Chlorine: A Novel

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I’m really disappointed by this one. Chlorine by Jade Song seemed like a book that I would really be interested in but my rule is that if I DNF it because I’m not into it and have no desire to return to it at a later date, then it’s getting one star. This book has body horror, sapphic romance, and mermaids… to a point and that’s cool and all, but it just didn’t hit the beats I needed.

heavy expectations from parents, teachers, peers, fitting in, body issues, the right clothes, beautifications, Ren aches to be in the water. She dreams of the scent of chlorine—the feel of it on her skin. And she will do anything she can to make a life for herself where she can be free. No matter the pain. No matter what anyone else thinks. No matter how much blood she has to spill. Song’s harrowing novel subverts the standards of merfolk lore — clamshell bras, underwater kingdoms, the love of a sailor or prince. 'For too long you’ve been inundated by G-rated fairy tales,' Ren says. She is not beneficent or seductive; she’s ruthless and mutilated."

There’s a scene in this book of the first time Ren gets her period. Apparently it took Ren and her mother, working together, 7 hours to insert a tampon into Ren. That seems overdramatic. I have never met anyone with such an experience as this. Menstruation was more smashed acidic tomatoes than sweet fruit compote. I wiped my fingers on white jeans made of napkins and left streaks dried to rust. The stains came out with bleach and detergent. I died and regenerated every month. How else could I define the experience? The reasonable explanation was death. I would declare when my body was wheeled into the morgue, the coroner would declare I died of being a woman. Which was far better than dying of being a man. A visceral and startling debut novel by Jade Song, Chlorine is a portrait of ambition, defiance and longing set in the world of competitive swimming… Song invites readers to enter into Ren's obsessions not with judgment or disgust, but with an understanding that is surprisingly tender in the face of the novel's abrasion.” — Shelf Awareness if i am being fully honest—and to the eternal chagrin of myself, my loved ones, and the world around me, i usually am—this was annoying and boring. in our main character, in the frustrating writing, and in how obvious and repetitive all the themes are. I admire, respect, and enjoyed Jade Song’s mystifying mermaid symbolic story…. with fascinating mythology armor.

and the endless emotional anxieties associated with trying to measure up to ridiculously high standards. There’s a weird.. somewhat pedophilic relationship between Ren and her swim coach. Ren’s swim coach makes inappropriate comments towards Ren about her body. That's obviously gross, but, why is it here? The main catalyst for Ren having a mental breakdown is that Jim is overbearing, over trains, and is a strict couch who is emotionally abusive (he throws stuff at his students in anger). The potentially pedo-ish stuff actually doesn’t seem to have that much of an impact. When Ren finally gains a tail and transcends her human form, it is simply the most logical conclusion. Chlorine is a sapphic literary horror that I couldn't look away from. Even weeks upon finishing, I still constantly think about Ren — her yearning for becoming a mermaid, her transformation — and Song's prose. Part body horror, part science fiction, part queer teenage romance, Song’s debut novel dives into the deep end of bodily and psychological metamorphosis—but it’s not for the faint of heart.

An aching siren song, one that points us towards those uncharted dimensions of desire and identity that swim and shimmer, in and out of being." I’m very thankful to Cristina Bacchilega and Marie Alohalani Brown for their book The Penguin Book of Mermaids ! I loved the story of the Chinese mermaid whose body was covered with fine hair of many beautiful colors—I like to imagine it’s the mermaid version of rainbow armor. But these are human concerns. These are the concerns of those confined to land, those with legs. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Ones that called sailors to their doom. Ones that dragged them down and drowned them. Ones that feasted on their flesh. Ones of the creature that she’s always longed to become: mermaid. AND ALSO!!! Can I just say the sapphic longing and yearning was awesome and I love Ren and Cathy so much, especially how each of their characters plays a key role in one another. Chlorine is about the reclamation of tender monstrosity. It’s about athletic discipline/delusion. But most of all, Chlorine is about the longing to be free.

