- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Melville House Publishing (16 May 2019)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1612197590
- ISBN-13: 978-1612197593
Synopsis
It’s 1997, and 14-year-old Juliet has it pretty good. But over the course of the next two years, she rapidly begins to unravel, finding herself in a downward trajectory of mental illness and self-destruction that eventually leads to a ‘therapeutic boarding school’ in rural Oregon. From there, deep in the woods of the Northwest, comes an explosive portrayal of teenage life from the perspective of The Bad Friend, and a poignant reflection that refuses the traditional recovery arc. Like Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Cat Marnell’s How to Murder Your Life, Juliet the Maniac offers no clear answers, no definitive finish-line, just the wise acceptance of the challenges ahead. This punchy debut marks the breakout of a bold and singular young writer.
Review
Juliet the Maniac is a mixture of fiction and autobiography about Juliet Escoria’s teenage years. From the age of fourteen her life begins to spiral out of control with mental illness and addiction. This is a very honest book that takes the reader in to the mind of a young girl suffering psychosis, and also looks a how that effects her family and the relationships she makes. With mental health very much in the news at the moment, I feel this is a very important book and an eye opener into what this is really like.
Juliet Escoria’s writing and honesty make this a beautiful and brutal book. This is a no holes barred look back at her teenage years that saw her being admitted to a therapeutic boarding school in an aim to stop her addiction and help with her mental health. The subject matter is obviously serious and takes in drug addiction, bi-polar and suicide, yet this is also a beautiful book and one of hope, that you can come through this. What really came through this book for me was Juliet’s constant battle and her parents desperation; as a parent I would do anything to help my daughter and Juliet’s parents have to be cruel to be kind to save her from herself.
Juliet is the narrator and the book is in diary entries rather than chapters, some just a couple of paragraphs long. She opens up her world to the reader about how it feels when you have visions and bi-polar and how deceitful she was to get the drugs she needed to get high. There are also a couple of entries where she reflects back on what it was like during that period of time, and also a look into her life now. By the end of this book I had such respect for the bravery and strength of Juliet Escoria to not only go through this and write openly about her experiences, but also to come through it and to be able to reflect back on that time.
Juliet the Maniac is a book that I won’t forget in a hurry, whilst it tackles some very distressing issues it is also a riveting read. As a character you can’t help but feel for Juliet, and be drawn into her story to the extent you really will her to get the help she needs to overcome this. Shocking in parts, emotional and fascinating, this is a great read for someone wanting to learn more about mental health and it could all be a good read for teenagers at it opens up a lot of questions for debate. This is a work of fiction and it is a compelling and engaging read in that capacity, it really is hard to put down; a fascinating read.
I would like to thank Melville House Publishing for inviting me to take part in this blog tour and for providing my copy of this book.
I also want to thank you all for reading my reviews and taking the time to like and sharing them x
