Justine
by Forsyth Harmon
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Pub Date Mar 02 2021 | Archive Date Feb 28 2021
Tin House | Tin House Books
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Description
Forsyth Harmon’s debut illustrated novel, Justine, is a sharp, intimate portrayal of girlhood and the line between friendship and obsession.
Ali is a lonely teenager living an isolated life with her grandmother on Long Island in the late 1990s. When she visits the local Stop & Shop, Ali finds herself inexplicably and overwhelmingly drawn to a cashier, the seductive but troubled Justine, who is so tall and thin she looks almost two-dimensional as her long fingers flutter over the cash register. “There was something spooky about Justine,” Ali says. “Her smile lit me up and exposed me all at once.” Ali applies for a job on the spot.
In the weeks that follow, Justine takes Ali under her wing, and Ali’s fixation with Justine grows. From Justine, Ali learns a new way to live—how best to bag groceries, what foods to eat (and not to eat), how to shoplift, who to admire, and who she can become outside of her quiet home, where her inattentive grandmother hardly seems to notice the ways that Ali keeps changing. But even as Ali reshapes herself in Justine’s image, her inability to more deeply connect with her newfound idol leads to a series of events that will forever change the lives of these two girls on the edge of adulthood.
About the Author: Forsyth Harmon is the author and illustrator of the forthcoming illustrated novel Justine (Tin House, 2021). She is also illustrating Melissa Febos' forthcoming essay collection, Girlhood (Bloomsbury, 2021). Forsyth illustrated The Art of the Affair (Bloomsbury, 2017) with Catherine Lacey. She has also collaborated with writers Alexander Chee, Hermione Hoby, and Leslie Jamison. Her work has been featured in The Believer, Tin House, Virginia Quarterly Review and The Awl.
Advance Praise
"Justine is a lushly rendered portrait of suburban teen girlhood in whose urgent and exquisite pages adolescent malaise, disordered eating, and the erotics of obsession are given the gravity of Greek drama. Forsyth Harmon is an artist who understands the holy power of longing." - Melissa Febos, author of Abandon Me
"With reservoirs of emotional intelligence plus pinpoint precision of prose and line, Harmon conjures the world with a vividness peculiar to adolescence: she is devastatingly attuned to something as tiny as the poem of an unspooling cassette, as well as the enormity of those subtle yet life-shifting currents of longing, loathing and eroticism that can run between two teenage girls. An exquisite book." - Hermione Hoby, author of Neon in Daylight
"Desire and self-destruction have a way of eclipsing and re-eclipsing each other in adolescence, as we look for reasons to live and ways to avoid living. With nervy, exacting illustrations and effortless prose, Forsyth Harmon’s Justine chronicles that struggle with the clarity and mystery of a black opal." - Catherine Lacey, author of Pew
"I’ve known Forsyth Harmon by the luxurious, eerie lines of her illustrations for years, and what a joy to discover that her writing is just as rich as her drawings. Justine beautifully captures the ragged-edged complexities of female friendship and the raw force with which a teenage girl moves through the turbulence of her previously-quiet life. Justine functions like an illuminated manuscript, in which illustration can live independently yet brings wealths of new meaning to a text, weaving together a world that’s pulsingly alive." - Kristen Radtke, author of Imagine Wanting Only This
"Justine has the perfect electric feeling of that crush you have on the person you want to be next, when you don't know any better, and you can’t tell if you're running away from them or toward them. Harmon’s mix of text and image is seamless, intimate, a continuous dream, and Justine brings her talents together with formidable force and grace. A show-stopping debut." - Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
"Forsyth Harmon tells powerful stories in both word and image, the two work together to convey meaning and emotion in a way that's deeply satisfying. As a writer, and an artist, her gifts are on full display here. Justine is unsettling, adoring, insightful, and even a little frightening. The best books carry insights that will shake you. That's what happened to me in this piercing novel. It shook me, and it made me see." - Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781951142339 |
| PRICE | $19.95 (USD) |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Jen C, Media/Journalist
Justine is a unique coming of age novel. In this story, Ali lives with her Days-of-our-Lives obsessed grandmother. When Ali gets a job working at the Stop & Shop she is drawn to her fellow coworker, Justine, who is a free-spirited enigma. The late nineties references were pitch perfect and Ali’s voice is so fresh Harmon’s writing is so sharp and her descriptions so creative, I was in awe of her writing down to the word level. In addition to this story about a young woman so wanting to be like someone she idolizes, Justine also includes delightful drawings that breakup the narrative. Seemingly mundane objects such as tweezers, powerlines and pizza slices take on import as the meaningful things that fill Ali’s life. Thank you to Tin House and NetGalley for the advanced review copy.
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