This was such a darling queer love story. I am a big fan of historical queer stories and this was so exception.

Started out fun, but by the end, Janet's plot was the only thing that still had my attention. Not Janet herself, who is surprisingly naive given the time and place she lives in, but the tension of the Lavender Scare in addition to the joys and trials of being queer in such a time. Abby and her story are just a boring wash.

The dual viewpoints in Pulp, by Robin Talley, make for a quick and engaging read. The juxtaposition of queer teen girls' lives in DC in the 1950s and the late 2010s is a bit jarring, but in a way that keeps you turning the pages! Both storylines wrap up in satisfying ways. The characters feel very real, with strengths and flaws, while still being interesting. Will definitely be adding this to my high school collection.

‘Pulp’ by Robin Talley was an extremely interesting book and while I definitely learned a lot, the story moved a little too slowly for me. But, the premise is excellent and what drew me in, the history you will learn is invaluable, and I would still absolutely recommend you check this one out!

DNF @60%

I’m including this because I made it over halfway and I feel like I deserve an award. This book was SO BAD.

I want to permanently wipe what I read from my mind. The characters were so annoying and the plot was boring.

This book was archived before I was able to download it. I appreciate the opportunity to review though!

After fraudulent use of my Amazon account, it had to be closed and with it my kindle email which I used to download Netgalley arcs; therefore, I am unable to access this title. Thank you for the opportunity.

I've been meaning to read this book for AGES now, and I'm so glad I finally got to it! It's told in two timelines - in 2017, Abby is doing a school project on 1950s lesbian pulp novels, and in 1955, Janet is figuring out her sexuality and learning what it means to be a lesbian during the Lavender Scare. Both stories were incredible, and I loved seeing how they intertwined. I also learned a lot about lesbian history from this book - I'd heard about the topics covered in this book, but I didn't know much about them.

I would highly recommend this for people who like queer books, dual timelines, and/or historical fiction!

Unfortunately, for my older books requested I was unable to review probably. They were never read, not because they weren't great, but because I ended up sick. I am just now getting back into the swing of thinks. Thank you, Netgalley.

I loved the mix of modern and historic, particularly given the history covered here. Highly recommended.

I forced myself to pick up this book several times and I just did not want to force it anymore. This is more of a story within a story which is not really my thing but I was just so excited about one of the time periods. I don’t think there are that many FF romances that take place even partially in the 1950s. Anyway I’m sorry but couldn’t get into this book and I stopped reading at forty percent.

A more recent historical fiction telling of being queer in a time that it was not spoken of. A good telling of love and the fight for that love.

I have many, many thoughts about "Pulp" upon finishing it, yet I think it's easier to start with the note of how ambitious, well-researched, emotional and engaging this book was overall. I knew I'd be taken in from the premise of two narrators from the past and present intersecting in a gripping way. The fact that one of them - from the present - is researching lesbian pulp fiction as a part of her senior project was one that made me raise my eyebrows and say "Ooooh, that's cool." (Though thinking back to my high school senior project obligations, I second-hand cringed because that was a lot of work and deadlines. For all the ways that Abby gets swamped and struggles to meet the obligations of her teacher's prompting for assignment completion, I felt for her. For the curious, my project dealt with the genetic differences between different types of twins. Try to guess why, heheheh. ^_^ )

To set the stage of this novel specifically, Abby - in 2017 - is taking on this interesting senior project while dealing with many different weights in her life. She's trying to navigate her relationship with her friend/ex-girlfriend and her parents are steadily drifting apart, never seeming to be there for her or her younger brother anymore. As a means of escaping some difficult situations and a future she doesn't quite have answers for, Abby throws herself into researching a once popular lesbian pulp author named "Marian Love". Abby becomes so engrossed in Marian's story that she wants to determine what happened to the author in the vein of writing her most famous story. Soon it becomes more than just a project for Abby and a full on, borderline obsessive quest.

Enter the other piece of the story, back to 1955 when Janet is coming to terms with her own sexuality in a time when the stakes are high to be in such a relationship. I felt so badly for Janet on many levels because she's so in love, wants to be true to herself and be with the girl that she's hopelessly fallen in love with. She juggles her job at the Shake Shack while also wanting to be a writer and produce some of the same stories that captivate her attention. However, in navigating the prejudices of the time, there's the risk of being shunned by her family AND falling into the clutches of McCarthyism, some clashes which put her and friends dangerously into governmental and societal crosshairs.

I won't spoil how Abby and Janet's stories converge, but it's an experience that as the novel progressed to its conclusion I felt satisfied to watch. I felt that way even when the events were difficult to see unfold for the characters because of how both Abby and Janet grew from those experiences overall. There are moments of sweetness within the more complex and emotional moments of this novel, and I genuinely rooted for both Abby and Janet as I saw what happened to both of them as time went on and they discovered more, not just about the times they lived within, but ultimately how they were able to get to a place where both of them were happy and came into their own. In some pieces of the work, the pacing dragged its heels more than I thought it would, but I did enjoy "Pulp" collectively for what it offered, and it's a story I would read again and have in my personal library.

