An autofiction that you can read like a novel, or a novel that at times seems an autofiction. In a sense, Juliet Escoria reused the trick of Edmund White for "A Boy's Own Story," when couldn’t he publish an autobiography, he wrote "novel" instead of “memoir” on the cover of his book. Juliet the Maniac is a novel that illustrates how society (hospitals, school, family) reacts to schizophrenia and does so by putting the dark, existential, gloomy 90s in the background. A sharp and vivid style makes Juliet an incisive and profound character.

4 Haunting Stars!

“ …I truly felt like I had a broken brain. Except it wasn’t even my brain. It was a brain of a homicidal maniac. She was trying to kill me…”

A story told by a 14-year-old Juliet, is a story of drug addition, mental illness, and teenage rebellion. This is an unapologetic, raw, and ruthlessly honest account of a young girl’s struggle to fight the demons of mental illness. It was a heart-wrenching, dark, and horrifying read for me, but I admired Juliet’s ability to distance herself from some truly disturbing and painful events in her journey to recovery.

The writing was superb and it really allowed me to get inside of Juliet’s mind and experience with her the darkness and pain of her illness and addiction. Even though Juliet’s thoughts and actions were often unemotional and disturbing, I was still able to feel the inner turmoil her body and mind were going through.

Thank you NetGalley, Melville House Publishing, and the author, Juliet Escoria, for giving me an opportunity to read this haunting and heart-wrenching book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I ended up with mixed feelings about this book. I think perhaps my biggest problem was that this was billed as YA fiction, but is obviously a memoir with, perhaps, artistic license taken. It needs to be either one or the other. I didn't care for the interjections from now Juliet reflecting on her experiences. Finally the ending felt incomplete. I wanted more out of it. Now despite all those negatives, I think there was a lot of potential for a really great book, which makes it even more frustrating.

Let me start off by saying, the writing was SUPERB! Juliet is a master wordsmith, if you don't believe me just read the first page and you'll see.
She painted a vivid picture. The reason why I didn't give it more stars was because, it didn't keep me hooked. Yes, she knows how to weave words, there is no denying it. However, I found myself reading a page and needing to reread it multiple times because I kept losing interest. I also couldn't read for more than 30minutes at a time.

Good story, great writing, but I just couldn't get into it like I'd hoped I would.

I will absolutely, without a doubt, read more by Juliet. I look forward to see what else she brings to life.

A very interesting novel about mental illness and how it affects youth. It was a very dark read. I often felt like I was reading someones journal or diary. It was painful living inside the mind of the main character, but at the same time very necessary. This book had its up and downs, and the pacing was a bit off. Overall, I would recommend taking a look at it. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher Melville House for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was just as crazy as I was hoping. Exactly what I was in the mood for, it’s equally dark and funny. Would suit fans of Rosie Waterland or Otessa Mossfegh.

This book was a heart wrenching look at how mental illness affects a young girl. It blurred the lines between fiction and memoir, and I actually wasn't sure by the end. Despite the difficult subject matter, I flew through this one. I think it would even appeal to older teens in high school/college.

Juliet the Maniac follows fourteen-year-old Juliet who is dealing with mental illness. Readers get a look at the spiraling nature that Juliet faces as she deals with mental illness, how she deals with it and her destructive behavior as it begins to consume her. She is aware that something is wrong and the thoughts she has are not ones she should be having, but is unable to deal with them. I really enjoyed this book because I have never read anything where a character describes what she is feeling and thinking while dealing with mental illness. She is a young character who is going through her teenage years while also having to deal with mental illness. My heart went out to the character because I remember my teenage years and it’s not easy when you are trying to find out about yourself. One thing that stood out to me while reading this book was the fact that Juliet felt like she couldn’t tell anyone and that her illness was something she had to hide. There was a point in the story where she is with one of her childhood friends and she keeps talking to Juliet about her life and Juliet attempts to bring up what she is going through, but her friend completely ignores her and doesn’t allow her to voice anything about herself. It was the same with her parents where they didn’t understand what was going on and thought it was regular teenage stuff she was going through and telling her to correct herself. I was so upset with how her parents handled her issues, but then again I have to remind myself that this book is set in 1997 when mental illness was not a very open topic to discuss or be aware about. However, I did find that this was a very open confrontation with an individuals spiral into mental illness and the reality of how some deal with it.

