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Juno's Swans
“Intense, passionate, desperate―a wonderful, first-person story about a young woman falling seriously in love. The writing is terrific” (Christopher Nicholson, author of Winter). In 1988, before her senior year of high school, Nina and her best friend spend the summer alone on Cape Cod. Nina has grown up with her ailing grandmother—and she yearns for the chance of a deeper connection. When she enrolls in an acting course, she soon finds romance with Sarah, one of the teaching assistants. Nina’s own world revolves around Sarah, while the rest of the world moves urgently on. Nina’s high school teacher does not take the end of their relationship well; her best friend feels abandoned; the AIDS epidemic rages; her fellow actors grow and hone their talents. The novel perfectly captures the revelatory feelings that arrive with young adulthood—the startling awareness of oneself outside the bounds of friends and family, and the twin senses of loneliness and liberation that accompany this knowledge. After a summer of love and loss, Nina slowly finds her way back home. “A breathtakingly tender coming of queer age . . . Wolff stunningly captures that space between unknowing and knowing and the impossibility of bracing oneself for the heartbreak of first love.” —A. M. Homes, author of May We Be Forgiven “Wolff’s debut, coming-of-age novel casts a literary spell that recalls the dazzling second book of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, The Story of a New Name (2013).” —Booklist “Tragic, heartfelt, funny, and charming . . . Captivating and achingly realistic, this is a stunning debut.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
262 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 4, 2018
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302 people want to read
About the author
Tamsen Wolff
5 books7 followersTamsen Wolff is a professor in Princeton University's English Department, where she specializes in modern and contemporary drama, voice, directing, and dramaturgy. She has published essays in numerous journals, and is the author of Mendel's Theatre: Heredity, Eugenics, and Early Twentieth-Century American Drama.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
November 24, 2019
I loved this book – I welcomed the chance to trade my daily stresses for a total immersion into the emotional life of a 17-year-old back in the eighties, experiencing the chaos and exhilaration of falling in love for the first time. The details from that period ring especially true, especially as reflected in the specific peculiarities of small-town New England – communities that tend to resist change, no matter what the decade. I was especially drawn in by the main character's internal dialogue, her way of noticing everything about everybody, at the same time as she struggles to connect to the people around her and sometimes misses signs that the people she cares about need her help. I thought this was realistic for a teenager, and quite moving.
I listened to the audiobook twice – the reader is excellent, and really seemed to get the mood of the book. The one drawback to the audio version is that I wasn't able to highlight my favorite quotes, and there were many passages that made a lasting impression on me. In particular, an observation about the way we don't realize, until it's too late, which transitions in life are going to be irrevocable. It's a book that stayed with me, and resonated deeply.
I listened to the audiobook twice – the reader is excellent, and really seemed to get the mood of the book. The one drawback to the audio version is that I wasn't able to highlight my favorite quotes, and there were many passages that made a lasting impression on me. In particular, an observation about the way we don't realize, until it's too late, which transitions in life are going to be irrevocable. It's a book that stayed with me, and resonated deeply.
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January 30, 2021This piece is airing worldwide this week on This Way Out (TWO), the syndicated LGBT radio show.
(TWO is the first international LGBTQ radio news magazine.)
I don’t usually think of myself as an optimist. But in reading Juno’s Swans by Tamsen Wolff (published by Europa editions), I began to think of myself as something close to an optimist: as one who has hope. After all, as a lesbian and as someone concerned about the world – I do have hope that things can change (for the better).
The reader learns at the very beginning that this is a coming of age story – where a young woman falls in love with another young woman only to have her heart broken. Perhaps it’s an all too common refrain: the beloved is in love with someone else.
The exceptionally good writing is what drew me in. Through this writing, I learned that this was a big love with a capital ”B”. The narrator Nina – who is entering the last year of high school — falls in love with a slightly older girl named Sarah. Nina and her best friend have gone to Cape Cod for the summer where Nina is taking acting lessons. There is a convincing back story about Nina. She has been basically abandoned by both of her parents and was raised by her grandparents. However much she adores her grandparents, it’s easy for the adult reader to come to the conclusion that the narrator was left vulnerable by her parent’s absence.
However, it was the big love that the narrator feels for Sarah that I was struck by. Wolff writes that Nina slid her hand into Sarah’s, shortly after the two of them met, and that Sarah held her hand:
“The world was between our palms, so discreetly and politely pressed, so heated and limitless, curious and fervent. The world contracted to that electric violet place. If we had opened our hands right then, the light streaming out would have dazzled you blind. I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t look at her. I just held that pulsing jewel and marveled, brilliantly distracted.”