Overall score: 3.5/5 stars.

Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley from the publisher; I also bought a copy of the book.

Thank you netgalley
Unfortunately, I DNF this book since I could not get into it.
I picked it up a few times with no success.
Thank you

While this wasn't a bad book, it wasn't necessarily a good book either. I think the premise and the hook are both very interesting and well written, but the plot seems to get lost in all the stories-within-stories.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

1955 - 18 year old Janet Jones knows what her family expects of her: go to college and get married to a well-to-do man. The only problem is that Janet loves her best friend Marie. Marie and Janet have to hide their relationship though, living in Washington D.C. with a father involved in politics, Janet finds herself living a life full of secrets. Not only her love life, but also her aspirations to write a novel featuring lesbian characters.

2017 - Senior in high school Abby is feeling all kinds of uninspired about the remaining months of high school. She knows that she has projects to finish, and colleges to apply to, but she can’t get herself to focus on any one thing. To start, her love Linh doesn’t seem to want to be with her after the two broke up last school year. Then, Abby’s home life seems to be in shambles; her parents avoid one another like the plague and she feels like the inevitable is on the horizon.

The one way that Abby finds solace and then inspiration is from a lesbian pulp fiction novel by an author named Marian Love. Abby quickly becomes obsessed with finding out who Marian Love was, and what inspired her to write her novel. Along the way hunting for answers, Abby starts to write her own novel paying tribute the pulp novels of the 1950s. In her search for answers though, Abby starts to learn so much more about herself, and in the end the mystery that surrounds Marian Love takes her on a journey she never knew she could go on.

I’m so glad I stuck with this book. I had a super hard time consistently reading this book. There wasn’t any one reason I wasn’t picking this up to read it, but in the end, I couldn’t put this book down. The novel goes between 1955 and Janet’s story, and 2017 with Abby’s story. Both young women are lesbian and navigating what this means for them. It is easy to see how the two stories connect, but Talley has a wild ride for the readers that I felt didn’t really pick up until I’d read about 70% of the book. There might not be as much wide appeal, but I do think this is a great novel to have in all libraries. Highly recommended.

*disclaimer: the rating is based on the portion I DID read*

Okay, I've tried for so long to keep reading this one but I just can't. I can't connect with the characters enough and that is a big part of my reading experience.
The portion I did read was just alright, I didn't love it but I didn't hate it.
I hate that it's taken me so long but I just unfortunately am unable to finished and am now DNF-ing

Three stars might be a bit generous. I wasn't invested in Janet's story at all, and Abby started to really get on my nerves about halfway through the book. It's pretty intense, and I didn't enjoy the plot much at all. Leah (hopefully that's the right name) was my favorite character, and she was hardly in the book. I wouldn't really recommend this book to anyone.

The Abby and Janet dual timelines and stories wove together pretty well. I didn't know much about lesbian pulp fiction from the 50's and see both how much and how little has changed in the book world.

Robin Talley's books are always good, but they vary in how much they're my thing. Actually, they're generally only my thing in terms of rep, because they don't tend to be romances, even though they're often about romantic relationships.

What I Liked:
- The concept: I'd never heard of lesbian pulp fiction, so that's a really cool thing to learn about.
- The message about the importance of representation: Those pulp novels sound like terrible representation (because it wouldn't have been legal to publish lesbian romances that ended happily), but they meant so much to lesbian readers. It really goes to show that any rep is better than no rep at all, because, even if these books said you were strange, they also said you weren't strange alone.
- Janet's plot line: Though I'm not one for doomed romances, I didn't like this one for the romance but the history.

What I Didn't Like So Much:
- The modern timeline: I never really connected to Abby, and I find it hard to understand her emotional motivations.
- Well, sort of. It's more that I wasn't CONVINCED by her emotional motivations, which are all tied into her parents' divorce. She becomes obsessed with a particular pulp novel and its author to not think about that, but it's all so obvious that it wasn't believable to me.
- The pulp novel sections: I get that these would be super exciting if you didn't have anything else, but a modern teen has some great f/f options, so it's really hard to believe that Abby thinks Marian Love's book is the best ever. Like, when she lets her ex-girlfriend read part of it, she comments accurately on the cheesiness. If the sections from Love's book had been better, I might have bought the concept more, but I really didn't see it.
- The audiobook performance: Okay, so mostly it was fine, but for some reason Stephanie Cannon reads all the love interests in these high-pitched "very sexy baby" voices, and it drove me up the wall. Especially since Marie's meant to have a deep voice. Like, dear god, why.

Maybe I would have liked this more if I hadn't gone the audiobook route, but I do think it's an interesting book, and one I would recommend to certain readers. If you generally really like Talley's books, I doubt you'll be disappointed.