*I received an ARC of this book for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

“I love you like the seas love the moon. Whatever you are, whoever you love. I’m here.”

I adored this ❤︎ there were issues that were pointed out in such a short story that is relevant until today even though the original novel was published some 4 years ago.

THE ILLUSTRATIONS ARE SO GORGEOUS; it did a lot to convery Juliet’s emotions, the pallette is used well and so my style, translates the comic relief

tw// homophobia, fatphobia, cultural appropriation, white apologist

— overall thoughts: 3.75 —

To point out some of points that were tackled so bravely:
✧ it talks about the conflicts that could arise after coming out to your family and does it well
✧ pointing out the actual realities of issues like homophobia in families like Juliets
✧ cultural appropriation in a white dominated society
✧ “it’s just a phase”

At the heart, it is a coming of age story that showed the realities of how hard it can be for families to accept but also that not perhaps not everyone will be like that and there will be some people who will love you no matter what. Together with all the insecurities come at that age.

“They didn’t even know me and it was like they loved me.”

I loved the character dynamics and being able to see plainly see the cultural appropriation in certain parts irked me, but that was the point. But Harlowe… oh boy.

Spoiler

Using Juliet as “proof” that she wasn’t being an ally was so out of line to an infinite degree.

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.

I’m really glad they came out with this graphic novel because I might not have been able to get around to reading the novel, and it might be the same with other people. This, I feel, makes it more accessible to a lot more people which is important for such an important story.

There really is no excuse to be ignorant at this point with all the stories just like Juliet Takes a Breath that are being published.

This was a well done story on every level. It did feel like everything was moving too fast, I guess that comes with the graphic novel format.

↣ This was a nice breather and a surely important story to thousands of people. I wish this was more hyped but maybe I just missed said hype. ↢

“If you don’t have a hum, just a breathe.”

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