"A moving chronicle of a challenging time and a lively portrait of today. ... A delightful love story on many levels."
Ann Bannon
author of the legendary lesbian pulp series The Beebo Brinker Chronicles

In 1955, eighteen-year-old Janet Jones keeps the love she shares with her best friend Marie a secret. It’s not easy being gay in Washington, D.C. in the age of McCarthyism, but when she discovers a series of books about women falling in love with other women, it awakens something in Janet. As she juggles a romance she must keep hidden and a newfound ambition to write and publish her own story, she risks exposing herself―and Marie―to a danger all too real.

62 years later, Abby Zimet can’t stop thinking about her senior project and its subject―classic 1950s lesbian pulp fiction. Between the pages of her favorite book, the stresses of Abby’s own life are lost to the fictional hopes, desires, and tragedies of the characters she’s reading about. She feels especially connected to one author, a woman who wrote under the pseudonym “Marian Love,” and becomes determined to track her down and discover her true identity.

Told in dual narratives, New York Times bestselling author Robin Talley weaves together the lives of two young women connected across generations through the power of words. A stunning story of bravery, love, how far we’ve come, and how much farther we have to go.

Pulp is out now in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

Praise for Pulp

This ambitious novel is startlingly original.
Talley, already accomplished at weaving historical detail into engaging narratives, pulls off an expansive story encompassing a host of characters ... A sweeping, engrossing drama full of important moments. Recommended for all library collections.
Not many YA novels contain one lesbian romance, let alone four, but Talley’s newest pulls it off, while creatively spanning time and genre. ... Talley pulls pre-Stonewall history, such as the lavender scare, the gay bar scene, and actual lesbian pulp authors, into this fun but substantive read.
Booklist
The superlative pacing will hook readers. ... Suspenseful parallel lesbian love stories deftly illuminate important events in LGBTQ history.
The tale is original and delivers some interesting LGBTQ history, and the tone of the novels within it is pleasantly pulpy.
Janet and Abby's stories tie together in extraordinary ways in Robin Talley's story of love grounded in real history.
Pulp [is] both a mystery and a history lesson, and it's quite moving.
BookPage
Charming and profound, this story about stories weaves together women across generations.
A hopeful novel about identity, progress, community, acceptance, and the power of reading just the right book at just the right time.
Talley’s previous novels have deftly explored questions of sexual and racial identity, with stories set in the 1950s and present day, so you know you’re in excellent hands with Pulp’s dual timeline. Best of all, excerpts from Janet’s book create a third story within the narrative that readers will devour in all its pulpy glory.
Barnes & Noble Teen Blog
Talley’s dual narrative novel weaves the stories of two girls across six decades, connected by words, bravery and their desire to push society forward.
It will both break your heart and thrill you.
Following two queer teen girls through defining moments in their lives, Pulp navigates parallel stories connected by the characters’ encounters with lesbian pulp novels of the 1950s. Robin Talley deftly shifts between the two stories, showing the challenges both girls face, from breakups and fighting parents to fear of being outed and facing the consequences of the Lavender Scare. Pulp is many things: a coming-of-age novel, a story of fighting for social change, and a reminder that finding yourself in the pages of a book can make you feel like you’re not alone in the world.
Lelia Nebeker, One More Page Books
Arlington, VA
Pulp pops off the page, and Talley is at her best as she explores first loves and first heartbreaks as queer girls, both today and in 1955. As the two storylines combine, readers can only marvel at Talley's deft hand and delicate characterization. Pulp is a humdinger of a read. I defy anyone to put it down until the end!
Saundra Mitchell
editor of All Out and author of The Vespertine series
A wonderfully ambitious and incredibly creative exploration of queer literary history.
Dahlia Adler
author of Under the Lights

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