Chlorine: A Novel

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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. 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. An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored. 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.

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

heavy expectations from parents, teachers, peers, fitting in, body issues, the right clothes, beautifications, i cannot stand being talked down to as a reader, especially for themes as simple as "bigotry abounds." The inserter girl gets blood on her hands. The insertee girl tells her to wash it off. The inserter girl doesn’t wash it off.

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Chlorine is 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.” — Ann Claycomb, author of the forthcoming Silenced 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. Ren Yu is a fierce young woman who’s dreamed of mermaids ever since she can remember-dreams so vivid that the first touch of water in a swimming pool alters her life forever, sending her down a path that’s both beautiful 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 love and longing and the willingness to do anything to become who you truly are‘– Richard Kadrey, New York Times-bestselling author of the SANDMAN SLIM series

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. I admire, respect, and enjoyed Jade Song’s mystifying mermaid symbolic story…. with fascinating mythology armor. Mermaids are having a moment in the cultural slipstream: Chlorine sees a high school swimmer go to drastic lengths to assume what she believes is her true form... The creatures have traded languid hair combing for power brokering on their own terms. It's a welcome tidal shift." otherwise it tended more toward melodrama and hit-you-over-the-head themes and arguments. here's an example, when our protagonist has recently sustained a head injury and is conspicuously refusing to answer her doctor's very normal question (how's the pain):

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Jade Song is an art director, artist, and author of CHLORINE (William Morrow/HarperCollins, 2023), their debut novel about a swimmer-turned-mermaid, lauded by Publishers Weekly as “visionary and disturbing.” Other writing is published in Teen Vogue, The Missouri Review, and various literary magazines. The evolution of Ren’s characterization is satisfying to read from start to end. Song’s ability to write Ren’s logic is incredibly immersive as it is equally disturbing and awe striking how it all made sense even though deep inside it is unhinged. I would like to dissect Song’s writing process because through reading the book I am just so immersed and engaged word for word. I liked what Song was selling and I completely bought it. Seeing the final form of Ren’s characterization being shaped as each monumental moment moulded her thinking and the identity that she wants blew me away. It is a display of Song’s ability as a writer to craft a story that is high quality. It’s been a while since a book drowned me in the fantasy that I could not look away. 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. ARC provided by Kelly at William Morrow in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the copy! All quotes used are taken from an early ARC and are subject to change upon publication. 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.

We mutilated our hair, cultivating our arm leg pit vagina hair for months like farmers growing wheat, until we cropped it off i That said, I’m not sure it’s even supposed to be “real,” because, in my opinion, Ren’s story reads as mentally ill daughter of immigrant parents displays side effects of being a mentally ill daughter of immigrant parents. If mermaids are supposed to be real, more attention should have been given to developing that than Ren’s life as a contemporary high school human. He inhaled and lifted the whistle to his mouth, but before he could blow, I dove into the pool. I couldn’t wait any longer. I was so close. I wanted to touch water without other children inside it too. Their bodies would have corrupted my experience. And I had already grasped how men liked it when I did things they wanted without them needing to ask first. I can understand why Ren would dislike men later in the book, because they creep on her. But at this point, men haven’t done anything at all to her. There is no narrative reason for Ren to feel this way, so I have to assume this is how the author feels. This fantastically strange, explosive debut novel entrances even as it unsettles. It’s so brilliantly written’

Ren Yu is a swimmer. Her daily life starts and ends with the pool. Her teammates are her only friends. Her coach, her guiding light. If she swims well enough, she will be scouted, get a scholarship, go to a good school. Her parents will love her. Her coach will be kind to her. She will have a good life. Like the scent of chlorine on one’s skin, this not-to-be-missed debut novel lingers.” — Library Journal (starred review) The book is written from Ren’s “ascended” POV, and it makes it hard to read. She hates men. She hates Americans. She hates every human. All of you are beneath her. She is better than all of you. She judges the reader, and lectures directly to the reader her preconceived notion of who you are. And I get it. That’s her character. But she repeats it. Over. And over. And over. How many ways can you say you hate me? I get it already.