A review by travelseatsreads
Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Juno Love Legs is a coming of age story which follows a young adolescent girl, Juno, as she painfully navigates who she is and who she will soon become. Alongside Juno, we also get to see the story of Legs, her faithful childhood friend, as their friendship blossoms into a stunning display of platonic love. Set in bleak and sorrowful Dublin during the 80s, the book details the many struggles they face but also the many amazing experiences they have along the way.

While set in those bleak and poverty stricken streets of 1980s Dublin and reeking of the stench of the Catholic Church and its vice-like grip, the book somehow manages to maintain an air of hope and beauty that you cannot resist smiling at. This is carried by a stream of beautiful and colourful characters alongside some simply stunning prose.

Geary has woven an evocative, vivid and immersive telling of the stories of those kids who just don’t fit in, who are made of pure grit and stubbornness that somehow manage to dig themselves from the dirt they were landed in to create something so much more.

I never cry at books, in fact I could probably count the number on one hand, but this left me devastated with more than a few tears. I implore you to read it but with the warning and promise that it will break your heart in the most stunning of ways.

"Even horrible people can have their hearts broken."

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