Rabbit & Juliet: A Dark Contemporary YA Novel of Queer Love, Revenge, and Toxic Masculinity

by Rebecca Stafford

Seventeen-year-old Rabbit has been struggling to stay above water since her mom died. In the span of a year and half, her small Georgia town has become unbearably hellish: Her ex-boyfriend, resident golden boy Richard, turned into an unrelenting stalker; her friends are nonexistent; and her dad is campaigning hard for Functioning Alcoholic of the Year.

But all that changes when the sarcastic, gorgeous, and frustratingly impenetrable Juliet Bergman walks into Rabbit's life. All hard angles and James Dean bravado, Juliet throws Rabbit a life preserver just before her depression threatened to sink her.

Then one morning, Rabbit's ex-best-friend Sarah--Richard's current girlfriend--shares a horrific discovery about Richard and his crew that pitches Rabbit back into darkness. The three girls vow to enact revenge on the boys for what they've been doing to unsuspecting girls at parties. With Juliet leading the charge and demanding blind loyalty from the girls, Rabbit falls harder for her than she thought possible. It isn't until Rabbit is faced with a startling act of violence that she must decide how far she's willing to go--for herself, for Juliet, and for justice--when love and grief threaten to topple everything.

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Queer, Lesbian, LGBT, Fiction, Crime

336 pages, Hardcover

First published September 24, 2024

Reviews

[Star · Rating 3 out of 5]

Content warnings: references to rape and other forms of sexual assault - including photos taken of passed out girls being sexually assaulted, alcohol, parent with alcoholism, parent who died from cancer, violence, toxic men, toxic friendships, depression depictions.

Rep: Rabbit is cis, white, and sapphic. Juliet is cis, white and sapphic.


This was fantastic. I am here for girls getting revenge. It's what they deserve.

Rabbit is in way over her head throughout this entire book and it was so incredibly well written. I adored this book from the first word right through to the end. It was just so good.

More guys should have died, though (none died, sadly)

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish this book came out when I was younger. I would’ve been obsessed!! I had a good time reading this book, and reading something my professor wrote was definitely an experience. There were moments where I read a line, and I could hear it in her voice, and the line reminded me of feedback she gave me on my writing. Anyway, I would recommend this book!

[PinkAmy loves books, cats and naps · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn’t disagree with the blurb more.

Rabbit aka Sadie befriends Juliet, in part because she has a crush. Rabbit is also mourning the loss of her mother, struggling with her father’s drinking and frustrated that the friends she pushed away have stayed away.

I disliked Juliet from her first scenes screwing with the moderator of a self help group. Rabbit was so needy for attention and positive regard she overlooked Juliet’s sociopathic tendencies, like leaving Rabbit and another friend in the middle of a lake, naked and without life preservers. Juliet is just as abusive to Rabbit as her ex, Richard although in different ways.

Revenge doesn’t work for me when a sociopath is leading the charge.

As much as I sympathized with Rabbit, I didn’t fully buy into her character. Most high schoolers don’t speak in SAT words like Rabbit.

RABBIT & JULIET is well-written, in terms of wordbuilding. I liked the premise for the book more than the book.

[Charlee Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED THIS!!!

[kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Belle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started out as a strong 4-star, but as it went on, my rating started dropping lower and lower. And honestly, after that ending, I’m tempted to just give this a 1-star.

To be fair, I picked this up in the hopes that it would deliver Life is Strange vibes just based off of reading the synopsis. Two girls growing up in a small town whose friendship deepens into potentially something more, even as they fight to seek justice for a sinister plot involving the local rich kid and a collection of polaroids of the girls in their grade. You see what I mean right? The vibes seemed pretty parallel to Life is Strange. And in the beginning, it started out so promising! But oh… oh, as it went on, it was clear that this was most definitely not Life is Strange vibes. I wouldn’t have even necessarily minded if it didn’t deliver on that, so long as I was at least still enjoying the story. But to me, it felt like I had been promised one thing and was given something else completely different.

