A review by definebookish
The Pisces by Melissa Broder

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

4.0

If not for the fact that I read Melissa Broder’s latest novel, Milk Fed, earlier this month, I’d be telling you that The Pisces is the wildest book I’ve encountered in a long time. Instead I’ll start by noting: mate, that ship has sailed. This one is equally wild, equally weird, and yet… somehow more wonderful.

Where Milk Fed has a slightly dreamlike quality that makes the narrative feel not quite real, The Pisces reads more like a gritty fairytale. This one’s explicit scenes are startlingly unairbrushed. Following a break up and a breakdown, thirty-eight-year-old protagonist Lucy spends a summer dog-sitting in her sister’s beach house, attending group therapy, trying to rescue her thesis on Sappho, and going on gross Tinder dates. Oh, and boning a merman.

There’s definitely depth here, but expect to find Broder’s symbolism about as subtle as a d*ck pic. I don’t think that’s a negative; both The Pisces and Milk Fed are about protagonists who are in therapy, and ‘fun with psychoanalysis’ is very much the vibe. It really did make me laugh at points, and grimace at so many others (it’s not often you find yourself mentally shouting ‘look behind you!’ at a character because you see their UTI looming before they do.)

At the same time, there’s a real darkness underlying The Pisces. Amidst the irreverence and the paranormal and the satirical look at Tinder encounters, Lucy’s suffering makes for intense reading. At times her voice feels too much, and on occasion – like her emotionally-unavailable ex – I could feel myself starting to close off to her.

I don’t quite know how to extricate a personal verdict on The Pisces from everything I’ve said above. It’s original and uncompromising, but also a little bit repulsive. I liked it.
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