Juliet Takes a Breath

Juliet Milagros Palante leaves the Bronx for a summer internship in Portland after coming out to her family. Working for Harlowe Brisbane, a white feminist writer whose book has changed the way she thinks about herself, seems like a chance to find answers. Instead, Juliet encounters a community and a vocabulary that do not always make room for her experience as a Puerto Rican lesbian. New friendships, attraction and the limitations of her literary hero complicate the liberation she expected to find. With tension still waiting at home, Juliet begins forming her own understanding of feminism and belonging. The summer asks her to decide whose guidance she needs and when to trust her own voice.