Like I said, initially I was vibing with this book. Girl meets girl in a grief counseling meeting. The two instantly connect, and it’s like magic. Rabbit is completely drawn to Juliet, and it’s like the beginning of a very deep friendship… possibly more? Juliet, meanwhile, has this energy to her that you can’t help but be pulled in by. And then when Rabbit opens up and tells Juliet about Richard, about what he’d done to her, Juliet instantly becomes that ride or die friend, and they vow to take him down because boys can’t keep getting away with doing these types of things. And I thought, Hell. Yeah. Let’s freaking go, two friends who are gonna fight back against rape culture and toxic masculinity. I was so ready for this to be a darker version of John Tucker Must Die or even give similar vibes to The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed. THIS is what I had signed up for.

… and that plotline lasted about two seconds. Because I am here to tell you, this is not a call to action book about rape culture and toxic masculinity and the patriarchy. Oh no, that’s just what we were teased with to get us to pick up this book. No, what this book is actually about is two girls who are fighting for the attention of their precious Manic Pixie Dreamgirl ringleader, AKA Juliet. I’m serious, that’s the conflict. Not seeking justice for the incapacitated girls who had polaroids taken of them without their consent, which by the way, Rabbit doesn’t give a flying fuck about. Yep, you heard that right! At one point in the novel, Rabbit admits that she doesn’t care about seeking revenge on behalf of girls that she doesn’t know. She only cares about being with Juliet.

…. Bruh. Then what is the point of this novel?! (Also, way to fight the cause, girl…)

Needless to say, once I realized that this was the story I was actually getting, I felt duped. Not only that, I couldn’t even tell you why Rabbit and Sarah were fighting for Juliet’s attention at all because, let me be real with you: Juliet sucks. Like, she really, really sucks. Let’s just go through a few of her memorable crimes over the course of this book:

1. She literally drives the three of them out to the middle of a lake on her dad’s boat to go swimming… and then proceeds to get back in the boat and basically says, “Swim fast!” while driving away, and leaves them there!

You would think that would be the end of their friendship from that point on. It certainly would for me. But nope! Somehow, their friendship endures.

2. Perhaps the most evil thing this girl does: she literally gets Rabbit’s dad into drinking again after briefly being sober, just so Rabbit can continue to sneak out and hang out with her while Rabbit’s dad is busy relapsing and drinking at home alone. THIS. GIRL. IS. VILE.

3. As part of “training” to beat up these terrible dudes who have taken polaroids of the other girls in their class, Juliet tells them they have to practice on each other first. So she orders Sarah to punch Rabbit in the face… and Sarah just does it? And Rabbit takes it?? And then when Juliet’s like, Wow, way to defend yourself Rabbit’s like, Um, I didn’t know that was an option! So Juliet’s basically out here being a sadistic cult leader and playing mind games on these two, testing their loyalty and turning them against each other. Cool cool…

And this is just the tone for the rest of the novel: both girls are constantly vying for Juliet’s attention, even when it’s completely clear that Juliet is That Bitch. The one who can act like your best friend one moment, and then immediately turn cold the second you don’t do what she says. Like, this is not a girl you want to be friends with. She is maaaaajorly manipulative, and the way she picks and chooses to give the girls attention is very calculated and conditional. It’s almost like she even revels in pitting the girls against each other. So yeah, no, any chance of me liking Juliet just went completely out the window from that point on and I saw her purely as the villain of the story. Which is fine if you like this kind of twist and downward spiral for a character, but again: it’s not what I signed up for! This novel went from being about reclaiming justice for girls who are taken advantage of, to something far less meaningful, which is… two girls who fight for the top spot of BFF to the mean, manipulative new girl in town. *sigh*...

Also, the ending??
I’m still a bit lost by the ending. I’m hoping I’m just misinterpreting something, because if I am correct in what I read, then boy do I want to throw this book out the window. So apparently, after everything that’s happened, it turns out that Juliet isn’t actually the father of this famous actor, that she isn’t rich, and that she was just sort of a squatter who had been living in this famous guy’s house, pretending to be his daughter. Which would have to mean that she’d also been lying about her sob story she told Rabbit? About directors on set taking advantage of her? Which if that’s the case, then she’s reeeeally evil and is purely someone who just needs attention wherever she can get it, even if that means lying about being sexually exploited to a victim, who has actually been sexually exploited.

And again I ask: WHAT. WAS. THE. POINT. OF. THIS. I’m honestly so tempted to give this one star just because of how far it deviated from the initial plot and how pointless it all seemed by the end, considering it was all a lie. Again, feel free to let me know if I got something wrong, but that’s the way I interpreted it. And it’s not really explicitly said what ever becomes of Juliet. She just sort of…disappears after the final events? Either way, the ending just felt so pointless and confirmed for me that I just wasted all my time on this novel. Because this wasn’t about two ride or die friends. It wasn’t about vigilante justice or fighting back against rape culture. At the end of the day, it was about a con artist who manipulated everyone around her. And even by the end, Rabbit still doesn’t see past any of that. She’s still under Juliet’s spell, wondering where she is. I just… I’m done.

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mean, if you don't know by now that books about queer girls in murderously toxic friendships/relationships are catnip to me, I don't know what to say to you. I really, really enjoyed this book. I did find Sarah more interesting as a character than Rabbit and would have preferred to read it from her point of view, but that's not the story it was trying to tell and that's fine. The writing is very good, Juliet is compelling if slightly underdeveloped, and the tension is exquisite. Although more with regard to the relationships between the girls than the actual action.

Here's the thing. I support vigilante justice when it's teenage girls taking down gross horrible sexual predators in their small town, and I wanted to see more of that. Less of Rabbit feeling guilty afterward tbh. I understand that we're supposed to read Juliet as a kind of secondary villain and to feel she's going too far, but I...didn't? Or at least not because of her actions toward the boys. I'm not particularly interested in ethics and morals in situations like this. Kill them all and run off into the sunset with your unhinged girlfriend.

The ending was very unsatisfying to me. The whole climax was, really. I wanted it to go so much harder. But I did love the experience of reading the book and it's one I'll definitely revisit and recommend with warnings. I don't feel like any of it is gratuitous and a lot of it is off page, but there's some heavy stuff here. Death of a parent, alcoholic father, sexual assault, attempted suicide, etc.

[Evie R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, this was not what I expected when I randomly picked up this audio book. I will say, I absolutely HATED Rabbit's character. I found her to be such a wet blanket, and while I definitely empathize with her, I hated her for going along with everything Juliet wanted. She just went along as if she didn't know any better. I get that this is a YA Novela and that the protagonist and supporting characters are teenagers, but they were entirely too old not to know better than to follow someone they barely knew blindly.

Juliet was also manipulative and emotionally violent. I hated Sarah as well because she inserted herself into Rabbit and Juliet's friendship as if Rabbit wasn't there first and then had the nerve to get jealous and petty. Rabbit was also very jealous, petty, and possessive. Juliet really knew how to play them against each other.

Rabbit's father, another character I dislike, had the audacity to try to discipline her when he essentially abandoned that poor girl for months after her mother died. All he did was check out and drink himself stupid, leaving her to take care of herself. Even after she tried to expire herself, he made no move to get sober and just stopped paying attention. The ending was super unsatisfying for me, but ultimately, it tracked. We're all left wondering who Juliet really was. Overall, it was good. Frustrating, but good.

