Books › Juliet takes a breath
Juliet takes a breath
320 pages
A messy, vibrant, and deeply earnest summer of self-discovery, queer joy, and learning that your heroes are only human.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like sitting on a stoop with your best friend while they spill their guts about the most transformative summer of their life. It moves at a brisk, conversational pace, carried entirely by a narrator whose voice is fiercely authentic, vulnerable, and funny. The mood is vibrant and sun-warmed, balancing the heavy ache of family rejection with the euphoric, dizzying thrill of queer awakening and finding your people. The prose is chatty and intimate, often reading like a diary entry or a breathless letter to a mentor. It is a perfect read for anyone who has ever felt too loud, too messy, or too complicated for the spaces they occupy, offering a joyful embrace of growing up.
- Mood
- vibrant
- hopeful
- tender
- awkward
- Tone
- earnest
- conversational
- vulnerable
- humorous
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- intersectional feminism · queer awakening · chosen family · decolonizing identity · coming of age
- The writing
- Chatty, intimate, and deeply interior, reading like a breathless letter to a trusted friend.
- The arc
- Moves from anxious, eager uncertainty to a grounded, self-assured embrace of her own complex identity.
- Who it's for
- Queer youth and anyone who remembers the messy, urgent quest to find where they belong outside of their family's expectations.
Content notes
- homophobia
- racism
- family rejection
- microaggressions
About the book
Juliet Milagros Palante is leaving the Bronx and headed to Portland, Oregon. She just came out to her family and isn't sure if her mom will ever speak to her again. But Juliet has a plan, sort of, one that's going to help her figure out this whole "Puerto Rican lesbian" thing.
Description from Open Library.
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