Jubilee

This was my first book by this author.... I finished it in a few hours. The story takes hold of you fast. I found that I couldn’t put the book down until the last page!

Where to begin?! Jubilee is about Bianca's search to find a way back to herself after experiencing major tragedies, the heartache of a broken first love, losing a parent and everything in between all. Bianca finally finds some stability and makes progress to a promising future with the help of Jubilee --but not everyone in her life thinks Bianca is anywhere near stable as Jubilee is a doll.

This novel was so unique and special -while it follows a traditional narrative, there is a sprinkling of prose, verse, spoken word, and even stream of consciousness. As the synopsis notes, the story is told largely in alternating chapters: Before Jubilee and After Jubilee. Before Jubilee: We learn in bits and pieces of Bianca's girlhood in Mexicali and of her future plans with Gabe. In After Jubilee: Bianca is in college with a passion for poetry and catches the eye of Joshua who is impressed by her formidable presence. As readers, we reconcile these pieces and fragments of Bianca --who is she? What exactly happened to her -- and can't help but root for her to succeed.

Givhan does a stellar job of making Bianca come to life by giving us readers a glimpse inside her head. There's also excerpts from Bianca's literary heroes (Sandra Cisneros for one) as well as songs and other forms of art that Bianca loves.

Though short, Jubilee was a little difficult to get into at first, as the reader has to get used to the writing style and the way the story is presented. Once you get your bearings, however, this book is hard to put down. and is totally engrossing! I really enjoyed it.

I loved this book. Loved the way it went back and forth in time and the emotions through out the book. Would recommend this book.

A sad and honest psychological character study about Bianca (Bee) and the doll that she believes is her daughter. The concept of this book was really intriguing, but I do think the execution could have been better. The plot and character development was slowed down significantly by the literary illusions and constant references/quotes, so portions of this book were a little harder for me to get through. However, the finish was very strong so I ended up giving this 4 stars. I loved that this book focused so heavily on Chicano/Mexican-American culture -- and the toxic, dusty Southern California environment plays heavily into the tone of the story. Bee is a character that is easy to get frustrated by, but she is also so innocent and it is heart-warming to see her grow a lot over the course of the novel. I think this is definitely worth picking up, especially if you are interested in family dramas, parental issues, and maternal love. Maybe this is a *spoiler* but I feel it is important to address the trigger warning to readers who may be sensitive to infant loss.

What a beautiful and haunting novel! The cliché "could not put this book down" gets thrown around a lot in reviews, but I literally could not put this book down and finished it in less than 24 hours. Do yourself a favor and pick Jubilee up now.

This was a beautiful masterpiece. It was one of the most truly wonderful and heart wrenching stories I’ve ever read. Was a punch in the gut and I loved every bit of it. I usually have more to say in my reviews but this one left me rather breathless.

𝐒𝐡𝐞’𝐝 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟, 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞. 𝐒𝐡𝐞’𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐲.

Jubilee is Bianca Vogelsang’s baby, who she watches over with fierce devotion and tenderness. She is a good, loving mother to her little one, the only problem is that Jubilee is a doll. When she shows up at her brother’s house in Santa Anna, she is a broken twenty-year-old who was meant to be away at University entering her junior year, writing her own poetry collection. Instead, on this dark night, she has returned, barely a sketch of her former self, bleeding, looking more like the walking dead. Worse, as she stands at the doorstep she has a baby bundled in her arm, as he hugs her, Matty feels she is burning up with a fever. Convincing her to let him hold the baby as he leads her into the sanctuary of his house, he realizes immediately the baby isn’t alive nor even human, it’s a doll. Matty isn’t able to make sense of what is happening, in her weakened state she can’t form the words to answer him, and Matty calls for reinforcement- their mother. Once there she knows they must rush Bianca to the hospital where they discover beyond her wrecked body, her mind has lost it’s grasp. Does she really believe her doll is a real baby?

The novel flashes back to the early days of Bianca “Bee” and high school sweetheart Gabe’s relationship. Moving too fast, getting caught up in bigger secrets, she makes a painful decision for the greater good at fifteen to later be betrayed by him when he leaves for college. With Katrina their story becomes a love triangle, with ties Gabe cannot easily sever and Bee always left waiting in the wings. Gabe knows how to “handle” his women when they act out of line and with her resentment and painful memories of the choices she made, Bee is quick to challenge him. But his touch always soothes the wounds. Still, they stick to each other, despite Gabe’s habit of coming and going as he pleases. When she needs him most after a terrible loss, he is with Katrina, who has everything she had to sacrifice. Things spiral out of control until we get to the bottom of the trauma and the reason someone as intelligent, and gifted as Bianca is now clinging to a baby doll.

