Chlorine: A Novel

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sure, become a mermaid because of the weight of bigotry in the world...but do you have to be SO DRAMATIC about it.

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. Also Ren says the reason she wants to impress Jim is because he is male, but that’s just not right. She’d want to impress him even if Jim were female, because Jim is her swim coach. Children want to impress adults that hold power. It has nothing to do with sex. 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. i loved the idea of this book so much (satirical ish literary horror about a swimming star who chooses to become a mermaid because of the weight of misogyny and homophobia and racism), but the execution...not so much!Turning the possibility of pure empowerment on its head, Song forces us to question Ren’s reliability as a narrator at the same time as she provocatively suggests that the truth is perhaps, irrelevant. What’s more important is that in Chlorine, Ren gets to write her own myth—what Fredric Jameson (by way of Claude Lévi-Strauss) once called “the imaginary resolution of a real contradiction”—that she can bridge the aporia of her life on her own terms. And what we’re left with is 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. 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.

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.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. Chlorine by Jade Song is a coming of age, body horror debut which is as unnerving as it is poignantly tender. This is a thought-provoking, powerfully written novel which sent shivers down my spine. The book itself is also a sort of literary mermaid, existing comfortably between genres and age classifications. “Chlorine” is an adult novel with a teenage protagonist, though narrated by an adult. It juxtaposes modern slang in dialogue against vivid, elaborate prose. The book has elements of horror and is ambiguously fantastical — readers are never quite able to trust Ren’s unreliable assertion about being a mermaid. heavy expectations from parents, teachers, peers, fitting in, body issues, the right clothes, beautifications,