Juliet Takes a Breath

Juliet Takes a Breath is a young adult novel by Gabby Rivera. It was published on January 27, 2016, by Riverdale Avenue Books.[1][2] The book's main character begins identifying as a lesbian. The book has won awards and has been met with attempts to have it removed from school libraries.[3] NPR described the book as a coming-of-age story about a college student from the Bronx establishing her identity.[4] The story takes place in 2003.[4][5] A review in the Los Angeles Times Book Review notes it became an "instant classic" after its debut from a small publisher.[6] It has been adapted into a graphic novel.[7]

Rivera went on to write the first-ever queer Latina super hero for Marvel.[8][9]

Plot

The main character, Juliet Milagros, is a 19-year-old Latina who has recently started identifying as a lesbian. She has just finished her first year of college and living away from home for the first time. During this year she quietly came out to some of her peers and started dating a white girl who Juliet doesn't feel tries to really understand her. Juliet is from the Bronx in New York City. For the summer while when the book takes place Juliet has traveled to Portland, Oregon to intern with a white, feminist author, Harlow Brisbane, who wrote a book about vaginas that inspired Juliet. In Portland, Juliet gets to know other queer people of color for the first time. Her new experiences open her up to the idea of having a community that she shares more than one identity with. She also discovers the racism in Harlow's feminism, forcing her to create her own understanding of feminism as the queer, brown, person she is trying hard to be proud of being.[1][10][11][12]

Awards

Juliet Takes A Breath was selected by the Amelia Bloomer Project Committee of the American Library Association (ALA) for the 2017 Amelia Bloomer List.[13]

References

1. Rivera, Gaby (January 27, 2016). Juliet Takes a Breath (First ed.). Riverdale, NY: Riverdale Avenue Books. p. 274.
2. Rivera, Gabby (2016). Juliet Takes a Breath. Riverdale Avenue Books. ISBN 978-1-62601-251-6.
3. "10 Great Recently Banned Books to Check Out". Teen Vogue. March 3, 2022.
4. "Life, Love, Coming Out And Culture Shock In 'Juliet Takes A Breath'". NPR. Archived from the original on 2023-04-20.
5. "JULIET TAKES A BREATH | Kirkus Reviews" – via www.kirkusreviews.com.
6. "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. October 27, 2019.
7. Gabby, Rivera. "Juliet Takes a Breath". School Library Journal.
8. Preciado, Mireya. ""Juliet Takes a Breath" Author Gabby Rivera On Inspiration, Queer Representation and Racism In Publishing".
9. "Portrait Of: Gabby Rivera". NPR. Archived from the original on 2023-04-20.
10. Martínez-Reyes, Consuelo (2018-07-01). "Lesbian 'Growth' and Epistemic Disobedience: Placing Gabby Rivera's Juliet Takes a Breath within Puerto Rican Literature and Queer Theory". Centro Journal. 30 (2): 324.
11. Gore, Ariel (2016-02-18). "The Power of Seeing Ourselves in Literature". Psychology Today. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
12. Moreno, Carolina (2018-06-07). "Gabby Rivera On The Importance Of Being (And Creating) A Queer Latinx Superheroine". HuffPost. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
13. Rivera, Gabby. "About the Book". Gabby Rivera. Retrieved 19 April 2018.