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. 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. Probably one of the darkest and most twisted books over the year, this coming-of-age story of a young Chinese swimmer and her dream of becoming of mermaid is the stuff of both dreams and nightmares." 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. Now let’s discuss your splashingly eye-catching cover! (Sorry, I had to add at least one swimming pun!) How involved in the process were you? Was there a particular aesthetic you hoped the artist would portray?

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 I am alone. A-lone. A-, a prefix meaning 'without.' I am without you. I miss you." an installment of cathy's letters to ren, which i generally found to be purple prose-y and tonally inconsistent with cathy's speaking voice (which confuses me bc i feel like high schoolers' personal writing often sounds a Lot like their speaking voices but i am also pretty sure jade song was going for a certain effect here so the discrepancy is likely intentional). this line bewildered me because what novel thing am i learning from diagraming this word? it just feels like an effort to be poetic without substance. While an accurate cover text for a book is a success for the writer of that description and undoubtedly fulfills its purpose, I have to admit that a cover description which is accurate to a fault gives away pretty much all the book is about, that can dampen the final opinion even though all expectations are met, but there has been nothing more than what the description gives. That is the case for me with Jade Song's Chlorine.I can go on and on about this book honestly but I think I’ll conclude here HAHA. Chlorine is a coming of age story written as horror exploring multiple facets such Asian American girlhood, sapphic longing, the perilous journey of growing up all beautifully presented via terrifying yet poetic imagery.

or let’s try: “I’m confined to a comprehension of human difficulties through an American lens, no matter how hard I try to break out of the star-spangled brainwashing I was subject to from a young girl’s age.” I would have been able to measure the angles of your muscles, obtuse and right and acute, far better than any rhombus on my geometry worksheets. Acute, acute, cute." that was not a typo (on my part). the last word of that sentence is 'cute.' 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. Critical Praise 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." many people i know are very excited for this book, and i went into it with high expectations and was so sorely disappointed. i'll probably lengthen this review and actually approach my thoughts on the plot (which are a bit less complicated/perplexed than my thoughts on the language) when more folks i talk about books with have read it. i will just include a few snippets that demonstrate how clunky and poorly edited i think the prose is:

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the language felt sloppy and imprecise in that hard-to-define underedited-debut way, and despite being categorized as a horror novel i would say only one scene really qualified as such. This book was viscerally unnerving and I could not put it down‘– Sarah Gailey, author of THE ECHO WIFE

We mutilated our hair, cultivating our arm leg pit vagina hair for months like farmers growing wheat, until we cropped it off in one hour, together at the shaving party before the big meet.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. Chlorine” follows Ren Yu, a competitive high school swimmer, who pushes her body to the limits every day in pursuit of an athletic scholarship. Ren must simultaneously navigate puberty, adolescent sexuality, and a complex relationship with her Chinese immigrant mother. In a fantastical twist, the mermaid fairytales from Ren’s childhood begin to infuse into her present thought, pulling her toward the freedom of their underwater lives. 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 Ms. Song is good on the growing pains of young adulthood…[This is] a book that enlivens its coming-of-age yarn with a touch of mystery and a twist of myth.” — The Economist