Honestly I don’t have an interest in reading this book anymore and I want to be more selective with what I request.

The story follows Juliet, a teenager from San Diego who starts off an honor student but quickly devolves after depression and hallucinations take over her life. Quickly, she falls into the drug scene and after two suicide attempts is sent to a sort of alternative boarding school.

It's definitely difficult to label this book either fiction or memoir. Escoria seems to be recounting real events and includes things like patient logs and artwork. I saw this book described as aut0-fiction, but I wished it had been a little easier to categorize.

Escoria paints the picture of mental illness and addiction with an honest brush. It can feel hard to like Juliet at times because she's often making super poor decisions (although it's in an effort to survive her mental illness). The thing I found the most frustrating is that there was absolutely no resolution at the end. The reader is left wondering how she stabilized her life (meds? treatment? sobriety?) or if she's still struggling with the same symptoms later in life.

I thought I could relate to this book because of my own mental health struggles, but the writing always felt a little distant to me. And many scenes felt like they were included for shock value versus importance to the narrative. I can't say I'd recommend this one except if someone is looking for an updated "Go Ask Alice" type novel.

Well this was a incredibly interesting read. I enjoyed the narrative being told from Juliet's perspective along with notes from therapists and psychiatrists. I appreciated Escoria's candid writing style, that I felt, gave a very real and raw perspective into a teenager dealing with mental illness. I don't think I would recommend this to teenagers but would definitely recommend this to adults.

This book was intense, let me start there. There is a lot packed in this novel including humor, raw intense moments, and straight up hard to read bits. It was definitely a traumatic read.
Mental health is such a tough thing to read about if done in certain ways. I found the representation in this one was done very well. I found the psychiatric hospitalization written extremely truthfully.
Overall I feel this book was written very truthfully and raw. I would recommend it if you don’t have a hard time reading brutally intense books. There was just so much real going on in this one.

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me.
Autofiction is not a genre I enjoy much. This book just didn't click for me as I was hoping it would.

This book was hard to read at points, but that's why it was so wonderful. I love the varying form; this made the story that much more engaging!

An emotional juggernaut - a raw and excellently executed account of a teen girl's battle with mental illness, self-harm, and drug addiction in the 90s.

A unique coming-of-age story told with wit and an unassailable humor. Everything feels like it happened yesterday, and the fact that I think of this book as a memoir rather than a novel says a lot about how Escoria's sort of low-pressure urgency. I'd definitely pick up another book by Juliet Escoria if I saw it in the bookstore or library.

I liked the format of this book (short chapters and integrated "fact sheets" etc.) but I had a difficult time trying to distinguish this book from "Go Ask Alice". This just felt like a modern version and the unique format made it even more so.

I had a hard time with this book at first, simply because the author/main character and I had wildly different high school experiences. But as the book went on, we got to know each other and became friends. The blurred line between author and narrator worked really well, reflecting the speaker’s fractured and scattered mindset. I can’t speak to the bipolar rep, but the book seemed honest. #netgalley

Autofiction is NOT my favourite genre, and so I was torn while reading this. While the novel is important in that it gives representation to those struggling with mental illness, and while that is necessary to strike down the stigma that is present in today's world, this one just didn't click for me as I was hoping it would.

“Juliet the Maniac” is a novel about a teenage girl that goes to a mental institution to fight her own demons. It has been compared to “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath and the film “Girl Interrupted”. The novel deals with drug addition and, mental illness. I found it dark, raw and unapologetic. A brilliant debut.

This was not what I was expecting. At all. But I really enjoyed it. This book follows Juliet’s story as she learns about her mental illness, and eventually spends time at a “boarding school” to heal and move forward.

The author had a way of telling her story where I could easily picture what she was describing. I found myself lost in her life.

I enjoyed this book.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

I am still slightly confused if this was a fiction novel or a non-fiction memoir. Is it something called Autofiction?? It's noted as a fiction novel honing in on mental health.

