationship to be okay. 💜

It centers around learning to navigate the cultural differences when traveling somewhere new, while always feeling like a part of you is still back home. I thought this was a really compelling theme in the novel. The story begins with Juliet dreaming of leaving the Bronx, certain that things must be better beyond it. But as soon as she’s in Portland, Juliet feels like she’s plunged into a completely different world, one where there aren’t as many people that look like her, which makes her miss her home back in the Bronx. As the story progresses, Juliet realizes that, despite being in Portland, there’s a certain amount of racism there, too, even in her mentor, which really challenges her worldview and what she thought she knew. I thought this was a really eye-opening turning point, as it just shows how racism is everywhere. We can pretend that it’s better in some places, but we also can’t be blind to the ways that racism still exists, even when disguised in various shapes and forms. Along with this, I liked how being in Portland just made Juliet that much more appreciative of where she came from.

There’s a point later on in the story when Juliet’s on her own and a bit turned around in the city. She takes a bus, only to find that it’s full of people like her—people of color, from Black to Puerto Rican. She’s so happy in this moment to finally be among other people who look and sound like her, to feel transported back to the Bronx, that she decides to stay in it for as long as long as she can, taking the bus all the way to the last stop and back again. I thought this was such a nice little silver lining for Juliet that served as a moment of peace and comfort for her, to remind her that no matter where she is, home is never too far away.

* * *

Like I said, there were so many things I loved about this book and so many important takeaways that I thought the author integrated so well; if I were to discuss every one of them, I might as well write an essay. (Can I? Please??) This novel blew me away, and I’m so thankful for it and for the author to have written such a vibrant character like Juliet Palante. If anything, I hope this novel inspires all of the Juliets of the world. I hope it encourages them to go out into the world, to explore and discover who they are, and to make their voices heard, at the top of their lungs.

<i>I don't mean any disrespect, but if you can question the patriarchy, then I can question you.</i>

This was an incredible piece of something different. Like, I don't even think I can describe what the heck this book is about. It's magical and powerful. A journey from Feminism 101 to exploring the layers and nuances that come with intersecting identities. Our main character, Juliet, is a young, Puerto Rican, very recently out lesbian who wants to believe there is room in this world for her. The prose gets bogged down with these explanations sometimes, but the whole picture is refreshing

<i>How could anything as huge as feminism be universal?</i>

The book has a lot of slurs and a few mentions of past assault with some on-the-page microaggressions, so heads up there.

Gabby Rivera has managed to do something incredible for someone who is just now publishing their first full-length book; her book did not feel like a debut at all. It was a very fresh read, but it was also well-structured, with fully developed, three-dimentional characters, a goal even veterans of the publishing world are still trying to achieve.

Rivera's debut novel, "Juliet takes a breath" focuses on Juliet Milagros Palante, a Puerto Rican lesbian, who's just come out to her family and is heading towards Portland, leaving Bronx and her family behind, for a summer internship with the author of her favourite book, Harlowe Brisbane. Without giving too much away, things do not turn out exactly the way Juliet had planned them to, and she finds herself dealing with situations and people she could never possibly imagine meeting.

"Juliet takes a breath", is - without a doubt- a book that should not go unnoticed. Juliet's journey isn't just one from Bronx to Portland; it is also a journey of self-discovery and discovering intersectional feminism. (Now, I've called bullshit on the term before, because, for me, feminism is -by definition- intersectional; if it's not intersectional, it's not feminism at all. ) Through Juliet's eyes we get to see her first "contact" with terms such as polyamory, preferred gender pronouns, trans. It is a very interesting and very relatable journey for every feminist, who have found themselves as lost as Juliet, at some point in their lives. Rivera's novel has a brown, thick, lesbian protagonist and it leaves room for learning, growing as a person and familiarizing one's self with 21st-century feminism.

One of the things I loved most about the book was its calling out of white feminism. White privilege, acts of racism and microaggressions, poc-safe-spaces, are all topics that are explored in the course of the book. White feminism is a topic that is often unmentioned, mostly because most YA characters that call themselves a feminist are 90% white. In Juliet's case she learns to recognize this kind of behavior for exactly what it is - an act of racism coming from a place of privilege.

Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot, not just because of its plot and fast pace, but mostly because of its diverse cast of characters and its portrayal and depiction of modern-day, intersectional feminism.