Just Julian

June 1, 2018
Grades 7-10 Suicidal from the abuse he received, Julian has dropped out of school and become a near hermit, seldom leaving his bedroom and losing touch with his friends. Cajoled, finally, to go to a party, he meets Romeo, and the two have an instant connection, kissing each other. Romeo is said to be a homophobe, but it turns out he is actually a closeted gay teen. Soon he comes out as he and Julian fall in love. And no wonder?Julian's last name is Capulet, and Romeo's is Montague. Harwood-Jones pulls out all the stops in his love story: Julian's mother, for example, is a bisexual feminist; his best friend is a lesbian; his cousin is gay; two other friends are, respectively, transgender and gender fluid. The book is not without its cringe-worthy moments: Julian's favorite exclamation is Oh, Goddess, his mother calls him her darling jewel, and his absent father used to call him his little fawn. Though lacking in subtlety, the novel boasts empathetic characters and enough dramatic action to hold readers' attention to its happy ending.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2019

Gr 9 Up-This series continues with LGBTQ+ modern-day retellings of classic tales. Ash, a contemporary Cinderella in Cinders, is harassed by her stepsiblings while trying to win a coding competition at school. In Charming, Char is mercilessly cyberbullied for her music. Each book follows the story of how the two of them meet and fall for each other online while using Ash's anti-cyberbullying app. Romeo and Juliet is retold in Romeo for Real and Just Julian. Romeo is a high school sports star who begins to explore his sexuality after meeting Julian, though his openly homophobic friends and family make him fear coming out as gay. Through his relationship with Romeo, artist Julian becomes involved in LGBTQ+ activism. While these story lines relate only loosely to their source material, the narratives pack a punch. VERDICT These modern romances, written at a fourth grade reading level, effectively tie in contemporary themes like bullying and social media while presenting relatable characters embracing their sexuality.

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2018
Boy meets boy and falls in love in this angst-y modern reworking of Romeo and Juliet set in Winnipeg.In this latest adaptation of Shakespeare's most famous love story, the plot does not matter nearly as much as the characters' sexual orientations. The lovers this time are Julian Capulet, a gay 19-year-old who uses his painting to hide from the world after being bullied, and Romeo Montague, a closeted teen jock who indulges in gay bashing to avoid confronting his sexuality. The world that Harwood-Jones depicts in this pair of companion novels (Romeo for Real tells the tale from Romeo's point of view), in which gender fluidity is completely accepted and mothers dole out condoms and allow their children to have sex at home without judgment, feels so fantastical that it proves how far society still has to go in the quest for true acceptance. The author's passion for diversity is evident, but the novels feel so packed with nonconformity that characters become political statements rather than three-dimensional people. Nearly every character lies somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum, and God is referred to as female, which, while laudable, feels forced at certain points. While the theme of star-crossed teenage lovers is timeless, the novels' viselike grip on names and plot points from Shakespeare's play drives them into the realm of the hyperbolic. Julian is implied at least part Chinese due to his mother's surname, but race is indeterminate for all characters. Despite their flaws, these novels provide much-needed representation for those whom society marginalizes.Imperfect yet earnest works celebrating love in all forms for reluctant teen readers. (Fiction. 14-17)

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.