A review by sunsick
Sea Monsters by Chloe Aridjis

4.0

You can have all of the Edge of Seventeen nonsense the culture from Stevie Nicks, to Janis Ian to Hailee Seinfeld, will feed you , but no one seems to have hit just as right as Chloe Aridjis has in her story of young Luisa who runs away from home in Roma, Mexico City with Tomas, a boy she barely know or subsequently cares about to end up in the beach town of Zipolite outside of Oaxaca. Crazy teenage decisions are made including snorting seemingly endless cocaine spirals, pursuing a troupe of Ukrainian dwarfs who have escaped from a traveling circus, taking life guidance from a Baudelaire poem (her father's favorite), accepting the kindness and drinks offered by strangers at a bar, though not any meals with meat, and sleeping on an uncomfortable hammock at the beach. Our heroine Louisa has a vivid and interesting imagination, but never chooses to call home. Fever dreams often bore, but not when as well-written as this one. Kudos to Aridjis and 2020 Penn-Faulkner winning opus.