Book Review: Juliet Takes a Breath
written by Gabby Rivera
What’s the novel about?
“Juliet takes a breath” focuses on the life of the 19-year-old Puerto Rican lesbian Juliet Palante. She lives in the Bronx and since her family is Hispanic she has to deal with racism a lot. One day Juliet reads the book “Raging Flower: Empowering your Pussy by empowering your Mind” and her life completely changes. Luckily she gets the chance to spend a whole summer with the book’s author: Harlowe Brisbane a spiritual-vegan-lesbian-feminist. Juliet’s summer starts with her coming out to her family before leaving to Harlowe’s. Afterwards she explores her sexuality, feminism and identity...
Why did I read the novel? Since there has been a lot going on this year (and I’m not talking about the virus but BLM, pride month, my graduation & the moving out of my parent’s house instead) the book combined my needs and wishes. I wanted to educate myself about the racism and the “white privilege”, about coming out to your parents (yep, I’m still in the closet but I don’t feel the need to get out), the fact of starting a new chapter in your life a feminism. Basically I wanted to explore my own opinions, my identity...
The Ranking It actually took me a while to read the novel, but overall I’d say it has inspired me a lot and made me feel like a strong woman. For some reason it taught me, that it’s okay to be the way I am: a fluffy, curvy nerd who’s just writing books and loving people while wanting to smash all the guys who tend to put hands on women’s bodies.
It taught me to ask questions to fight, become a strong female who fights back and to just be happy. But most important: It taught me that nobody is perfect even if we thought the person next to us it.
So hey Gabby Rivera, just in case you read this: Thank you for inspiring and teaching me about all those important topics everybody should be taught about. I’ve been a writer before your book but after I read it I’m a more educated writer with a different view on the world. (Oh and I’m sorry that I suck at writing book reviews)
(DISCLAIMER: I bought the book myself and because I chose to. Also: The Opinion above is mine and if you have another one that’s totally fine -please respect mine the way I respect yours)














