Pulp

Pulp's main draw is the parallels between the coming of age stories of two lesbian teens, more than half a century apart, and the juxtaposition of fights for civil liberties at that time and in the present. Abby lives in Washington DC and is a social justice warrior; for her Creative Writing project, she stumbles upon lesbian pulp fiction novels and gets interested in how to subvert their tropes for the modern era. Meanwhile, she also gets obsessed with the story from one particular author, Marion Love, and starts to wonder what life may have been like for a lesbian living during the Lavender Scare. On the historical side, we see Marion Love, AKA, Janet starting to discover lesbian fiction, and realizing her first love and coming to terms with what she wants for her future. The book, through both their stories, explores the violation of civil rights - Janet's is during the time when gay people were ostracized from working in government in particular, and being outed would spell the end of their career anywhere in the town. There is a pervasive sense of dread and fear underlying the later parts of Janet's story, especially since her sort-of-girlfriend Marie is scared she will be found out. Janet's earlier story parts are about her being conflicted with internalized homophobia, and the certain banishment from her family, as well as her heartbreaks. Through a couple of black lesbian characters, it also discusses the particular struggles queer POC faced during that time. Abby's story discusses the civil rights violations of the current times - having a racist president, the immigration laws, the border wall, the fight for trans rights, and voter engagement. Her personal life development is about getting through her parents' imploding relationship, her disillusionment of the future, the pressure of college (she is in her senior year) and realizations about love and relationships. Pulp does justice to the stories of these two girls, and gives them realistic arcs, and discusses their life in the context of being gay, but also just being a teen at an age where you have to make big life decisions, where heartbreaks seem momentous, but you still have the hope of a life you love. It acknowledges, more than once, that their protagonists both being white, also are a little privileged while staying in its lane. Bisexuality, however, wasn't discussed as much as I would have expected, especially in the past parts, and it was more of same-sex relationships only. It did feel like it was going around the same parts for Abby's story as she continued being singularly obsessed over Marion Love's story, while everyone else looked on with exasperation, and thus felt like it stagnated for the most part; Janet's arc was more dynamic, exploring much more of the topic it wanted to. This is why I was finding it difficult to keep going during Abby's parts: I ended up putting the book down often, which took this book longer to finish than it would have. Ultimately, I did feel Abby's arc was not as well-written as Janet's. On the whole, it is a well-written book exploring the experiences of queer teens in both historical and contemporary aspects.

i read this as a acuall book. One of the best ive ever read. the reasin i read these books was becuas ri already read What we Left Behind and Lies we Tell Ourselves. i honestly fell in love with Robon Talley. the way she wirtes it so good and theres a bit of suspense. the storyline and plot are amazing and her themes are great.the stoey follws two girls in different times, both lesbian, in 2017 and 1955. abby (2017) is doing her senior projects on lesbian pulp foction and falls in love with an author under the pseudenym "Marian Love" im not going to go into detail but it gets WAY better. i give in 5/5!