Reviews with content warning for Self harm - Chlorine

Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

nadiajohnsonbooks's review

dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Chlorine by Jade Song is a story of transformation in more ways than one. It's a coming-of-age tale, tracking Ren Yu's emerging obsession with competitive swimming, her body's inconvenient changes, her attraction to her best friend, the clumsy, casual racism of her friends and teammates, and the sometimes racialized attentions of lecherous men and boys

It's also a deeply unsettling story of how a girl makes herself into a mermaid by pure force of will

And Ren is not your typical mermaid

She's part reverse-Ariel, rejecting love on land for freedom in the water. And she's part Shakesperean Ophelia, though she would tell you that whether the ending of Hamlet is tragic or happy is a matter of perspective

She is equal parts delusion and determination, and at every stage of the book, I wanted to swoop in and protect her from herself and the world around her

This was a wild read for me because the world around her is the same world I grew up in. Specifically: the book is set in my gray, rainy hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I was a competitive swimmer from age 7 to 14. Unlike Ren, I quit in high school because, as the book makes abundantly clear: competitive swimming is brutal, time consuming, and if your heart isn't in it, it fucking sucks. Still, the world of over-tight swimsuits, full-body shaving, and brutal workouts was a familiar one

I could see myself on both sides of Ren's codependent friendship with her white best friend (and sometimes love interest) Cathy.

Like Cathy (and probably every single suburban white girl I know), I know I've made some thoughtlessly racist or othering comments to friends of color over the years. Part of growing up is being periodically foolish and hurtful, especially to those we care about and would otherwise like to protect. Cathy loves Ren and hurts her anyway. By the end of the story, Cathy may have changed for the better, but she's still oblivious to some of the inadvertent harm she's caused, and that feels...authentic. Learning to recognize small, generally inadvertent acts of racism or xenophobia is a lifelong journey. Cathy isn't perfect, and neither am I

Also, like Cathy, I was a chubby, indifferent swimmer who only stuck around as long as I did for the social element. When my friends bailed from swimming to get serious about choir, so did I. But, while it might not be everyone's experience, Song's depiction of high school partying, hormonal stupidity, and male shittiness is just about the closest to my own high school experiences as I've ever read in print

And, like Ren, I know what it's like to have an immigrant mother who doesn't quite fit in with most of the other swim moms and makes not-quite-American food for team parties. Of course, the othering that we experienced as white, western European people, was of a much gentler kind

The horror in this book is twofold

Growing up is a horror. Existing in a human body is a horror. To young girls, especially those without a strong support system, men are a horror

But then there's the horror of Ren's transformation, which is a beautifully crafted grotesquity. It would translate beautifully to film, and I would be too scared to watch that movie

Not every element of this book worked for me (Some of the period metaphors seemed a bit over the top, even as I sit here with my own uterus currently feeling like it's trying to kill me), but if you like:

literary horror

coming-of-age stories

sapphic longing

feminine rage

and stories about immigrant experiences

then you won't want to miss this one.

Content Warnings

tifftastic87's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Ren is obsessed with two things in life, mermaids and swimming. When a head injury takes her out of the sport and then a disqualification takes away a team victory, Ren starts feeling the pressure to be perfect. To swim like a mermaid, and she plans a final act to reveal at regionals.

I liked this more in concept than in execution. There were a lot of really tense moments that kept me reading, but the pacing was incredibly slow and that made it difficult for me to finish. I like a slow paced dreamy literary horror, but there was something about this one that didn't quite work for me. I wanted a little more out of it. I did really appreciate the conversation the book was having about the pressure on teenage girls, the expectations on those who are not wealthy and how being a first generation child of immigrants can really mess with that. Ren felt incredibly isolated constantly, and that put her in a lot of really awful situations, I felt for her in those moments. I am still unsure about the ending, but I did like some aspects of it. I think the somewhat metaphorical examination of mental health was done really well, but also here I wanted a little more. I think the ending is where it kind of lost a bit of the punch it was going for.

Spoiler for the ending:

The fact that Cathy helped Ren essentially commit suicide because she felt guilty for not helping her when she was sexually assaulted was a really odd choice. Using that I don't like how the letters from Cathy took up so much space when it was just Cathy continuing to center herself in Ren's story again. I get what it was going for, with the lack of centering Ren in those letters, but I wish something more had been done with it. It was more again of Cathy centering herself in the ending, by being able to spend that time with Ren when she was emotionally vulnerable rather than actually being helpful to her.

Content Warnings

geneebee's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad

5.0

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foresturken's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

courtney_scott1025's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I loved this book, and I tore through it. Read content warnings!! What an interesting debut novel. I loved the writing. I usually don’t care for high school stories, but this one worked so well. God it was fantastic.

Content Warnings

alaris's review against another edition

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challenging dark fast-paced

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

3.0

If you're fine with body horror and self harm and tales of obsession, this is... still really dark. Interesting idea, uneven approach to it.

Content Warnings

annoyedhumanoid's review

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dark medium-paced

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

3.0

the narrative wasn't cohesive, the writing wasn't my favorite, and the dialogue felt unnatural. i think i wanted more of a revenge story but we didn't really get that.

Content Warnings