Pulp by Robin Talley
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."
My Thoughts
I really wanted to enjoy this book, unfortunately, I was rather underwhelmed and disappointed by this story. I'm still rating 3 stars mostly because I think it's an important book and it wasn't bad. I just didn't enjoy it all that much.
This story is told from two perspectives, one is Abby living in 2017 who stumbles across an article talking about 1950s lesbian pulp novels and decides to write one for her class project. And the second is told from Janet's perspective in 1955 who stumbles across a lesbian pulp novel in a bus station and it completely changes her life at the height of the Lavender Scare in Washington D.C.
There was some fascinating history in this one as well as talk about tropes and censorship that happened. Janet's perspectives were amazing and heartbreaking simultaneously. Abby's perspective was such an interesting juxtaposition, seeing how much has changed how some things haven't changed at all.
Why I didn't love it: there were so many characters. Not only do you have the two main characters in totally different time periods and all their associated characters, but each of those characters is reading a book AND writing a book of lesbian fiction. And since I listened to this as an audiobook, it was near impossible to keep track of who was being talked about and what time period we were in. I also didn't click with most of the characters, especially Abby in the current timeline. I'm definitely a character first reader and they just didn't click with me for some reason. Which is a bummer because this book had such a great premise and a lot of important history in it as well.
Overall, I would still recommend this book if you want to learn a little bit about 1950s lesbian pulp novels and like a book with multiple POVs.
Genre: lgbtqia+, ya, historical
Representation: lesbian MC, Jewish MC, Vietnamese-American, bi, Black, Latinx, non-binary
Content Warnings: homophobia, transphobia, mention of suicide, mentions of death