This is a book I know I wouldn’t have ever picked up on my own. I had heard decent reviews regarding the story but in all honesty I thought the book was much bigger than it truly was and a book about mermaids didn’t really strike a chord within me. I am very grateful for my friend Syd who asked to buddy read this with me along with Ireland and Katie, all of which are my best friends on Bookstagram.
**Spoilers ahead if you have not read the book. **
“I guess hearts are slippery because they’re covered in blood. I wish I could bleed mine dry. Then I’d miss you less.”
Jade Song, Chlorine
About The Book
Author: Jade Song
Publisher: William Morrow
Published Date: March 28th, 2023
Page Count: 256 Pages
Main Genre: Horror/FIction
GoodReads Rating: 3.65
Format: Physical Book
“I died and regenerated every month. How else could I define the experience? The reasonable explanation was death. I decided 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.”
Jade Song, Chlorine
Synopsis
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.
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.
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.
Synopsis From GoodReads
“As a mermaid, I now recognize how winning places the self within a construct of hierarchy over other bodies—a false construct. There’s no victory when someone else loses.
But back then, oh, how I adored winning. The rush of it all! You poor humans. You’ll never learn to be better, not when winning is so addictive.”
Jade Song, Chlorine
Rating
Review
Reading this book as a buddy read was the right way to go. Getting to talk about the underlining meanings was really helpful. Was this book about mermaids or mental health? Maybe Both?
My main consensus is that our character was struggling with mental health issues. From her dad leaving her and her mom at such a young age, her swimming being compulsive, her coach not really caring to push the limits too far etc.
These events all put a lot of strain on Ren and the only way she could truly cope was becoming the mermaid she always felt she was. This also plays into feeling comfortable in your own skin and becoming who you were meant to be whether that’s a boy/girl or in this case a mermaid. Our physical bodies don’t always reflect what our soul feels we are and I think Ren describes herself really well in that context.
In the end of this book Ren stitches her legs together to grow her tail. This is of course to gain her full mermaid potential but the idea only forms after she gets disqualified from a much needed win. When you put that much pressure on yourself to be the best and know your coach and teammates all rely on you it can do a lot of harm. This is when I wish that someone would have stepped in and done more for Ren instead of letting her self isolate as she did.
Overall I did enjoy this book, Ambiguous ending and all. I am still going back and forth on if Ren found her mermaid family or if she passed away. But regardless of my endless questions this book has a lot of great commentary that I think everyone is one way or another can benefit from. Please read the trigger warnings before reding this though, it gets dark and lonely!
“How was I supposed to differentiate between the pain due to the concussion and the pain due to the agony of everyday human life?”
Jade Song, Chlorine
QOTD: If mermaids were real would you want to be one?
World of Bai 