pomoevareads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I was given an opportunity by the publisher to read this one prior to publication date but had an overcrowded reading schedule at the time and didn’t get to it. On a recent trip to Powell’s Books in Portland I made sure to buy a new copy to read.
Reminiscent of Young Mungo, Juno Loves Legs brings the reader to the Irish Catholic landscape of the 1980s. Juno, whose mother is an underpaid seamstress and whose father is an alcoholic mechanic, befriends a bullied boy named Sean at school. As preteens, Juno nicknames her friend Legs and the pair of misfits stand up for each other on numerous occasions at school when the nuns or priest are cruel. After an incident results in Legs leaving the community, Juno writes but doesn’t send letters to her best friend.
Written in three parts, Juno Loves Legs follows Juno as she navigates life with an unstable home life and later on her own. The story focusses on the pair as they come together again and on the challenges thrown at them individually and together.
The raw tenderness in this friendship was beautiful and I experienced much sadness for the hardships and discrimination against them. Geary has written characters that will crystallize themselves into your memory. As awful and truly disgusting as John Jr. was and as gracious and generous Missus H the librarian was, all of the characters rose from the page for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Alcoholism, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Homophobia and Death of parent
Minor: Terminal illness
serendipitysbooks's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Douglas Stuart summed this book up brilliantly. It broke my heart also and yet I never wanted it to end. Set in 1980s Dublin, Juno Loves Legs is the story of a beautiful friendship that develops between Juno and Legs when they are children and ensures throughout their teens. The beauty of their friendship contrasts with the bleakness of the rest of their lives which are blighted by poverty, by dysfunctional families, and by emotional and physical abuse at church and school, not to mention issues like homelessness and addiction which impact their teenage years. The story is narrated by Juno. She’s brash and unabashed, the sort of character who leaps off the page. Legs comes across as quieter, more of a mystery, and a little harder to get to know. But a careful reader can find plenty of clues that reveal his personality and details of his life. The way these two love each other, care for each other and support each other despite their own circumstance and limitations is truly beautiful. This is a book that gave me all the feelings including, and especially a deep seated rage towards Sister, Father and the Catholic Church more generally. Geary balances beauty and bleakness to great effect. If, like me, you enjoy having your heart crushed and broken into a million pieces, this is a book you won’t want to miss.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, and Bullying
Moderate: Terminal illness
giselley's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Classism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Cursing, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, and Gaslighting
tinamayreads's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying
Moderate: Death
reads_eats_explores's review
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I’m prefacing this review with a plea, buy this book! Go get yourselves a copy right away. Juno Loves Legs deserves all the love.
In a nutshell, Juno Loves Legs is a highly emotive coming-of age-story centred on Juno and her best pal Sean, aka, Legs, as they grow up on a working class housing estate and then as they stumble through early adulthood in city centre Dublin.
Neither Juno nor Legs have the best start in life; they’re the kids more used to receiving a clatter than a hug at home and forever on the receiving end of the wrath of Sister or Father in school.
But together, they are fierce; they are brave. They can look beyond the shame of Juno’s useless alcoholic father and worn-down seamstress mother whose clients seldom pay and Legs’ absent father and rigid mother ready to send him away to another school to rid him of his ‘sinful’ ways.
Juno stands up for Legs against playground bullies, and he distracts the priest with misbehaviour to protect her from the beatings and mortification in the classroom, but when Legs goes too far, it results in the pair losing contact for a few years.
In this time, Juno spirals down into a depressive fug, and life goes from bad to worse. Until that is, she is rescued once again by Legs. Now, if you’re expecting fairytale endings, you’re in the wrong book - keep the tissues handy.
Narrator Juno takes up most of the emotional space with a troubled mix of good intentions, and self-destructiveness, all with a pervading sense of guilt.
Legs is harder to read because Juno knows only what he tells her, but generally, he remains charismatic and enigmatic until a rush of last-minute revelations are made.
All told in pitch perfect dialect, on realistic 1980s background of harsh poverty, homelessness, alcoholism, unnamed “plague” frightening gay Dubliners, this novel is almost unbearably grim, but that makes the occasional glimpses of genuine kindness Juno and Legs experience (mostly towards each other) all the more poignant.
These characters will stay with me for a very long time indeed. I wanted to reach them and hug them. 5⭐
A special shout out to all the wonderful librarians out there!
In a nutshell, Juno Loves Legs is a highly emotive coming-of age-story centred on Juno and her best pal Sean, aka, Legs, as they grow up on a working class housing estate and then as they stumble through early adulthood in city centre Dublin.
Neither Juno nor Legs have the best start in life; they’re the kids more used to receiving a clatter than a hug at home and forever on the receiving end of the wrath of Sister or Father in school.
But together, they are fierce; they are brave. They can look beyond the shame of Juno’s useless alcoholic father and worn-down seamstress mother whose clients seldom pay and Legs’ absent father and rigid mother ready to send him away to another school to rid him of his ‘sinful’ ways.
Juno stands up for Legs against playground bullies, and he distracts the priest with misbehaviour to protect her from the beatings and mortification in the classroom, but when Legs goes too far, it results in the pair losing contact for a few years.
In this time, Juno spirals down into a depressive fug, and life goes from bad to worse. Until that is, she is rescued once again by Legs. Now, if you’re expecting fairytale endings, you’re in the wrong book - keep the tissues handy.
Narrator Juno takes up most of the emotional space with a troubled mix of good intentions, and self-destructiveness, all with a pervading sense of guilt.
Legs is harder to read because Juno knows only what he tells her, but generally, he remains charismatic and enigmatic until a rush of last-minute revelations are made.
All told in pitch perfect dialect, on realistic 1980s background of harsh poverty, homelessness, alcoholism, unnamed “plague” frightening gay Dubliners, this novel is almost unbearably grim, but that makes the occasional glimpses of genuine kindness Juno and Legs experience (mostly towards each other) all the more poignant.
These characters will stay with me for a very long time indeed. I wanted to reach them and hug them. 5⭐
A special shout out to all the wonderful librarians out there!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Addiction, Grief, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Chronic illness, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Classism, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Alcoholism, Terminal illness, Violence, Bullying, Forced institutionalization, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Pregnancy
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