The synopsis on the back of the book only scratches the surface of all the things covered in this book. While Juliet experiences instances of a marginalized community excluding other marginalized groups through gatekeeping (primarily with Phen, who was projecting many of his own insecurities), she also experiences a marginalized community welcoming a not-as-marginalized community into their doors. The story actually starts with Juliet coming out as a lesbian to her family and while a lot of the members of her family are dismissive at first, most of them are accepting. We have suffered from the brutality of an inherently violent system that favors maleness over womanhood. This is the story of a lesbian, Puerto Rican girl from the Brox, who wants to follow her mentor who happens to be a granola hippie feminist white woman who has white privilege coming out of her ears, and doesn't always realize it.

in case you don't know, the original story is about a young girl named juliet, who moves to portland for a summer internship with her favorite author. OH OH OH and I almost forgot: the almost embarrassing amount of realism that queer women become completely useless in the presence of other beautiful lady-identified individuals. Perhaps some of the strongest and most important parts of this story are the parts I’m least qualified to comment on—I’m very much aware that while as a queer woman I related to Juliet on lots of levels, our experiences don’t intersect on race. I think I tripped myself up with this one because I hyped it massively to myself and I seriously wish I’d read the book (which I own) before the graphic novel.This book debunks and challenges aspects of feminism and womanhood that are exclusionary, cissexist or racist and promotes intersectionality. A delightful read paired with difficult subtleties, and coupled with a warm, colorful art style, this contemporary delivers with pride. At first glance, she seems like the embodiment of everything Juliet wants: an icon, a mentor, a woman who accepts her flaws and works on them.

The voice is killer and so, so fresh, and you know how sometimes when a book is one of the first of its kind it tries to do everything and ends up feeling really didactic and just fails so hard? People need to talk about periods in books more often, because young ladies need to understand they have nothing to feel ashamed of.Harlowe is the feminist guru of the day, with her incredibly popular book about the Power of the Pussy, which is more of a rah-rah girl-power self-help book that blithely claims to be for every woman but is really for every white woman. That being said, Harlowe’s flaws are unearthed and challenged by the end of the story so I can recognize that she was intentionally written to be a symbol of when feminism becomes exclusionary, so that was appreciated. This, I feel, makes it more accessible to a lot more people which is important for such an important story. This is one of the few books I've actually seen succeed - in the way it addresses the needs of PoC-only spaces and the propagation of white and trans-exclusionary feminism and anti-Blackness and just. I live this damn struggle every day and Gabby Rivera managed to perfectly capture it in less than 300 pages.

But that also goes to show just how entitled some white folks can be with topics like racism and the fact that it was pointed out so blatantly has me applauding.It was absolutely fantastic, and all I want is to run around gifting beautiful copies of it to every single person I know! 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. as a queer person, I have this opportunity to deconstruct and potentially abolish heteronormative relationship structures and create relationship models that work for me, that work for my needs and that don't rely on mimicking straight codes of conduct. It felt super rushed and a lot of scenes from the book were cut so short I don’t think they would have made a lot of sense to me if I hadn’t read the book before.

Juliet Takes A Breath was selected by the Amelia Bloomer Project Committee of the American Library Association (ALA) for the 2017 Amelia Bloomer List. Everything is explained very clearly and respectfully, so those new to feminism can easy understand the topics and grow in knowledge like Juliet. There is also a great f/f sex scene with a big emphasis on consent and masturbation is also explored in this graphcic novel. Overall, as you might be able to tell from this review, I truly loved this graphic novel and cannot wait to dive into the novel soon because I am just that in love with the characters and themes in this story! I do, however, see that this book is valuable for WHO is experiencing these life events in fiction -- there are still so few books that portray queer women of color at all.

would recommend if you want to gush about a graphic novel as much as i did in this review ( and more lmao ). Juliet is looking for knowledge—she’s newly out, on a mission to discover how being a feminist and being a lesbian and being a round, brown girl all fit together, and she thinks she’s going to figure everything out in Portland, Oregon at the feet of the pussy lady, Harlowe Brisbane. I've read some of Rivera's journalism and essays on Autostraddle, which I thought were great, but fiction is a VERY different kind of writing and this entire novel needs a gigantic editorial makeover to transform it into that. Beyond the presence of queer spaces, there is also so much emphasis on POC-only spaces and the importance that they have. So much to relate to as a queer POC trying to make sense of the broader queer and feminist communities.