Bronx-born and bred Juliet is getting to grips with her summer internship in Portland, Oregon (where she'll be working for iconic feminist author Hawthorne Brisbane), all while figuring out how to come out to her family, what the hell a preferred gender pronoun is, why she's not getting the answers she wants from White Feminism. Oh, and how to breathe. Juliet Takes A Breath was the queer, Latinx, intersectional feminist coming-of-age novel of my dreams: moving, political, angry, funny, and damn wonderful. Read it!

This is a really good novel.I think a lot of that is because of Juliet's voice. She's beautifully insightful in some moments of the book. She's nerdy and quite funny at times too.Juliet is just a great character and it's great to see how much she develops over the course of this novel in various areas of her life.

Juliet goes on a journey throughout the four parts of this book and I didn't really get into the story until further along her journey but all of it is wonderful. Juliet takes this internship and doesn't really know what she wants to get out of the experience. In the end, she got a lot more than she really thought she could. She has a place to move forward from.

This book starts out with Juliet in a stressful and relatable time. She's coming out to her family. Juliet decides to do it at a family dinner. I like how much this book dealt with family. Even with Juliet away from them for a majority of the book you could see how important family was. Just from conversations with her mom or cousin Ava over the phone. Sometimes just from Juliet contemplating the way they reacted to things or might react to something. She thinks about her family often and I liked the focus on the family bonds.

Juliet meets some amazing women of color in this book. I felt like I was learning from Maxine and Zaira through Juliet's encounters with them in the novel. This is a novel about feminism but more importantly intersectional feminism. Juliet is able to start figuring out where she stands in the feminism she sees on tv or reads in one of her favorite books. I absolutely loved the conversations Juliet has around this.

Sometimes as Juliet struggled I just wanted to jump in the book and answer things when she had questions she wasn't asking anyone out loud yet.It takes her a while to feel the confidence needed to do more than just contemplate the tings she didn't understand about queer terms or why Zaira made spaces specifically for women of color. I liked seeing Juliet learn and make mistakes while learning.Her exploration into all things queer and feminism. It was really well done.

Sidenote.There is a really odd character who is only in the story for a short time and never appears again and I didn't understand the point of his words toward Juliet and couldn't stop thinking what was the point there or if it was needed.Juliet never really thinks of him again after that section so it didn't feel like it mattered.

The most relatable moment in this book for me was a feeling. The feeling that Juliet has when she is in an all QPOC space for the first time. She's freer than she has been able to in a long time.No one is going to judge her or say the wrong thing. She won't have to deal with microaggressions or blatant racism there. She is able to make decisions about how she perceives herself.

For me, that was an impromptu caucus for queer people of color at The Midwest Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, and Ally College Conference. It was a room filled with QPOC and a space for us to talk about issues we face separate from all the other events of the conference.I didn't even know there was that many of us in the conference. It was a major moment for me. I was dealing with not being able to embrace all aspects of my identity depending on the situation I was in. I had some rough school years and I feel like that was one of the moments that got me through. It changed things for me.It gave me perspective, I really needed.You see how much Juliet's experience changes her on the final sections of the book.She's able to take on the world after having run away from her problems before that. It's great storytelling.

Juliet leaped off the page as a character. She was completely herself and never once did she let you forget she was a big Puerto Rican lesbian out to explore herself and the world.

This book was like nothing I'd ever read before. BURSTING with diversity and social issues and acceptance and exploration. Topics that wove together throughout included: racism, feminism, LGBT, family, and I'm sure I'm leaving out some others.

One thing I really liked was that besides the Raging Flower book, everything else checked out as a real reference to a song or book or important woman in history when she's doing her intern work. I leave now knowing what Banana Republic means (yikes) and who Del Martin is (aw yeah).

I'm not sure I understood the point of Phen's character, one of the only males, other than to underline her unfamiliarity in a new city... he was a douche. But my only real complaint is that her internship ends rather suddenly in a wrap up of a few pages. I would have liked to see her and Harlowe's relationship evolve, and find out some more badass names for her project. Maybe I just got so sucked into this free, accepting, and loving world, I just wanted to stay a bit longer.

Juliet Takes A Breath is the kind of book that simultaneously kicks you into action and warms your heart. It is the story of a summer in which Juliet, a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx, discovers a lot about her own identity and others’, a coming of age tale that aggressively runs away from the straight white boy type story epitomised by Holden Caulfield and many after him. It is also a story about friendship, love, and the universe, about understanding the politics of your own self and of other people, and realising that the world may not be exactly as you see it.