When Juliet finally comes to High School, she has high expectations. Since she is assigned to many honours classes, her talents sure will soon be seen by her teachers. However, instead of concentrating on her educational goals, Juliet is completely preoccupied with what others think of her, why she does not fit in and why she even lost the only friend she had in middle school. She struggles more and more and enters a spiral of drugs and self-harm until she, at last, cries for help and is brought to a hospital. With changing school, she hopes to find back to her old self, but the mental illness she has to recognize as a part of her personality, keeps her at the edge between life and death.

I have read several novels about teenagers developing mental illnesses and struggling to come back to something like a normal life. Thus, I was keen on reading Juliet Escoria’s novel which comes with high praise and was highly anticipated. Sadly, the protagonist didn’t really convince me and I hardly could relate with her and her fate.

The biggest problem for me was that throughout the novel I had the impression that the medicine to treat bipolar disorder or depression is somehow glorified and paralleled with “ordinary” drugs that are consumed by teenagers, such as alcohol, marihuana or any type of pills. Also the fact that having sex while being completely out of your mind was repeatedly portrayed as something you should go for left me a bit wondering. Since Juliet does not really seem to be willing to overcome her addictions or to find a way of living with her diagnosis and the side effects that come with it, I also did not find the novel helpful in any way.

Well, there were some entertaining parts in it, it was even funny at times. And surely it shows that absolutely anybody might end up with mental struggles and that you cannot really do something about it. The tone was adequate for a teenager, even though she often sounded a bit older than just the 14 she was at the beginning.

Wow, this book is a heavy hitter and has been on my mind all night since I finished it. This is a coming of age novel for a young teen girl who dives deep into the perilous world of toxic teenage behaviour. Struggling with a mental illness and trying to forge her way through the teen years is not easy for anyone and Juliet is on her own road to understanding.

This is a deeply affecting novel. I highly encourage people to read this book but also to take care of yourself. This book could trigger sadness. It reads like a memoir so much so that I checked twice to make sure it wasn’t one!

Thank you to @netgalley and @melvillehouse for a copy of this book in return for an honest review. This book comes out May 7, 2019.

Juliet the Maniac is a book that blurs the line between fiction and memoir, and does it very successfully. The main character of the book shares her name with the author, but the author is at pains to point out that the book is a work of fiction. However it does seem to be inspired by her own experiences to a significant degree. The book is a difficult one to pin down, it does not have a very defined structure or plot, instead it is composed of a series of vignettes that describe a young girl's downward spiral into substance abuse and mental illness, including several attempts at suicide, and her time in both hospital and a more experimental therapeutic boarding school. There is a sense of chaos that mirrors the mind of someone going though Juliet's experiences and at times the writing is strikingly beautiful, but I did feel like the ending was rushed. The book is largely written from Juliet's perspective, though there are some inserts from diaries, medical records etc that give an interesting outside perspective and show that Juliet may not always be the most reliable source . There are moments of real darkness and despair, and there is a rawness about the story and the way it is written that makes this book memorable in its genre.
I read and reviewed an ARC courstesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, Netgalley.com and Melville House Publishing. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review.

Juliet the Maniac is a fictionalized account of the author's journey to recovery and mental health. As intriguing as the premise was, the author is too busy glamorizing the very thing that she was trying to overcome. Her treatment is trivialized, an inconvenience to the story of drugs and unbelievable accounts of sex acts. Spontaneous, institutionalized lesbianism is thrown into just because the author realizes that she is the only one that hasn't experienced gay sex. Any suggestion of faith or belief in God is scoffed at. The story stopped so abruptly, I thought there was an error in the download, but no; suddenly Juliet is recovered and going home, here are the acknowledgements.

This book will certainly do well amongst the nouveau, intersectional proto-feminist set, though there is really nothing to be gleaned from the story.

A haunting, honest novel of a teenage girl with mental illness. The author did an excellent job presenting the girl’s thoughts and actions in a straightforward, unemotional way, making it all the more powerful. The book was presented as fiction, but the author had the same name as the main character, and the story was presented as a memoir from an older Juliet.

Fantastic book! Juliet felt very alive to me. She felt so real that I actually had to double check if the book was fiction or nonfiction! The inclusion of medical facts added some weight to the ring of realness as did notes that Juliet had written. Great job!

A powerful and sometimes difficult book about a teenager battling mental illness. Marketed as a novel, this book reads like a memoir which makes the gut punches even more brutal in the reading.

I was disappointed by this novel. It was slow and confused the line between nonfiction and fiction through the author having the same name as the main character--- regarding mental illness, stating this explicitly is beneficial.