The novel is laden with Shakespearean references and the title comes from a reference in Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It.” The novel is set in the age of AIDS, which is evident in the lives of the characters around them. Perhaps indicative of that time period, the narrator is not into labels.
The reader finds out later that the narrator has at the same time always had boyfriends so that she can fit in at school – even if she is contemptuous of them. Hmmm, the sarcastic part of my mind commented, things haven’t changed that much.
Still, I had hope. What if a girl can look at another girl and see the air break into pieces around her? What if we lived in a world where labels weren’t necessary?
This world is possible as evidenced by the trueness of the author Tamsen Wolff writing in her novel Juno’s Swans as she describes Sarah’s comfy feather bed: “In it, we belonged to each other and nothing in the world could touch us.”
(TWO is the first international LGBTQ radio news magazine.)
I don’t usually think of myself as an optimist. But in reading Juno’s Swans by Tamsen Wolff (published by Europa editions), I began to think of myself as something close to an optimist: as one who has hope. After all, as a lesbian and as someone concerned about the world – I do have hope that things can change (for the better).
The reader learns at the very beginning that this is a coming of age story – where a young woman falls in love with another young woman only to have her heart broken. Perhaps it’s an all too common refrain: the beloved is in love with someone else.
The exceptionally good writing is what drew me in. Through this writing, I learned that this was a big love with a capital ”B”. The narrator Nina – who is entering the last year of high school — falls in love with a slightly older girl named Sarah. Nina and her best friend have gone to Cape Cod for the summer where Nina is taking acting lessons. There is a convincing back story about Nina. She has been basically abandoned by both of her parents and was raised by her grandparents. However much she adores her grandparents, it’s easy for the adult reader to come to the conclusion that the narrator was left vulnerable by her parent’s absence.
However, it was the big love that the narrator feels for Sarah that I was struck by. Wolff writes that Nina slid her hand into Sarah’s, shortly after the two of them met, and that Sarah held her hand:
“The world was between our palms, so discreetly and politely pressed, so heated and limitless, curious and fervent. The world contracted to that electric violet place. If we had opened our hands right then, the light streaming out would have dazzled you blind. I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t look at her. I just held that pulsing jewel and marveled, brilliantly distracted.”
The novel is laden with Shakespearean references and the title comes from a reference in Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It.” The novel is set in the age of AIDS, which is evident in the lives of the characters around them. Perhaps indicative of that time period, the narrator is not into labels.
The reader finds out later that the narrator has at the same time always had boyfriends so that she can fit in at school – even if she is contemptuous of them. Hmmm, the sarcastic part of my mind commented, things haven’t changed that much.
Still, I had hope. What if a girl can look at another girl and see the air break into pieces around her? What if we lived in a world where labels weren’t necessary?
This world is possible as evidenced by the trueness of the author Tamsen Wolff writing in her novel Juno’s Swans as she describes Sarah’s comfy feather bed: “In it, we belonged to each other and nothing in the world could touch us.”
January 5, 2019
The beginning of this, the beginning of the heartbreak, is so painful, but it’s beautifully written. Once I crossed into the beginning of the love story, though, I couldn’t put the book down. This is a teenage voice that rings true and draws me in instead of making me cringe like some YA novels do (this isn’t YA). The first-person perspective has a purpose, too. The set up makes it impossible to quite settle into Nina’s warm cloud of first love feels, though we are floating along with her through her eyes, and I think that awareness makes it that much more captivating. How, exactly, will the bubble burst? It felt like a good summer read, or a good reach into summer from the middle of winter, where I am. I’d warn that there is a past student/teacher relationship described.
October 4, 2018
A tremendously kind, soft meditation on a girl's first (gay) heartbreak. I was a little wary about how certain plot lines played, but Tamsen Wolff did an overall great job filtering reality through a teenager's naivety. I was relieved.
January 23, 2021
What a beautiful story with complex, consistent characters that I grew to love like a messy family. All the details and the context made this story of first love textured and real, where you could taste the salt water air and feel your heart skip a beat and hear the teachers criticizing other students from far away. Disappear into Nina’s world for a summer.
December 16, 2018
Read this in two long sittings... it is that good.
November 23, 2018
Really liked this one. Sweet and also very sad. Sometimes it would jump around to different times but eventually I got used to that and realised, those segments didn't need to fully connect, though I loved how literarilly, they would be referenced to later. Obvi another lesbian love story for me. I also loved the setting of Cape Cod, and it was cool to read references to all these places I could visualise because I had actually been there, even PJs!