[SpaceCadet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those titles that if I read it when I was 16, I would take it to heart and make it a part of my personality. I would've loved that Juliet is just bonkers, and that Rabbit is taken under her wing in a weird homo-erotic way. I would've eaten this shit up. However, I'm not 16 and I don't have that punch I used to. It's fun, but I think the revenge isn't my favourite part because yeah, it's not coming from Rabbit, it's coming from Juliet who is seeing it as retribution for everything teenage girls go through at the expense of teenage boys. Rabbit is just the vessel to act everything out with. Which isn't to say that consequences should go undelivered, but man I wish Rabbit had more of a voice than just blindly going along with it. I actually think a sequel would be fun because Juliet is so unhinged that I don't know how she'd handle finding Rabbit at a later point in life in a place that isn't Small Town Southern USA. Is this similar to Yellowjackets? This feels similar (minus the cannibalism in Yellowjackets)

[Daryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked how messy and imperfect Rabbit/Juliet were, it really kept me invested in the story. That being said, it felt like nothing would happen, there’d be buildup with the chapter cliffhanger implying something is going to go down, only for the next chapter to just be like talking. I feel like the first half was too slow. I did think that Sarah felt like a third wheel, and even when she’d try to insert herself I just got kind of annoyed, like I didn’t need her in the Rabbit/Juliet dynamic, and maybe less time with her could’ve gone to building up Juliet as an eventual antagonist, and building up the attraction between Rabbit and Juliet.

Also just a general note I HATE the “if you do this you’re just as bad as them” trope like…Richard and his friends were creeps and you want me to be mad at my morally grey girl Juliet?! Nah there’s only one rapist there and I’m kinda sick of the morality talk when it comes to situations like this. Like…where was RICHARD’S compassion when it came to all those girls?! Anyway this is a personal pet peeve of mine with this trope but hey.

[Joyfully Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Joyfully Jay review.

4 stars

It’s not often I start a review with trigger warnings, but this one needs them. Rabbit lost her mother to cancer and tried to take her own life with the remnants of her mother’s pills. Rabbit also learns that her ex-boyfriend, Richard, who almost raped her, has naked pictures of Rabbit and two other boys. She then discovers that it wasn’t just her, and it wasn’t always just pictures. So please be aware if any of these are triggers for you.

I picked this book up because it takes the above scenario, and adds in feminine rage and revenge, a sisterhood of wrath and fury, and I’m a sucker for a good revenge plot.

Read Elizabeth’s review in its entirety here.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has bite...And it’s delicious.
Juliet is the new girl in town and she has raw femme ferocity, to put it mildly. She’s a “bad influence” on Rabbit, who’s facing an alcoholic father, dead mother, and toxic ex boyfriend. All the characters needed therapy, which is exactly what made the characters so fun and so believable. Everyone had reckless youth energy. And it’s highly contagious.

My only negative for the whole book was the religious condescension. In my opinion, It was overused and alienates a fan base. But I’m likely a minority as a LGBTQIA+ Christian-so most wouldn’t see a problem there. So besides that, I loved every sarcastic and sexy sentence. Needless to say, Juliet is my new character crush.
I need another serving. But maybe it needed to end.
Maybe it's better this way.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, still a little annoyed about the dead parent streak that I'm currently on.

And while female revenge is always an intriguing focus for a YA novel, this one was too stereotypical to be unique in any way. Rabbit has a dead parent. Rabbit has a failed relationship and a stalker. Juliet is a manicpixiedreamgirl who enters Rabbit's life and another girl that's a newly dumped girlfriend of her ex-- together the group forms to ferret out the bad boys doing bad things.

It was fine, but it wasn't anything special.

[Raaven💖 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

This was full of suspense and had a lot going for it. I really enjoyed Rabbit’s character. Juliet was very much manic pixie dream girl and I had my suspensions about her from the beginning. I love books about being getting back at your abusers, and this one took it in an interesting new way. The end was a little stale but other than that I really enjoyed the read.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fast-paced YA about a brutal friendship. When Rabbit first starts to fall under Juliet’s spell, she thinks, “Our conversation in the car replayed in my head. What did she mean when she said we’d have fun? Like a terms of service agreement 80 pages long, I didn’t linger on it. I was too distracted by everything around me.”
Also striking (and realistic) for how truly clueless the adults in the novel are.

[Saskia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oooooooh, morally grey protagonists ... yes, please!

This book hit me a bit harder than it might others. Having personally experienced some of what happens in the novel, I was drawn into being more than just an observer/reader. I fought emotionally, physically, and psychologically alongside Rabbit and loved her voice and her falliblity.

