Juliet Takes a Breath

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But it just made me so intriguied to see how the novel unpacks all of these issues because if the graphic novel already did it so well in such a small amount of pages, then surely the novel will be doing an ever greater job at it! That night, she leaves the Bronx for an internship in Portland with “the pussy lady,” a super feminist who loves to stand for what she believes in. Juliet must confront and explore how her sexuality, gender and ethnicity intersect and that exploration is something so rarely seen in YA.

This is Juliet's specific journey as a lesbian woman of color, and the author makes that very clear. I loved Juliet's cousin and her flash course on how trans people don't owe cis people their gender, their sex, or their education. How no one wants to confront it or talk about it—some days it's just ignore, ignore, ignore at all costs—because then they think it'll go away or it won't be real. And of course, she discovers her family, both of her blood and of her choosing, and realizes that sometimes both of those can be the same thing. Me encantó la forma en la que varios temas se llevan a cabo, como la diferencia que existe entre la experiencia de alguien blanco y la de alguien racializado.

I live this damn struggle every day and Gabby Rivera managed to perfectly capture it in less than 300 pages.

This journey is not only Juliet’s but also her mother’s; finding love, reason and understanding within herself. After speaking to others who read the book, I was told that this framework is never challenged and exists throughout the book.

First things first: I have not read the novel this book is based on, so I can't say anything about how well it is adapted. I haven't read the original novel but this graphic novel had me so hooked and so in love, that it made me want to read it, even though I now obviously know the basic storyline. December 12, 2020: A Puerto Rican lesbian—Juliet—has recently moved cities and started an internship, to find herself ecstatic by the sense of belonging she could feel amidst a diverse group that includes gender queer and other LGBT+ characters, Black and Latina characters, and a biracial (Korean-white) love interest. The truly beautiful and unique thing about this book is the incredible visibility of queer spaces, and especially queer spaces for women of colour.

But don’t worry, Juliet has something kinda resembling a plan that’ll help her figure out what it means to be Puerto Rican, lesbian and out. but they all talk as if they're in a Portlandia sketch - it's all inner goddesses, your heart and your spirit, etc. I think because it was also so heavily reliant on New York slang, which I hear constantly in my day-to-day life but prefer not to read it because it’s extremely informal.

juliet milagros palante is the fat and asthmatic puerto rican lesbian you never knew you wanted to read about. The number of queer women around at all times in this novel was impossible to ignore and it made my heart sing. Even though it's not a typical fast moving plot, I still felt myself constantly reaching for this because it was endlessly interesting in other ways then plot. Still, it was a fun read and I really enjoyed reading about Juliet's journey and her finding herself.