Pulp

"Love the parallel timelines in this book, very well written!"

"I wish there was a way to express how much I loved this book. This is my first LGBTQ+ book that I've picked up and I wasn't disappointed. "

"4.4. Alright, thinking about this, this is more of a 4 star than a 5 star, which was what I previously rated it. <br/><br/>Pulp is one of those books where if you don't like the characters, then you are going to hate the book. But I loved the characters, so that was no problem. <br/><br/>Pulp follows two timelines, Janet Jones and Abby Zimet. Janet's story takes place in the 1950s and we watch her as she harbors a great secret that could very well destroy her. Abby's story takes place in 2017 and we follow her as she tries to deal with a failing relationship, her parent's inevitable divorce, and her final project for her creative writing class. <br/><br/>I preferred Janet's storyline over Abby's until about halfway through the book. Not because Abby was uninteresting. I think it was just the part of me that's ridiculously interested in 20th-century queer history coming out. (alright, that wasn't supposed to be a pun, but it's a pretty good one) When Abby started searching for Marian Love, that was when I really became interested. <br/><br/>Janet is not in a good position throughout the book. Her father is working for the government in the age of McCarthyism. If you don't know what that is, here's the definition off of our dear friend Google: <i> 'A vociferous campaign against alleged communists in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy in the period 1950–54. Many of the accused were blacklisted or lost their jobs, although most did not, in fact, belong to the Communist Party.' </i><br/><br/>It was really interesting to see Janet try to navigate a relationship with another girl in the age of the lavender scare. I also enjoyed how the author acknowledged people of color and how they were a part of queer history. When we look at history, as a whole, POC is often excluded from the overall story—And still, today, when we see a movie focusing on the LGBTQ+ community, people of color are often not included. It was also interesting to see the acknowledgment that Abby had regarding pulp fiction novels. In this era, literally, everything considered 'civilized' was white and it was cool to see the main character regard this fact with disdain. <br/><br/>Abby's storyline was a bit uninteresting at first, but I genuinely cared about her so I pushed through it. I cared for Ethan a lot, even though he wasn't present a lot in the story. Linh wasn't the <i> best </i> love interest I've ever set eyes on. It was obvious that she regarded Abby's obsession with Marian Love as odd. And every time she had a negative reaction to Abby exploring what happened to her, I was just thinking 'wait until this girl hears about what historians do.' There's nothing wrong with her, I just was glad in the end when she and Abby stayed friends. <br/><br/>Now, the ending is what bumped this down from a 4 to a 5. It felt <i> really </i> rushed. It was like the author either realized the book was getting too long or that she was coming upon a deadline and tied up most loose ends at the last minute. <spoiler> I found it really weird that Janet just called Abby out of the blue and was like, yeah, I'm not dead </spoiler> It really just made the entire mystery element of what happened to Janet seem really half-assed. <br/><br/>(I don't think I've said this yet, but Janet and Marian are the same person. She adopted the name because she's in love with a girl named Marie)<br/><br/>Speaking of Marie <spoiler> I feel like it's a bit drastic for Janet to fake her death. Couldn't she have just moved to California or New York or something? I also wished we knew what happened to her. <br/><br/>Also, I find it hilarious that the grandma had a heart attack when she was planning to out Janet to her family. That's a terrible thing to say, but hey, that's what you get when you try to out people, knowing damn well it could ruin their lives. </spoiler><br/><br/>I really did like this book and thought it was great. If you like queer history, I think you would like this, too."