March 1, 2019
A fictionalized teenage version of the author comes to terms with her bipolar type I disorder.Escoria (Witch Hunt, 2016, etc.) narrates Juliet's troubled teenage years from the vantage point of her more stable 30s in this semiautobiographical novel. Mania, hallucinations, and drug use characterize the teen's experiences, along with the ordinary humiliations of high school. Juliet passes unsuccessfully through several different types of schools as she comes to understand "the foreign thing" that plagues her mind, eventually landing in a rural, institutional boarding school with other addicted and mentally ill teens. Escoria writes in short, journallike chapters with occasional insertions of handwritten "found" documents such as notes, drawings, or Juliet's diagnostic records. Descriptions of Juliet's hallucinations are vivid, fantastic imaginings: "I no longer slept," Juliet says. "It was so loud all the time. Each day I was assaulted by ringings and whispers, my heart pounding out the center of the chaos like a metronome, the order of the days splintering, popping apart, the ropes that once tethered me to the rest of the world had snapped and I had floated too far to find my way back." The book is divided into two halves: pre-boarding school and institutional life. At times it becomes a numbing catalog of Juliet's teenage parties and hangouts: "Nobody had anything to drink or smoke, so we went over to Walgreens....Then we went to Togo's, where our friend worked, and he gave us free lemonades to mix with the rum. We drank our drinks and more people showed up and it seemed like it would be a good night--two parties, both in houses." Juliet's story is most compelling when she is contemplating her future or breaking through her own narrative to directly address the reader.A vivid if sometimes-repetitive rendering of mental illness and disaffected youth.
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March 18, 2019
Escoria’s searing autofictional debut follows a teenage girl from Southern California—also named Juliet—as she navigates her high school years, which are marked by not only the more typical adolescent tumultuousness of drugs, partying, and social machinations, but also an eventual diagnosis of bipolar type I. Juliet’s first suicide attempt at 15 leads to a stay in a psychiatric hospital, and over the next two years, she moves from high school to high school, all the while grappling with addictive behavior, mania, and an urge to self-harm. When she attempts suicide a second time, Juliet’s parents send her to a rural boarding school, where she meets other teens, each with their own demons; adults, capable of both comfort and abuse; and opportunities for uncomplicated joy, as well. Escoria rejects a traditional structure, opting instead to tell the story in vignettes reminiscent of Eve Babitz’s work, including handwritten notes, official reports and logs, and other paraphernalia from that era. The specificity lends the novel an immersive feel. Interspersed with letters from a future Juliet, who offers a glimmer of possibility if not exactly blind optimism, Escoria’s novel is a moving and intimate portrait of girlhood and mental illness. Agent: Monika Woods, Curtis Brown, Ltd.
April 1, 2019
Juliet is an average teenager living in sunny Southern California who begins high school with dreams of going to UC Berkeley or Columbia, but things quickly spiral downwards for her in a whirlwind of mental illness, drugs, and self-harm. She starts failing in school, becomes a truant, and is eventually diagnosed with bipolar 1 disorder. Despite her prescribed medications and parental support, she cannot seem to gain control of her life. She loses her friends, attempts suicide, moves schools, and is eventually sent to a therapeutic boarding school for better help. During her two-year journey, she meets many people who are shocked or disgusted by her but also finds camaraderie among others who are going through the same thing. Author of the poetry collection Witch Hunt (2016) and the story collection Black Cloud (2014), Escoria here delivers a coming-of-age novel about teenage life and mental illness that's also an explosive work of autofiction. With bold honesty, she tells an unforgettable story that's unhindered by romanticism in its unabashed portrayal of Juliet's darkest struggles.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)