Juliet Takes a Breath

Juliet Takes a Breath (2016) is a young adult novel by award-winning author Gabby Rivera. The novel won the 2017 Silver IPPY Award for Best LGBTQ Fiction and was selected by the Amelia Bloomer Project Committee of the American Library Association (ALA) for the 2017 Amelia Bloomer List. Gabby Rivera is a queer Puerto Rican author from the Bronx, New York. She is the first Latina to write for Marvel Comics, writing a comic book called America about a queer Latina superhero. Rivera is also the Youth Programs Manager at GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network), a national organization working to end discrimination against LGBTQ+ youths.

The coming-of-age novel follows Juliet Milagros Palante’s journey of self-discovery as she comes out to her family and begins an internship with a white feminist author. This study guide refers to the 2021 paperback published by Dial Books.

Plot Summary

Gabby Rivera’s Juliet Takes a Breath tells the story of Juliet Milagros Palante, a 19-year-old Latina lesbian from the Bronx who interns with a feminist writer for the summer in Portland, Oregon.

The Preface opens with a letter from Juliet to the author of Raging Flower: Empowering Your Pussy by Empowering Your Mind, Harlowe Brisbane. Harlowe is well known as a white feminist author. In the letter, Juliet relays how Harlowe’s book changed her life and how she wants to intern with Harlowe that summer.

The narrative of Part 1 begins in the Bronx with Juliet preparing to leave for her summer internship with Harlowe Brisbane in Portland, Oregon. Before leaving the Bronx, Juliet decides to come out as gay to her family. She’s very nervous about this, but she wants to live openly and tell them about her girlfriend Lainie before she leaves for the summer. Her family does not take Juliet’s coming out well, especially her mother. Her mother locks herself in her bedroom and refuses to come out to say a proper goodbye to Juliet before she leaves for the airport. Juliet leaves, unsure of where she stands with her family. However, Juliet is hopeful that her summer in Portland with Harlowe will be transformative.

When Juliet arrives in Portland, Harlowe embraces her at the airport. Harlowe is much more of a hippie than Juliet had realized, but Juliet also sees that it is a part of Portland’s culture. Juliet isn’t the only person who is living with Harlowe at the moment. In Harlowe’s house, Juliet meets Phen, a young nudist who questions Juliet’s identity. Juliet begins to understand that she does not know a lot about queer culture as she learns about preferred gender pronouns and polyamory from Phen and Harlowe. She also begins to learn more about the parts of US history that are not usually taught in schools, which makes Juliet see the world around her with a more critical eye. As she learns about these new ways of thinking, Juliet continues to miss her mother, who still is not supportive of her sexuality, and her girlfriend Lainie, who has not communicated with Juliet at all since she left for her own internship in Washington, DC.

For Juliet’s internship, Harlowe gives her a box full of scraps of paper with names of women written on them. She wants Juliet to research these women for her next book. Juliet also has to help Harlowe prepare for an important book reading at Powell’s Bookstore. To do her research, Juliet spends time at the library, where she meets a cute librarian named Kira. Despite having a girlfriend, Juliet flirts with Kira and feels happy that she is able to get attention since Lainie (her girlfriend) has been ignoring her calls and texts. One day, Juliet finds a letter at Harlowe’s house from Lainie that tells Juliet that she has fallen in love with someone else. This breaks Juliet’s heart and destroys some of her confidence, as she wonders if Lainie’s new love is white and skinny instead of Juliet’s brown and curvy. With the help of Harlowe and her cousin Ava, Juliet slowly gets over the breakup.

Juliet meets Harlowe’s partner, Maxine, who is a Black woman. She learns that Harlowe and Maxine have a polyamorous relationship where they are allowed to date other people while still maintaining their relationship. At a writers’ workshop for science fiction writers who are people of color, Harlowe tries to be a politically correct white woman who corrects other white women who question the workshop, but instead comes across as demeaning and egotistical to Maxine and Juliet. Even though Harlowe is trying to help change the mindset of other white women, she instead continues to put white women on a pedestal over women of color. This confrontation makes Juliet start to doubt how feminist Harlowe is, and Juliet becomes closer with Maxine because she can ask Maxine about racial and feminist issues more openly and without the influence of Harlowe’s white perspective.

By the time of the important book reading at Powell’s, Juliet thinks she has a deep love for Harlowe. However, at the book reading, Harlowe racially stereotypes Juliet in front of the entire crowd. Harlowe is asked about whether her book applies to people of color and not just to white women, and Harlowe tells everyone that Juliet is poor and had to fight her way out of poverty and the violent streets of the Bronx to become her intern. This enrages Juliet, and she leaves the reading and flies to Miami to visit her cousin Ava for the weekend.

While Juliet is in Miami, she spends time with her cousin Ava and her aunt. Ava is bisexual and pushes Juliet to question Harlowe and the rest of society. Juliet’s aunt encourages Juliet to empathize with her mother and to trust that her mother loves her no matter what. That weekend, Ava takes Juliet to a party for queer people of color. The party is Juliet’s first time being surrounded by people of color who openly express their identities and are accepted for who they are. At the party, Juliet gets a new undercut hairstyle that is stereotypically for lesbians.

When Juliet returns to Portland after her weekend in Miami, Harlowe acts as if nothing happened at the book reading and instead talks about how her partner Maxine left her. Harlowe does not apologize for her actions, but she does offer Juliet an acupuncture session with her friend to make up for what happened. This pseudo apology is not enough for Juliet, and she eventually tells Harlowe about how what she said at the reading was racist. Harlowe apologizes briefly, but she still makes the apology mostly about herself instead of about Juliet. Juliet talks about Harlowe with her mother on the phone, and her mother reminds her that she has to tell her own story and only then will she change the world.

As her internship is ending, Juliet spends a lot of time with Kira the librarian. Kira understands Juliet’s problems and shows her around Portland more. They fall in love, even though Juliet is leaving for the Bronx after the summer ends. On the last day of her internship, Juliet goes with Harlowe, Maxine, and other friends of theirs to a river to cleanse themselves, which is a yearly ritual for them on the hottest day of the year. While Harlowe is hiking with Juliet, Juliet starts to have an asthma attack and realizes she forgot her inhaler. Juliet panics, and Harlowe doesn’t take the asthma attack seriously. Juliet yells at Harlowe about how hurt she is by her and how awful Harlowe has been since she got back from Miami. Harlowe admits that she believes that all white people are racist, including herself, and that she is trying to be better about it but is still struggling. When they finish the hike and Juliet rides down the river in the cleansing ritual, Juliet feels free and ready to move forward with her life. She feels more confident in herself, her beliefs, and in the power of her own story. Juliet returns to the Bronx, where she is embraced by her family. Later on, she writes a letter to herself about her summer where she professes her self-love.