Juliet Takes a Breath

This book is part coming-out story, part coming-of-age story, and part Intersectional Feminism 101. It's funny, insightful, and unabashedly honest about all the ways we can be different, and how important it is to love yourself and embrace all the things that make you different from how the world wants you to be.

Juliet was such a fun, fierce, lovable narrator. She's a newly formed feminist and refers to herself as a “baby dyke.” She has an intense thirst for knowledge and throws herself head first into finding out everything she can about the communities she belongs to and her place within them. Her journey through the book isn't just about her summer in Portland–it's mostly about Juliet spending time with many different women and learning all the varied ways to be a feminist, to be queer, to be a woman, to be a person of color, to be a member of the Palante family.

I really appreciated that Juliet's romance(s) were treated as part of her exploration of her self rather than part of the typical coming-out storyline: girl finds herself and then finds love and everything is great the end. Juliet does have some sweet romantic moments with a few people, but it isn't at the crux of the story and I loved that. Instead, the focus was Juliet finding out who Juliet is–yes, with the help of other people–but not because of or for someone else.

Some of the writing/editing was a little sloppy and I wish some of the secondary characters had been more developed, but overall this was an enjoyable, informative, important book and I'm so glad it exists, especially in the young adult genre.