Name: Pulp
ISBN: 9781474069564

Robin Talley

From the award-winning author Robin Talley comes an inspiring new novel about the power of love to fight prejudice and hate. Two women connected across generations through the power of words.

Pulp

From the award-winning author Robin Talley comes an inspiring new novel about the power of love to fight prejudice and hate. Two women connected across generations through the power of words. In 1955 eighteen-year-old Janet Jones must keep the love she shares with her best friend a secret. As in the age of McCarthyism to be gay is to sin. But when Janet discovers a series of books about women falling in love with other women, it awakens something in her. As she juggles a romance she must keep hidden and a new-found ambition to write and publish her own story, she risks exposing herself - and Marie - to a danger all too real. Sixty-two years later, Abby Cohen can't stop thinking about her senior project - classic 1950s lesbian pulp fiction. She feels especially connected to one author, 'Marian Love', and becomes determined to track her down and discover her true identity. Is Abby prepared for what she will find? A stunning story of bravery, love, how far we've come and how much farther we have to go.

Jesse

suddenly I need to write pulp fiction and project my life into it

In 1955, eighteen-year-old Janet Jones keeps the love she shares with her best friend Marie a secret. It’s not easy being gay in Washington, DC, in the age of McCarthyism, but when she discovers a series of books about women falling in love with other women, it awakens something in Janet. As she juggles a romance she must keep hidden and a newfound ambition to write and publish her own story, she risks exposing herself—and Marie—to a danger all too real. Sixty-two years later, Abby Zimet can’t stop thinking about her senior project and its subject—classic 1950s lesbian pulp fiction. Between the pages of her favorite book, the stresses of Abby’s own life are lost to the fictional hopes, desires and tragedies of the characters she’s reading about. She feels especially connected to one author, a woman who wrote under the pseudonym “Marian Love,” and becomes determined to track her down and discover her true identity. In this novel told in dual narratives, New York Times bestselling author Robin Talley weaves together the lives of two young women connected across generations through the power of words. A stunning story of bravery, love, how far we’ve come and how much farther we have to go.

mia ¿

** spoiler alert **
           i'm giving this book five stars cuz i think more people should read it but i'd give it 4.75 just because of a few cringey parts...

they didn't ruin the experience for me or anything but there were just a few too many references to the current president and i felt like that would make it dated while the rest of the book i think will hold up pretty well.

the only other part i thought was weird was the use of third person? it's even mentioned at the end of the book that third person is better than first person but i'm not sure why? most YA these days is written in first person and i think that's good... 

third person was fine for the 1950s character, but for the current day character it just made parts of her story seem kinda cringey... basically there was just a lot of telling instead of showing and it took me out of the book in a few parts

but ultimately the end of the book redeemed it for me... abby realized she was acting not so great to her friends, she had to deal with the divorce, she met marion love and realized that she was just a real person and not some all-knowing being... the themes about love and relationships came to a really nice close and it all felt really satisfying so this book gets five stars.

also i just love gay historical fiction. that's it.

Gabriela

That's some quality young adult with a good message
idk if I was objective. It was one of my first YA and first queer book I've read

In 1955, eighteen-year-old Janet Jones keeps the love she shares with her best friend Marie a secret. It's not easy being gay in Washington, DC, in the age of McCarthyism, but when she discovers a series of books about women falling in love with other women, it awakens something in Janet. As she juggles a romance she must keep hidden and a newfound ambition to write and publish her own story, she risks exposing herself--and Marie--to a danger all too real. Sixty-two years later, Abby Zimet can't stop thinking about her senior project and its subject--classic 1950s lesbian pulp fiction. Between the pages of her favorite book, the stresses of Abby's own life are lost to the fictional hopes, desires and tragedies of the characters she's reading about. She feels especially connected to one author, a woman who wrote under the pseudonym "Marian Love," and becomes determined to track her down and discover her true identity. In this novel told in dual narratives, New York Times bestselling author Robin Talley weaves together the lives of two young women connected across generations through the power of words. A stunning story of bravery, love, how far we've come and how much farther we have to go.

Sahi K

It's probably close to a 3.75, but I just couldn't rate it as 3 here.

I’ve never read a book by this author before but from the first time I saw the blurb, I was so fascinated by this story. Even though it’s essentially YA, it didn’t feel like the romances that I usually read but I really wanted to know what it was all about. However, now I’m not sure how I feel about it. I didn’t want to put it down once I started because I was really engaged in the mystery, but it also didn’t captivate me as much as I wanted it to.

In the current timeline, our main protagonist Abby is a high school senior trying to work on her project on 1950s lesbian pulp fiction. She has a lot of things going on in her life – she is still unable to deal with her breakup with Linh while trying to remain friends with her, her parents don’t spend even a minute together at home anymore, her younger brother is acting out and getting into trouble and she hates the competitive nature of applying for colleges. All she wants to do is escape all these problems of hers and when she discovers one particular lesbian romance novel from 1956, she becomes obsessed with the characters and decides that she needs to uncover the true identity of the author. This obsession literally takes over her life and while I understood her struggle with being helpless about her home or love life, it did make her slightly petulant and very neglectful about her studies. I could feel for her desperation to keep things okay, but it also made me slightly unsympathetic towards her because of the way she went about it all.