From its summary, Juliet Takes A Breath promises the kind of novel where the main character’s questions are not always answered, a book where growing up isn’t learning the answers, but learning new questions. This is an accurate impression, as Gabby Rivera leaves Juliet full of possibility, ready to take steps to change or become more herself. As she learns more about the wider LGBT world, intersectional feminism, and racial politics, so can the reader, but the reader can also want to look further, just as Juliet does, as she discovers what relates most to her. A lot of different people contribute their suggestions to what Juliet should do, but she ultimately learns that she has ultimate control over that.

The side characters also help to make the novel a heartwarming and funny read, from Juliet’s sweet younger brother Lil’ Melvin to her cousin Ava who is always there to answer her questions about newfound ideas and terminology. This is the kind of book to share with people who you think might need it, whether to feel support and solidarity or to see more in the world.

I don’t even understand yet how deeply this novel has empowered me. I didn’t know that I needed this wake-up call until I got it feel onto my lap, and now I’m standing at the end of this beautiful journey in awe of the power in the voice of Juliet.

The representation in this book is excellently portrayed and sorely needed. The main character, a WOC Latina that is finding out who she is within the LGBT community. A coming-of-age story where the MC from Bronx goes on an internship with a bestselling feminist in Portland. Self-discovery, insecurities, and finding your voice all get explored in this touching story.

In every story, if it exists, the thing that makes it shine brighter is strong female friendships. One that really stood out to me was the sisterhood between Juliet and her cousin Eva. All the time, I was like: “I wish Eva could be my sister.” What she did was she broke things down for Juliet, terms and pronouns and identities, etc. in the LGBT community. She continually supported and stood by Juliet, gave her some of the most helpful advice ever, and showed her the naked truth. Let it be known that I am a big admirer of the bold and empowed Eva.

Some of my favorite parts passages where about how the strong women around don’t give a fuck and love fiercely and are trying to be supportive. Seeing all of the life lessons that other people can give and the LGBT inclusive community (there was a specific party) made my eyes almost tear.

“It's about women of color owning their own space and their voices being treated with dignity and respect. It's about women of color not having to shout over voices to be heard. We are the dominant force almost all the time. White women are the stars of all the movies. White women are the lead speakers in feminist debates, and it's little white girls that send the nation into a frenzy when they've been kidnapped. ...check your privilege. We're the ones that need to give women of color space for their voices.”


This is the most powerful quote about feminism that I have read in such a long time. This stresses the importance of intersectional feminism and how we (white women) need to give the stage for the voices of WOC and be constantly checking our privilege. In my opinion, this is the most valuable lesson that I learned from this novel, and for that I will be forever grateful.

**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy in exchange for my honest review.**

This book will be published on January 18th, and if you have not yet done so, I strongly urge you a pre-order it! It is life-changing, wonderful and truly a work of art. Giving a voice to budding lesbian Puerto-Rican budding feminist Juliet, Gabby Rivera adds an impactful NA novel to the sparse canon of non-white, non-straight feminist literature. It is a voice that needed to be written and a voice you need to listen to. I devoured the novel in an evening and was blown away. The narrative is beautiful, the characters quirky, the representation so diverse and important. I was questioning some of my own believes, as well as mentally discussing many issues this books raised. All the while, it is not a dry lecture, but a fun story about growing up and finding your identity, as well. One even I, as a white, straight woman could take lessons away from.

There were a few minor issues that I want to address in fairness, but which do not make me change my 5/5 star rating: first of all, my favorite pet peeve of not-explained, not-translated foreign words... Sigh. Moving on. Secondly, Juliet was confused by many words, such as "trans" or "preferred pronouns" or "xe". Yet instead of explaining these immediately, the explanation was pushed back many chapters and then only partially done. And last but not least in the tiny list of things that bothered me: the lack of diversity - yes, hear me out! Why was almost all of Portland and Miami queer? Why were there only two male characters, pushed far from the focus? What would have been wrong with including some genuinely caring, aware-of-their-privilege-and-wanting-to-do-something-about-it male and / or straight and / or white people?

And as I am writing this, I am again questioning exactly this demand of mine... am I still part of the problem? Did I not get the message? Am I still full of my own privilege? That is the sort of paradigm shift and thinking this book will make you go through. And that is good, and necessary! This is a novel to read over and over again, to gift to your sister, cousin, daughter, best friend; a novel whole chapters of which I would love to print out and hang on my walls. That sort of amazing novel.

ARC Review for Netgalley. I had been looking forward to reading this for quite some time, I grew up in NYC. The story was very appealing to me as was the MC, the coming of age, awareness were all interesting story lines to me. It was the way this book was written that did not work for me, just a bit too long winded. I felt it was too much telling and not enough story action. That could be my personal preference.