In present time: Bianca is living with her brother Matty and his partner Handro, enrolled in college classes and attending therapy sessions entrusting Matty with Jubliee’s care. She has met someone in her Mexican Art History class, Joshua Walker. Joshua knows all too well about hardship having grown up in the foster system, even separated from his sister Olivia. When she got tangled up in the criminal justice system he moved the moon and stars to become the main caregiver to his nephew Jayden, who for all intents and purposes is his son. When he invites Bianca, a gorgeous, articulate, intelligent woman (who can carry on a conversation about Frida Kahlo and surrealism) on a date and into he and Jayden’s structured, safe lives he doesn’t yet know about her delusion. He learns soon enough it isn’t a joke nor a test, familiar with troubled youth and patients exhibiting early signs of psychosis, he is on high alert. First and foremost in his mind is Jayden’s safety, but beyond the doll, she seems so normal, certainly doesn’t appear to be harboring dark thoughts. What has he gotten himself into? Why can’t he walk away? What is this going to mean down the road for his little family of two?

Despite his misgivings, he and Bianca fall in love and just like her family at the advice of Bee’s doctor, allows her to work through her pain by way of Jubilee. But will she ever be able to detach from this crack in reality? What is at the heart of it? What exactly happened between she and Gabe? Joshua and Gabe are polar opposites, what violence occurred to make Gabe so repellant? Is he welcoming ruin into the only stable home Jayden has?

I went between 3 and 4 stars rating this novel, because at times I struggled with the flow of past to present, but it is an important storyline simply for the explosive relationship versus the healing one with Josh. The psychological break that is vital to Bianca coping with a bottomless loss is beautifully explored in this story. As is the fear other’s have when someone exhibits mental illness because most romantic interests would run the other way in terror. The abuses, the returning willingly to a cycle of degradation, how a childhood lacking made the things Gabe could give her so irresistible, blinding her to the uglier side. Then the sacrifice she made, far too naïve to understand the repercussions and pain that would follow. Adults get caught in the same web, having an intimate history with someone makes it hard to break free, it’s far more intensified in a teenager who lacks the experience that comes with maturity. Unlike privileged girls, for Bianca poverty is at the heart of her lack of choices, girls like her face consequences those with means never will. In the beginning, how she is defined and treated by others (Gabe’s family in particular) when the word ‘gringa’ is attributed to her, because her father is white and not Mexican like her mother, exposes another cross she has to bear. Laughter from his family when she mentions being a writer, her dearest dream, and that the true choice, in their minds is wife or career and nothing in between. This isn’t exactly support, especially for a young woman who uses poetry to keep from drowning. Writing, her one salvation.

In the betrayal of trust between she and Gabe, Katrina open fresh hurts with words like daggers about the private shamefulness of Bianca’s decision when she was fifteen, shedding light on how Bee feels about herself and the ways others judge her. As she says, girls like her are ditchwater girls… they must save themselves, and she tries, from that moment on her brother’s doorstep. It will take mountains of courage to recover.

There isn’t much room for innocence, but will she have a chance for a fresh start, a rebirth of sorts? Could Joshua and his sweet, funny son Jayden be a balm?

Publication Date: October 6, 2020

Blackstone Publishing

I really loved this book. It was fascinating, sad, happy, and beautiful. I was apprehensive at first since it sounded so sad - a young woman comes home, bleeding and traumatized, believing that a doll is her newborn child? Ooph.
However, the moment I started the book I felt the recognition of something special falling into place. This book is special and if it doesn't win awards I will be throwing a huge fuss.
The author is a poet and it comes through in this novel.
Bianca is so real, as is her childhood home and neighborhood.
I was amazed how the author wrote on this thin line between delusion, trauma, and mental health, without messing it up or making one more important than the other. I was nervous that Bianca's state of mind could be trivialized or made into a stereotype of "the crazy girl" and decisions being made for her without her input. The treatment of her mental health in the novel was so well done, I loved it.
The book is definitely a heartbreaker but so worth it!

CW: Infant loss, abuse and sexual assault

I was drawn into this book only 20 pages in as I had to know what happened to Bee. When I finished the book, I really needed to sit with it a bit. This psychological drama was incredibly heartbreaking throughout. It's a story about love, loss, abuse, trauma and mental health. You know how you can read a book and it just stays with you... well this is that type of book.

It was so interesting how the author developed the story and went back and forth between "Before Jubilee" and "With Jubilee" until the complete picture of what happened came into view. Although this book was difficult to read at times (due to the sensitivity of the story) I could not put it down. This emotional and gripping story was so well done! I highly recommend picking up this book!

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC e-copy.

I went into Jubilee blind with the only knowledge of the cover being gorgeous. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I ended up loving this book.