The timeline in 1955 follows Janet, the author of Abby’s new favorite novel and this was a very compelling look into the times. The wonder when Janet first discovers a lesbian novel herself (or even sees the word lesbian for the first time) or when she realizes that there are other people like her out in the world is captured beautifully. She can be a bit impulsive and sometimes even naive, probably due to her sheltered upbringing, but once she gets to know more about herself or others like her, she decides on her path forward and never wavers from her convictions. She is quite brave in that she wants to live a life being true to herself despite the whole world telling her that it is wrong and I was amazed at her strength in such a young age. Her story is definitely what kept me going with this book.

The writing is good but not enough to keep me engaged throughout. I preferred the 50s timeline because Janet was a much more intriguing protagonist and the stakes felt quite high in her narrative. Even when Abby is trying to find the mystery behind “Marian Love”, I wanted her to solve it as much as she did, but the way her character is written made the journey less enjoyable for me. There is also not a lot that happens for more than half of the book, but the last 25-30% is very exciting when the two timelines converge and definitely what makes the book a memorable read. 

The amount of research that the author must have done also shows in every page and this was one of the most informative fiction books I’ve read in recent times. We get some great insight into the queer culture of the 50s, about the Lavender scare when scores of LGBT+ people were discriminated against and fired from their jobs for being immoral and subversive, and about the small communities that they still managed to form to support each other despite the whole world being against them. The two timelines also give us a picture about how far we have come in the fight for equality and how much more we have to do. I especially liked that Abby and her friends have the acceptance from their families which Janet never had, but how this also makes them more politically aware and engage in activism themselves. 

This book may not hit the mark all the way through but I still think it’s an important read and I would recommend it to everyone. It’s also really an ode to the power of words and stories, and how the courage of authors to tell them can have an impact on so many others.

Grace O'Callaghan

*4.5 ⭐️

What a tragic yet hopeful story this was. This book has taught me so much about the lesbian community and how far we’ve come, but also how far we still have to go.

Abby Zimet’s life is a bit of a mess right now. Her parents are avoiding each other, college applications are looming and things are awkward with her ex-girlfriend. But whilst doing research for her school writing project, she finds solace in a lesbian pulp novel. Alongside Abby we go back to the 50s to follow the author, Janet Jones, and her life. Robin Talley beautifully weaves a tale of secrecy, love and hope.

• As much as Abby annoyed me sometimes, I could see a lot of myself in her. That’s probably why I found her annoying. Abbie has a habit of running away from her problems and burying herself in fiction. I loved seeing her grow to confront her problems.

• Janet was my favourite character however. I just really admired her strength for not being apologetic about who she was to Marie. She wrote her heart and soul into a book and didn’t give up on her dreams.

• I think Robin Talley did a beautiful job at writing these two powerful stories side by side. It was also immensely satisfying seeing the two stories collide with each other. One of the better multiple perspectives I’ve read.

• Would’ve loved to see a bit more of Abby’s friend group. I understand that the story wasn’t about them, but I only remembered that they even existed when they were on the page. 

• It’s clear that Robin Talley did her research whilst writing this book. There’s a lot of information in this book that I never knew about. I never knew that people thought homosexuals were Communists. 

• The most important thing I will take away from this book however is representation. I urge you to give this book to anyone who doesn’t think representation matters because I don’t know how you can read Janet and Abby’s stories without thinking it matters. Janet and Abby both find comfort in the novels they read. When everything is crumbling around them books are there to show them that they aren’t alone. This book reminded me that everyone needs to feel like they belong somewhere.

If I haven’t convinced you to read this book yet, nothing will. I’m now inspired to pick up some lesbian pulp fiction.

tanvi deshpande

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this book from KidLitExchange. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Rating: 3/5

Publication Date: November 1, 2018
 
Genre: YA Romance

Recommended Age: 15+ (romance, mature scenes, language)

Pages: 416

Author Website

Amazon Link

Synopsis: In 1955, eighteen-year-old Janet Jones keeps the love she shares with her best friend Marie a secret. It’s not easy being gay in Washington, DC, in the age of McCarthyism, but when she discovers a series of books about women falling in love with other women, it awakens something in Janet. As she juggles a romance she must keep hidden and a newfound ambition to write and publish her own story, she risks exposing herself—and Marie—to a danger all too real.

Sixty-two years later, Abby Zimet can’t stop thinking about her senior project and its subject—classic 1950s lesbian pulp fiction. Between the pages of her favorite book, the stresses of Abby’s own life are lost to the fictional hopes, desires and tragedies of the characters she’s reading about. She feels especially connected to one author, a woman who wrote under the pseudonym “Marian Love,” and becomes determined to track her down and discover her true identity.

In this novel told in dual narratives, New York Times bestselling author Robin Talley weaves together the lives of two young women connected across generations through the power of words. A stunning story of bravery, love, how far we’ve come and how much farther we have to go.

Overall I thought this was a good series. It had great character development and writing. The premise sounded amazing and I loved the LGBT aspect of it and I thought it was a cute romance book. It really reminded me of the premise of Leah on the Offbeat and I think fans of that would love this book as well.

However, I do think that the two different time lines, while pretty cool with mirroring each other, does make for a confusing read for some people, me included. It’s sometimes really discombobulating and out of place in my opinion.

Verdict: A romance for the ages.

Pulp

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