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A review by literarycrushes
American Mermaid by Julia Langbein
3.0
American Mermaid is a fun & sarcastic takedown of Hollywood adaptation culture, but one that’s very much in on the joke. Penelope is a high school English teacher who wrote a novel for which she received a small advance that she was perfectly happy with… Until an influencer posts her book (also called American Mermaid) on his feed, and she finds herself whisked off the L.A. by her super-agent, Danielle, to co-adapt the film’s screenplay with two interchangeable film-bros named Randy and Murphy.
The novel is told in a semi-experimental style, with some sections told in script dialogue style and interspersed with sections of the faux novel being adapted about an adopted suicidal mermaid. While I thought these variations were interesting, these breaks pulled me out of the story, and I had a difficult time getting back into it. But I absolutely loved Penelope’s rye sarcasm and dry humor in her descriptions of the absurdities of what was happening to her. Her resentment over giving up teaching rivals only her resentment of her father for having the audacity to offer to pay for things even though she’s masquerading as a self-sufficient adult – a valid argument, sure, but one that becomes hilarious in her words. Had fun reading this overall!
The novel is told in a semi-experimental style, with some sections told in script dialogue style and interspersed with sections of the faux novel being adapted about an adopted suicidal mermaid. While I thought these variations were interesting, these breaks pulled me out of the story, and I had a difficult time getting back into it. But I absolutely loved Penelope’s rye sarcasm and dry humor in her descriptions of the absurdities of what was happening to her. Her resentment over giving up teaching rivals only her resentment of her father for having the audacity to offer to pay for things even though she’s masquerading as a self-sufficient adult – a valid argument, sure, but one that becomes hilarious in her words. Had fun reading this overall!