The story is about Bianca being a devoted mother to her beautiful baby girl Jubilee. The only thing is that Jubilee is actually a doll. (I went into this not reading the synopsis so this is not a spoiler however I was actually surprised by this reveal in the first chapter). It’s told in alternating chapters of Bianca’s past, “Before Jubilee” and “During Jubilee”. We learn about Bianca’s traumatic past and the path that led her to Jubilee. The during Jubilee chapters are current where Bianca meets Joshua and they fall in love. I’m not going to give anymore on the story but I thought the story was absolutely heart breaking but beautiful.
Jubilee is a story of mental illness, love, loss, strength, and hope. I was completely invested from the very beginning to the end. Bianca’s pain is just so raw and it felt absolutely real. My heart hurt for her and this book actually made me cry.

Now the only thing that stopped me from giving it 5 stars was that the writing in the beginning didn’t have the greatest flow. It felt disjointed and a little arbitrary. For example, I felt that it would hone in one a specific detail and go off on a tangent about it. There was a lot of telling rather than showing when I just wanted to hear about the story. However towards the middle, I’m not sure if I just got used to it or if the writing improved but I found the writing beautiful and poetic. This book actually had me in tears at one point. My rating is a strong 4.5 and I plan on buying this book for my collection. I will be thinking about Bianca's story for a very long time to come.

Trigger warnings: abuse, suicide, miscarriages

Thanks so much to Netgalley and to Blackstone publishing for advanced copy of this book, it is now available!

Jubilee was quite a surprise for me. One of my Goodreads friends read it, raved about it, and I was convinced. Once again this friend did not steer me wrong. When Bianca arrives at her brother’s house, he and his partner immediately know something is terribly wrong with Bee. Baby Jubilee in tow, Bee is feverish and quite ill. A trip to the hospital helps her heal physically, but Bianca has a long way to go to heal mentally and emotionally. Told in alternating chapters of before and after, we begin to know Bee, and feel for her as we experience her trauma. I loved the mingling of Spanish and English. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to be an early reader.

How far and to what lengths can you go to survive trauma and still come out on the other side has a whole and positive human being? A poignant story of a young woman’s suffering and abuse and her amazing tale of redemption and reflection. A wonderful emotional story of one family’s capacity to love and heal. Great story.
Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Well that was a punch in the gut and then a hug (that I needed bc I'm just wrung out with emotion). Water cleanses and gives life but also destroys and takes life. I thought about that throughout the book; along with the snippets of poems and holding my breath as to what really happened to Bianca and Jubilee. What a heartbreakingly beautiful journey.

Have you ever seen Lars and the Real Girl? It’s about this guy who believes a life sized doll is actually his girlfriend. It’s been several years since I saw the movie but I remember liking it. It took more of a comedic approach on the topic but this serious truth was clear: The doll served as a coping mechanism for Lars.

Jubilee is similar to Lars’ girlfriend. She is a doll and she is keeping Bianca afloat. Bianca needs her, and no one knows how long that need will exist, but she genuinely believes that Jubilee is her daughter. We, the readers, know that something devastating has happened to Bianca, but we don’t know what that is at first. We simply observe her leading a relatively normal life, with this one exception, and then we get glimpses of the past that brought her here.

Aside from the similar belief about a doll, these two stories have very little in common. Jubilee is a heavy book that includes content that could be extremely triggering for some readers. It is brimming with poignant passages that made my heart ache relentlessly. It is a tragic tale, yet never pessimistic, promising the possibility of something that resembles healing with every turning page. Jennifer Givhan explored the impact of trauma beautifully throughout Bianca’s painful story.

While I never disliked the book, I did find it a little difficult to feel invested in initially. I’m glad I didn’t let that deter me from pushing through, as it was worth every second devoted to it and every tear I shed.

Jubilee is literary fiction with dark, distressing themes. I know it won’t be for every reader, but it’s currently an underrated gem that deserves a bigger audience. I hope it will get all of the attention and love that it deserves.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my digital review copy.

got this one last October from NetGalley and I haven’t seen much of this in the bookstagram community.
It took me sometime for me to read it and wonder why I did not read it sooner.

SUMMARY
One night, Bianca (Bee) appears at her brother’s house with Jubilee, dressed and buckled into car seat. Bee takes care of her, feeds her, bathes her, carries her and puts her to sleep. Jubilee is a doll. The story in alternating point of views - Before Jubilee shows her struggles with high school sweetheart Gabe and the things they went thru that leads to the present with Jubilee. With Jubilee, Bee with her new love, Joshua, who helps her in coping and unearthing her trauma while risking the stability he sets with his little family.

THOUGHTS
This is not an easy and happy read as it discusses love, loss, abuse, trauma and mental illness but it is such a beautiful story. It is told in two timelines - Before Jubilee and With Jubilee and it depicts what happened to Bee and why she acts that way. It’s a long and hard process when dealing with trauma and each of us has their own coping mechanism. Some might breeze through it but in Bee’s case, it takes lots of courage, deep understanding, acceptance and unconditional love on her part and her loved ones. There are hard parts in the story and there are some characters I want to know more, but it is such a moving and riveting story that makes you symphatize with the main characters and feel their heartaches, losses, frustrations, fears and their being human.

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest view.