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A review by danielles_reads
Chlorine by Jade Song
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book had me in a chokehold while I was listening to it. Ren's POV is so twisted I couldn't look away!
This really solidified for me that I love weird horror. I love when characters get so obsessed with something so weird that it becomes mundane. I love when mundane things in life are described in weird ways.
The beginning of this book was especially weird and off-putting, with Ren hinting at her transformation into a mermaid, and describing how she became a swimmer. Her coach, Jim, was so creepy! Song really nailed the feeling of coaches who are very inappropriate but don't technically do anything outright wrong. I had a coach like that in high school and whew. I love love loved the scenes describing menstruation. Yes, more books describing womanhood as gory and bloody and violent please! Most women on the planet have to deal with blood every month for most of their lives. The way Ren and Cathy met and became friends due to periods was fucking weird lol but it really was a sign of things to come--the accepting of the weird as mundane.
The book did slow down a little bit in the middle as Ren went about her normal high school life. I did like the chapters from Cathy's point of view, as they added an interesting outsider perspective of Ren (and helped explain why Cathy did some of the things she did), but they were written in a style that's a huge pet peeve of mine: where someone describes an event in detail to another person even though that other person was also there. It's so unnatural and is clearly just obvious exposition. These chapters also solidified my dislike for Imani Parks' narration. She has no flow whatsoever and pauses in the most random of places, making even beautiful prose sound completely stilted. This is the second audiobook I've listened to by her and she is immediately heading to my "do not listen" list. Thankfully, Catherine Ho narrated most of the book, and she was fabulous. She really nailed the obsessive voice.
There were also some small parts in the book that didn't make sense and pulled me out of the story. For one, Ivy League schools don't offer athletic scholarships, so it was weird that Ren would bank on that happening to her. Idk if the author was trying to show her being a dumb teenager or if she herself didn't know that. It was also weird to me that Ren and Cathy were casually driving each other around town at age like 14-15? I didn't grow up in Pennsylvania, but my state didn't allow anyone under 18 to drive with passengers, and only those at least 15 and a half could drive at all.
Regardless, when the book shifted into full body horror mode, I was back to being truly fascinated. The scenewith Ren sewing her legs together in the shower with blood running down the drain was so visceral! Fuck, I love her. Her mental deterioration was really well-done.
Plus, all the shit she had to deal with before her transformation was also awful in a true-to-life way. The way Ren described hersexual assault was too real. "I am sure you would like to read about what happened next in the storage shed. Humans often forget their curiosity has malicious intentions. You want every detail, so you can make appropriate judgments on the participants of such ambiguous events. You would like to decide whether I deserve your pity. You want all the information so you can properly decide whether what happened that night was my fault or not. Everything must be outlined in depth before I am believed. What I was wearing, what I said, how many times I said no. If I said no at all. ... My conclusion, based on these above stated facts, is that your sympathy will be hard-won. No matter what happens next." And all the ways she described the mundanity of human life was also too real. It was really interesting to see Ren reclaim her autonomy that her coach, her mom, her schooling, and her troubled friendly and romantic relationships had taken away from her.
I'm finding it difficult to talk about this book because damn, it really hit. I look forward to reading whatever Song writes next!
This really solidified for me that I love weird horror. I love when characters get so obsessed with something so weird that it becomes mundane. I love when mundane things in life are described in weird ways.
The beginning of this book was especially weird and off-putting, with Ren hinting at her transformation into a mermaid, and describing how she became a swimmer. Her coach, Jim, was so creepy! Song really nailed the feeling of coaches who are very inappropriate but don't technically do anything outright wrong. I had a coach like that in high school and whew. I love love loved the scenes describing menstruation. Yes, more books describing womanhood as gory and bloody and violent please! Most women on the planet have to deal with blood every month for most of their lives. The way Ren and Cathy met and became friends due to periods was fucking weird lol but it really was a sign of things to come--the accepting of the weird as mundane.
The book did slow down a little bit in the middle as Ren went about her normal high school life. I did like the chapters from Cathy's point of view, as they added an interesting outsider perspective of Ren (and helped explain why Cathy did some of the things she did), but they were written in a style that's a huge pet peeve of mine: where someone describes an event in detail to another person even though that other person was also there. It's so unnatural and is clearly just obvious exposition. These chapters also solidified my dislike for Imani Parks' narration. She has no flow whatsoever and pauses in the most random of places, making even beautiful prose sound completely stilted. This is the second audiobook I've listened to by her and she is immediately heading to my "do not listen" list. Thankfully, Catherine Ho narrated most of the book, and she was fabulous. She really nailed the obsessive voice.
There were also some small parts in the book that didn't make sense and pulled me out of the story. For one, Ivy League schools don't offer athletic scholarships, so it was weird that Ren would bank on that happening to her. Idk if the author was trying to show her being a dumb teenager or if she herself didn't know that. It was also weird to me that Ren and Cathy were casually driving each other around town at age like 14-15? I didn't grow up in Pennsylvania, but my state didn't allow anyone under 18 to drive with passengers, and only those at least 15 and a half could drive at all.
Regardless, when the book shifted into full body horror mode, I was back to being truly fascinated. The scene
Plus, all the shit she had to deal with before her transformation was also awful in a true-to-life way. The way Ren described her
I'm finding it difficult to talk about this book because damn, it really hit. I look forward to reading whatever Song writes next!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Body horror
Moderate: Sexual assault