To me, this wasn't a memorable book -- There were a lot of drugs, fighting with parents, and suicide attempts. It felt redundant. You could feel the story happening and honestly, I wasn't surprised when her parents dropped her off at a school in the woods.

I feel bad for disliking Juliet the Maniac because it does fall into the strange auto fiction realm meaning that this is Juliet's story with some artistic range. I feel bad rating someone else's trauma and experiences? This is the first time that I feel weird about it.

Additionally for a book like this, you really shouldn't judge the book by its cover. It's not the warm, fuzzy young adult novel you would be expecting. I also don't remember thinking this was a funny novel -- Juliet's story was just intense.

Described as an autobiographical novel or “autofiction”, Juliet the Maniac is a powerful portrayal of bipolar disorder, addiction and recovery as experienced by our 14 year-old protagonist Juliet. Escoria’s writing is raw and perfectly captures how disjointed the world feels when you’re struggling with mental illness.

I wanted to like this novel, and at first I did. It got repetitive (drugs, fight with parents, suicide attempt, repeat) and it felt like a trashy "Girl, Interrupted" or a brattier "Prozac Nation" but without the literary talent of Susanna Kaysen and Elizabeth Wurtzel. There was no reflection on the events in the novel - just the story itself. Perhaps the poor grammar is an attempt to make it seem like a 15-year-old wrote it, but it came across as more of a lack of education than a style choice.

Very daring and honest novel of an adolescent growing up whilst trying to cope with psychological problems such as manic depression, cutting, suicide attempts etc. Luckily, she has got friends and a good relationship with her parents. Very impressive.

Thanks Melville House and Netgalley for the Arc.

{My Thoughts}
In the summer of 1998, 14-year old Juliet seemed to have everything going for her. She was bright, had plenty of frineds, loving parents, and was about to start high school. She’d been cutting herself for a while, but never deep and only where no one would see. As Juliet moved through her freshman year stranger and stranger things began to happen to her: she heard noises, saw dark shapes around her, couldn’t eat or sleep, feared she was being watched, couldn’t always make sense of written words, and sometimes heard the voice of god.

“I no longer slept. 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 day splintering, popping apart, the ropes that once tethered me to the rest of the world had snapped and I had floated too far away to find my way back.”

Juliet the Maniac has been described as an “autobiographical novel,” and that unusual moniker definitely fits. Throughout Juliet’s story are letters, notes, and medical reports all with the author’s own name on them. Her novel reads more like a memoir than fiction, but either way it’s riveting. I could feel nothing but empathy for this struggling young girl who was terrified by what was happening to her, but also so intelligent that she actually researched mental illness and diagnosed herself. She then reached out to her parents in a letter finally telling them everything she’d been feeling. Juliet’s descent continues after suicide attempts land her in a remote boarding school designed for teens suffering from mental illness.

The author, Juliet Escoria, clearly inhabits her character and made me feel so much: sadness for Juliet and her parents, thankful that my own children escaped mental illness, terror at feeling so out of control, disappointment at many of Juliet’s choices, and pride with many others. Parts of Juliet the Manic may be difficult for some to read, but the story is wonderful and especially if you’re a fan of memoirs or coming-of-age stories, this is a book you need to read! Grade: A-

Note: I received a copy of this book from Melville House (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review. Thank you.

I am so excited to read Juliet the Maniac by Juliet Escoria. Its a Young Adult novel, which I occasionally like. If its emotional or suspenseful, chances are I’ll be into it.

Here’s what you need to know:

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. An explosive portrayal of teenage life from the perspective of The Bad Friend, JULIET THE MANIAC is a bold, stylish breakout book from an author already crackling on the indie scene.

It might be a difficult, intense read, books about mental health often are, but I’m very curious to get into this story and see how it plays out.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
Thanks NetGalley!

Fourteen year old Juliet is struggling through mental illness, drug addiction, and the teenage years. this book tells about some painful events in Juliet's life and her struggles. It was hard to read at times, but it was raw and tragic. You need to read this book.