Review Detail

Juliet Takes a Breath is a coming of age story about a Latina lesbian from the Bronx who travels to Portland for the summer to intern with a feminist writer who she admires and idolizes. Juliet's exuberant voice engages the reader immediately, and we watch her navigate coming out as a lesbian, discovering the LGBTQ community, family, relationships, feminism, and issues of race and privilege. It is a character and issue driven book rather than being heavy on plot.
I'm worried this book will be pigeonholed as an LGBTQ and/or Latin book (which it is, of course), and readers who don't belong to these groups won't pick it up. Fundamentally, this book is very human and explores big issues like learning who you are, the consequences of making assumptions about others, respect for others and yourself, and establishing boundaries. We can all take something away from this book whether we are Juliet's age or much older.