February 2, 2019
A very well written bildungsroman by my (full disclosure) sister-in-law about a 17-year-old cis girl's serial affairs, one with her male high school teacher, and the next with her female TA at a summer acting workshop. The youthful protagonist's privilege and contempt for others are examined, but her ableism and fat-phobia are presented less critically. The book accurately captures the world-ending feeling of first heartbreak.
August 9, 2019
Beautiful book that capture in a great way the emotional rollercoaster that is first love, while describing a romantic and realistic Cape. Anyone that love Cape Cod as much as I do will love this book.
March 26, 2021
Juno’s Swans by Tamsen Wolff
I’ve had this on my shelf for so long and have been aching to read it, but now that I have I feel a bit let down. The novel wasn’t bad, per se, just not really memorable. I didn’t connect with the characters - not enough backstory for me. There were some interesting aspects of the story for sure, but not the parts that were supposed to be, y’know? While I picked this up because it’s about a queer relationship set in Cape Cod, I found myself far more drawn to the dynamics of family - Nina and her grandparents, and friendship - Nina and Titch. These were smaller parts compared to the love and loss between Nina and Sarah, but I feel I would have been more engaged had they been the focal point or at least more fleshed out.
3/5⭐️
March 11, 2020
I’m quite enjoying this book so far. There are some rather disturbing aspects to this book: first, the main character thinks about using violence against other people quite frequently. As long as it is just in her head that’s cool I guess. Second, she is in a relationship with one of her male teachers whois going through divorce. That’s pretty messed up. The girl is still in her late teens.
The story libe jumps a bit between past and present, which isn’t too distracting. It feels like the main character is summer acting camp forever though.
The story libe jumps a bit between past and present, which isn’t too distracting. It feels like the main character is summer acting camp forever though.
May 27, 2024
DNF. It went from topic to topic in an eye's blink. About 10% in MC was still sitting next to her friend and all that happend was her thoughts going all places like an unfocused ADHD brain. Maybe some call it a nice and creative writing style, but I couldn't follow up. I just couldn't get into the story.
I've still plodded on a while until the end of part 1 (about 14%) and then I was done with it.
I've still plodded on a while until the end of part 1 (about 14%) and then I was done with it.
February 7, 2020
Nina is a seventeen year old who falls in love one summer. Like all things at that age, it is intense. And nothing that intense can last or go quietly into the night. This love does not go quietly away. By the end however you feel something was accomplished, lessons learned. That is satisfying.
March 2, 2026
Beautiful written account of a young woman's first love. Nina meets Sarah at an actor's workshop on Cape Cod, and their brief affair provokes deep longing on Nina's part but not as much (apparently) on Sarah's. It's a tale common to many, buy Wolff puts her own distinct stamp on it.
March 22, 2019
Not saying this isn’t a fine story but I did not connect with it. I think I just wasn’t in the mood for high school love, so it just wasn’t a good choice for me at this time.
April 27, 2019
3.5 stars.
~2019 Reading Challenge: a book with a two-word title~
~2019 Reading Challenge: a book with a two-word title~
February 1, 2021
3,5 Stars
February 12, 2022
3,5/5 ⭐️
March 22, 2019
This one recalled for me another bildungsroman, Pages for You, which I greatly enjoyed because I was the same age/level of maturity as the protagonist when I read it. Wolff's version of the same sort of story is just as, if not more affecting, despite the fact that I'm much older now.
March 25, 2020
Juno’s Swans was not what I was expecting. In my search for a lesbian romance, I had a feeling this would be more about heartbreak (as per usual, apparently), but I did not think I would dislike it as much as I did. It wasn’t the heartache that made me give this book a one steeped review, nor the lacklustre romance, however. It was the protagonist, Nina. At first, I thought that Nina would grow on me, that maybe her backstory and her character along with the overall plot would help paint her in a different light, but as the book went on, I disliked her more and more.
To see the rest of this review and to join in on the discussion visit the.burrow.book.club on Instagram.
To see the rest of this review and to join in on the discussion visit the.burrow.book.club on Instagram.
June 11, 2023
This was such a chill summer read, with the summer acting classes and the friendships and queer romance. Nina was a refreshing character who was neither angelic or unlikable, she felt real and like many friends I have had. I haven’t heard many people speak about this book so if you want a lgbt+ rec I definitely recommend it.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews