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A review by lola425
Juliet the Maniac by Juliet Escoria
4.0
Read in prepub. Due out May 2019.
Juliet Escoria has written a compelling coming-of-age story. It has all the archetypal elements--figuring out who you are, navigating the complicated relationships and friendships of high school, falling in love for the first time, struggling to escape your parents while at the same time needing things to stay the same--except in this story the coming-of-age narrative is overlaid with a veil of a developing and serious mental illness. As Juliet realizes something is very wrong, at first trying to hide her symptoms, she tries to manage her insomnia, fear, and hallucinations through self-medication with illegal drugs, self-harm, and suicide attempts. Her diagnosis as bipolar spurs her parents to send her to an experimental school in the wilderness in a last-ditch attempt to save her life. Escoria peppers the story with Juliet's psychiatric reports, notes, letters from the future, and drawings giving the story the feeling of a diary.
Recommended for readers who like novels that feel all too real. Like a more modern Girl, Interrupted.
Juliet Escoria has written a compelling coming-of-age story. It has all the archetypal elements--figuring out who you are, navigating the complicated relationships and friendships of high school, falling in love for the first time, struggling to escape your parents while at the same time needing things to stay the same--except in this story the coming-of-age narrative is overlaid with a veil of a developing and serious mental illness. As Juliet realizes something is very wrong, at first trying to hide her symptoms, she tries to manage her insomnia, fear, and hallucinations through self-medication with illegal drugs, self-harm, and suicide attempts. Her diagnosis as bipolar spurs her parents to send her to an experimental school in the wilderness in a last-ditch attempt to save her life. Escoria peppers the story with Juliet's psychiatric reports, notes, letters from the future, and drawings giving the story the feeling of a diary.
Recommended for readers who like novels that feel all too real. Like a more modern Girl, Interrupted.