I received Juliet the Maniac by Juliet Escoria as an ARC from Netgalley. I love this book! Juliet is a 14 year old who is a smart honors student who begins to deal with issues of mental illness, cutting and drug addiction. Her parents send her to a therapeutic boarding school to deal with her issues. This book reads like a memoir and I was actually surprised that it is a novel. Juliet's experiences are told from the perspective of someone who has actually go thru this struggle. Great read!

This book confused me, is this a fictional story? Or is it a memoir?
Is it something in the middle?

The book follows Juliet as she struggles with mental illness, drug abuse, suicide attempts and institutionalization. The road is fast and steep and she is only 14.

I found this book to be choppy, which it an attribute I have come to expect from books with plot-lines rooted in mental illness. That's not a criticism, just an opinion.

I found Juliets story, heart wrenching, raw and at times difficult to read.
But I am happy that books like this are being written, breaking down the wall that has been built up around mental illness, a wall of embarrassment and shame.
These stories aren't pretty, but they happen, and we need writers like Escoria who aren't afraid to tackle these issues.

I was provided an advanced digital copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Juliet the maniac is a gritty, realistic look at the downward spiral of mental illness and addiction through the eyes of a teenager. Escoria does a fabulous job of really taking the reader inside the main character's (who oddly enough is also named Juliet Escoria) struggle, The book is very raw and real, and Escoria doesn't sugar coat anything. I also appreciate the fact that Juliet is from a seemingly normal family, with a mother and father who love her, unlike most of the other teens in her position. At one point in the novel Juliet herself even mentally notes this. This shows that anyone can be effected by mental illness and addiction, not just those from "the other side of the tracks" so to speak. This is called inclusion and I think teens who pick this book up will identify with and appreciate that.

The book reads fairly quickly and I like how different images and case notes are interspersed throughout. I think what adds to the pace and readability of the book are it's layout. It isn't exactly written in chapters, but more like in different scenes throughout this period in her life. Each scene is titled according to whatever that particular vignette is about.

My biggest issue with the book is a sex scene that I feel borders on being erotica, or at the very least one that would be found in adult romance novels and not YA. I am an avid reader of YA, as well as a youth librarian with a focus in teens, so I know that sex is a teen issue that is often times found in YA novels. However, I think the particular scene in this book is written a bit too explicitly for the YA demographic. My only other issue, and this might be some type of mistake or misunderstanding on my part so I would love to be corrected if I'm wrong, is that the author and the main character have the same name. This really confused me. The book appears to be marketed as YA fiction, but the main character and the author having the exact same name would indicate this is a memoir work. Maybe this is something that will be changed before the book actually goes to print. If not, this might be really confusing for the reader.


Overall, I do think this book is a pretty good read that many teens would enjoy, and possibly even relate to.

“I was alone on that roof, no people, just me, everything empty and black. I wanted to jump into it, to become it, give in, forget my name. Not die. A desire to be a void, not a person.”*

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

JULIET THE MANIAC is a tale of teenage pain viewed through the lens of an adult looking back on her experiences with mental illness, attempted suicide, drug abuse, and self-harm. Objects such as illustrations, handwritten notes and letters, medicinal record excerpts, and a hospital bracelet photo are included.

The book is divided into a prologue and four parts. Part one sets the stage, showing Juliet’s dark thoughts, hallucinations, drug abuse, and her first suicide attempt. In part two, she is sent to a new school, while still living at home with her parents. This part ends with her second suicide attempt. In part three, she is sent to a “therapeutic boarding school. After a visit home and a brief re-acquaintance with her old lifestyle, she returns to the boarding school. In part four, young Juliet writes a letter to her future self as she prepares to leave the boarding school for good.

Adult Juliet links her first suicide attempt to side effects related to the drugs she’d been prescribed. She pens several “letters from the future” to her teenage self, which allow her to give commentary from an adult perspective.

On her journey, friends, acquaintances, and lovers move in and out of her life, but Juliet’s parents always try to do their best to help their daughter with the demons that they don’t understand. The presence of adult Juliet gives the reader assurance that despite being haunted by the past, there’s hope for a better future.

I enjoyed Escoria’s poetry collections WITCH HUNT and BLACK CLOUD. Like her poetry, Escoria’s novel is written with the raw intensity of a fresh wound. It’s bloody, painful, and promises to leave a wicked scar, but eventually will heal.

Thanks to NetGalley and Melville House Publishing for the opportunity to experience this novel in advance of its release.

*Please note that my review is based on uncorrected text.