After a breakup she’d rather not talk – or think – about ever again, Mim Robinson has nowhere to go: distanced from her friends, estranged from most of her family, she finds herself against all odds on Juniper Lane, surrounded by an eccentric aunt and her wealthy, uptight neighbors.
Among the catty gossip and quiet rhythms of the suburbs, Mim finds herself striking up a strange, unexpected friendship with the intimidating Nadia Bahjat, the only other twenty-something on the street. Nadia, a professional chef and perennial disappointment to her parents, had to leave a promising career in the city to return home when her father grew sick – but she’ll soon realize that her parents may not be as perfect as she’d always imagined.
A queer romance that encompasses both a cutting satire of suburban American life and a nuanced depiction of the aftermath of abuse, Juniper Lane is above all an ode to the freedom that comes from embracing the uncertainty of adulthood.
A very character focused book that I honestly enjoyed. The satire is spot-on for life in suburbia, which was amusing to read about. The dialogue is fantastic and really pulls the whole thing together. The characters and voices of Mim and Nadia are great, and their initial interactions are filled with anxiety and tension and judgment. Mim’s anxiety comes through when she speaks to other people, and it’s done so well that I often got secondhand embarrassment over a lot of it. I would say that it was a little off-putting in the beginning due to that, but I knew that was the sign of good writing, that I could feel what the characters were going through, even if it itched at my own anxiety.
The writing is fantastic and really pulled me into Mim and Nadia’s worlds.
