Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - Chlorine

What an absolute ride.

It's not often I read books focused on sports; I've never played one or been interested in one, but the premise of this book and the actual plot of this book are somehow all about sports and simultaneously not about it at all. Going into this book I thought it would be more focused around the supernatural elements that were obviously referenced, but at its core, I think this book is about much more than that. Manipulation, belonging, mental health, abuse, so many things that wound together in such a compelling narrative that you really just couldn't look away. It was a haunting but incredible read.

You could see where this book was going to end from a mile away but the lead-up was still so enjoyable and tense; even though you knew what she was going to do, you were still waiting with baited breath.

That being said, do NOT ignore that body horror tag, because it is rife in this book, in multiple instances and in ways you don't always expect.

This one is gonna stick with me for a while.

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annuich's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.25

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bluedilly's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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ouijabroad's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I really enjoyed this one which I’m thankful for because I’ve had several let downs recently.

I read this in about a day because I couldn’t put it down! The writing is beautiful and as a child who never wanted to leave the water and longed to be a mermaid so badly I connected with Ren on some level (not to the extreme she went to of course). I remember hopping around with my legs crisscrossed at the ankles in my elemntary school classroom and being enamored with the mermaids in the cartoon of Peter Pan.

The telling of a coming of age tale that didn’t fall into tropes and cis-heteronormativity was refreshing.

My only real “complaint”, and I’m using that term loosely because as I said I loved this, I don’t know if I would call this book a horror book; there’s really only one visceral scene and the rest, while unsettling (or maybe not depending on if you believe Ren’s ideas about herself) is mostly a coming of age story mixed with a fairy tale…then again, growing up a girl is pretty horrible. The descriptions of how Jim is with the young girls made me seethe and cringe as someone who has experienced this kind of behavior by many men I’ve come into contact with at a young age. It seems universal. I did find a lot of truth in Song’s writing even if Ren and I experienced very different childhoods.

Normally ambiguous endings annoy me but I was satisfied with this one. Then I keep thinking is it ambiguous though?! I think it’s up to the reader and some context clues to decide that.

Again I really loved this even though it strayed pretty far out of my chosen horror genre. Looking forward to reading more of Jade Song’s work in the future!

Content Warnings

mabelsyrup's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Pain came from remaining human

How do i even tell you about my feelings about this? Chlorine was complicated, dramatic, miserable, sad, bizarre and very queer. what fun i had reading this.

I think my favourite part of this book was the contrast between how dry and cynical it was during Ren's chapters and how melancholy and yearning it was during the few Cathy chapters. It showed the dynamic between them as friends and ultimately how different and incompatible they are, my heart broke so many times when reading how much Cathy loved Ren but her trascendance made her not care about it, living her life free of the expectations of others and how they want her to live her life and how they choose to see her one way despite her changes; even if well intentioned and out of love in the case of her mom and Cathy, was more important.

Ren's backstory really hit home for me; being the outlier of the group, coming from a working family, being put on swimming and other random after school activities bc nobody could take care of me i saw her need to connect and attach to something, anything, to keep her afloat. Her voice throughout the novel was cynical, and slowly became so deliciously deranged! she was saying things that had me giving BIG side eye but in her mind these things are true, she has been a mermaid all throughout her life wether she transformed or not.

The writing of the book is veery stream of consciousness, or at least i think so, and sometimes that was a good thing; Jade Song had some stunning quotes that fr had me blurry eyed, but many other times the narration went on for so long without the break of a dialogue, it made it tiring to read at times (tho i admit its prob a me thing, i have a terribly attention span and this just made more complicated for me to engage for long stretches), sometimes it felt like I was reading a lot but there wasnt much to get from it. But that was literally my only gripe with the story, everything else would've made this an easy 5 star for me.

I went into Chlorine expecting a sapphic grotesque body horror novel and came out with a heartbreaking and disturbing sapphic novel.

"The shadows inside need not be snuffed but treasured- that darkness existed to hide riches from ordinary mortals unable to handle their brilliance, and if I mustered the courage to dive into those veiled depths, these riches could become mine"
"As a mermaid, I now recognize how winning places the self within a construct of hierarchy over the bodies- a false construct. There's no victory when someone else loses."
"What is it called when immigrants reverse, when they wake up from the nightmare masked as a dream?"
"I guess hearts are slippery because they're covered in blood, I wish I could bleed mine dry. Then I'd miss you less"
"I would have been willing to die by crucifixion if you controlled the nail and hammer"
"Every time someone calls my name, a fist clenches over my heart, yearning to hear it from your mouth instead"
"I am alone, A-lone. A-, a prefix meaning "without." I am without you. I miss you"
"it is true that what humans call intergenerational trauma has always been heavy, sinking to the gloomy abyss of repressed memory to be mined for so-called wisdom later. I was newly aware that my parents were people who carried their brudens on their bodies rather than within themselves- this was my doomed inheritance."
"Humans and monsters both understand stories about magic and marvel and myth are made interesting by their stemming from trauma and violence and blood. How can one grow without pain?"
"Our choices showed who and what we love. I had chosen water, mermaid. Cathy had chosen me."

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