CW: attempted suicide, sexual assault, non-consensual photography, alcohol & drugs, body horror

Y11 Y12

Senior Fiction

[Hannah Balagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stayed up late into the night to finish this book, which rarely happens for me. Not only was every line beautiful (you can tell the author is a poet), but the story was surprising, the characters felt real and complex, the ending was satisfying, and the overall message is an important one. It checks all the boxes!

[Izzys_Internet_Bookshelf · Rating 2 out of 5]

2/5

When I started this book it was just because another book I was reading was putting me in a reading slump. But, this book in the end also had me loose my interest as well. I had enjoyed the idea of the book, as well as the layout. I just couldn’t pay attention to the story for some reason though. That’s where my problems started.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has everything I love: female friendships, queerness, vigilantes, complex backstories that unfold slowly, and angsty young love.

A psychological thriller, think The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo but in high school. A must read debut!

[Sophia Barsuhn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to a two than a four. I will probably write a longer review at some point, but for now, I can say that while there were things I really liked about this book, I am left with a much bigger feeling of "what was the point of all this?"

[Emma Akers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic!! I had the honor of working the release event and Stafford is a natural!!

[tova · Rating 5 out of 5]

toxic yuri? toxic yuri

[Janet]

Well-written, compelling. It is _not_ a feel-good, girl power book.

[Britt Buckenroth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good read. LOTS of female drama and unrealistic retribution - I think high schoolers will love it.

[Andrea Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's your typical teenage girls vs. toxic masculinity revenge fantasy... until it's not.

[Rosemary Heller · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent young adult novel for all ages

This book kept me interested and absorbed. The characters were well drawn and the plot was believable and realistic. Recommended

[Rowen H.]

absolutely bonkers

[emma]

very Heathers vibes, i liked all the references to pop culture and film (like the not-so-sneaky twin peaks reference). a pretty satisfying revenge story although the end felt a little quick.

[Melissa Young · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to reading Rabbit & Juliet because the synopsis sounded great, but sadly, the execution wasn’t, in my opinion. You can see where this book draws its influences from but it unfortunately falls short in comparison. I only finished the book because I didn’t want yet another DNF this year. I was hoping something amazing would happen in the end that would change my entire opinion of the book, it did not.

I honestly didn’t like any of the characters. They felt very flat and they were all awful in their own ways. If they happened to be complex, I wouldn’t mind this, but even Juliet was two dimensional. I’d love to talk about this in more depth but that would be difficult without giving major spoilers. Rabbit’s instant and complete obsession with Juliet got old after a while too.

Another area I don’t want to spoil is how this book ends, but I do need to comment on how satisfying it is. You don’t learn the outcome of the biggest event of the book and that’s really annoying. What was the point of this story? Nothing really happens and a lot of the more ‘action-packed’ scenes are told in passing in the past tense.

The end part that talks in the style of a movie montage would be less awkward if that happened more often throughout. The chatty style narrative is not used at any other point during the book, so it seemed very out of place.

I’d hoped for a lot more from Rabbit & Juliet but sadly, I found it a little boring. That might not be the case for you though, so I would recommend checking this out if my review hasn’t put you off and you think the synopsis sounds interesting.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was blown away by this book written by a debut author. If you loved Moxie, Foxfire, The Wolves are Waiting.... read this book when it comes out 9/24/24.

I'm not going to give the plot away, but there's smidgens of foul behavior of boys with Polaroid pictures, alcohol and possibly drugs. The main character, Rabbit, as her friends call her, mother died. Her dad is a functional drunk. She's attempted suicide. Then she meets Juliet, who shakes up the small Georgia town.

This story takes place in the summer before senior year of high school. The unpredictable nature of Juliet's character makes the story interesting. But she takes the thirst for revenge too far for Rabbit to handle. The ending was a little anti climatic to me. Otherwise, this would have been a 5 star book, but the writing was sharp and strong. I will definitely keep this author's future books in mind. A riveting debut.