Like the scent of chlorine on one’s skin, this not-to-be-missed debut novel lingers.” — Library Journal (starred review) And yet, Ren isn’t interested in resolving these contradictions so much as they manifest into her singular yearning to adapt herself into the ideal of mermaid. For Ren, the pool is everything. She imagines herself as thriving in chlorine. Shedding the weaknesses of a sloppy human body to reveal iridescent scale. Can you blame her? “Mermaids are not born, we are made,” she says, with religious fervor. And given her training—brutal if only to make her tougher and faster; painful if only to escape regular old “pain due to the agony of everyday human life,” it becomes clear that her becoming-mermaid is not a naïve fantasy or a grotesque, disfiguring fate. This book was viscerally unnerving and I could not put it down." — Sarah Gailey, author of The Echo WifeBut these are human concerns. These are the concerns of those confined to land, those with legs. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Creatures that called sailors to their doom. That dragged them down and drowned them. That feasted on their flesh. The creature that she’s always longed to become: the mermaid. Chlorine is about a competitive swimmer named Ren Yu, who is driven to extremes by the pressures of living up to her family’s expectations, her coach’s demands, and the envy of her peers until she decides that to achieve her dreams she must become a mermaid, by any means necessary, no matter the blood she’ll spill, or the cost she’ll pay. It features codependent friendship, menstruation pains, shaving parties, and queer transcendence, with a side of body horror, which is personally my favorite genre, because nothing is more horrible than having a body! In addition, Chlorine pays homage to Faye Wong and Wong Kar-wai, weaving in the film Chungking Express throughout the plot. In the vein of The Piscesand The Vegetarian, Chlorineis a debut novel that blurs the line between a literary coming-of-age narrative and a dark unsettling horror tale, told from an adult perspective on the trials and tribulations of growing up in a society that puts pressure on young women and their bodies… a powerful, relevant novel of immigration, sapphic longing, and fierce, defiant becoming. I didn’t enjoy the writing. I didn’t enjoy the story. There’s not much about this book that I particularly enjoy at all. I do like the author though. Jade Song (she/they) has a nice social media presence, they seem cool and maybe with more maturity, I’ll read a better book by them. I like their love of Wong Kar-Wai and Leslie Cheung films because same.

There is so much I could say about this book, and I won't even try to cover it all in this review. Ren's experiences, while on one hand, is not anything I've ever experienced (I certainly was NOT a competitive swimmer), but on the other hand, I related a lot to some of the other things she was struggling through. Coming to terms with her cultural identity and queerness, the pressure of being the perfect child and trying to live up to the hopes and dreams of your immigrant parents, and even her deep mistrust of doctors are all things that stood out to me. Even though Ren was such a toxic character, I found myself empathizing with her a lot simply because I could relate to her so deeply. I didn't like her, but I understood her, and I think that's a testament to how well Song crafted Ren as a character. But these events are not bad enough to cause the level of mental breakdown Ren has. Ren’s life has reprieves. Ren lives with her mother who loves her. Ren has a close friend who loves her. Ren doesn’t get harassed or bullied. Ren doesn’t seem to struggle in school at all (she gets straight A’s and apparently doesn’t study). Ren’s dad still video calls her every night and still loves and cares about her and her mother. Ren has an entire summer where she is under no pressure, smokes weed (which gets rid of her headaches), has sex all the time, makes friends, and overall, just has a great time. Fierce... so vivi d... both b eautif ul and frightening. Chlorine isn’t just a coming of age story. It’s the tale of transformation from human to something wilder and more transcendent. It’s about lov e and longing and the willingness to do anything to become who you truly are."In the vein of The Pisces and The Vegetarian, Chlorine is a debut novel that blurs the line between a literary coming-of-age narrative and a dark unsettling horror tale, told from an adult perspective on the trials and tribulations of growing up in a society that puts pressure on young women and their bodies... a powerful, relevant novel of immigration, sapphic longing, and fierce, defiant becoming. A strikingly original coming-of-age story . . . Full of contradictions, magnificently balancing and remarkably sustaining wonder with dread and magical realism with harsh reality, with a heartbreakingly beautiful and intensely uneasy tone, this is a story that will hold readers in its thrall. [A] great choice for fans of weird, immersive, female-driven body horror by authors like Julia Armfield, Cassandra Khaw, and Carmen Maria Machado’– Booklist starred review GO GO GO JIAO YOU JIAO YOU JIAO YOU ADD OIL ADD OIL ADD OIL" this is not a complaint i actually think it's very funny the translation is included bc no other pinyin (afaict) is translated throughout. spread that culture. EDIT: my friend pointed out to my extremely sleep-deprived brain that the correct pinyin is "JIA YOU" (from the other available pinyin, the text does seem to use standard mandarin) and at first i thought i'd made a typo but actually it says "JIAO YOU" in the text. so actually now i do have a problem which is echoing my earlier point Who At HarperCollins Copyedited This Chlorineis not for the faint of heart. Fierce and visceral, it seethes with rage and pain and the urgency of transformation. There are no pretty mermaids wearing seashell bras here, but readers open to sinking into darker waters will be captivated." There’s also the fact that 99% of men in this book are portrayed as bad. Ren’s third-grade teacher doesn’t believe she can read words out of an adult fantasy book. Jim is abusive. Ren’s boyfriend is apparently so stupid he wouldn’t even know what a UTI was (according to Ren). The other swim team members’ fathers creep on Ren.