A review by dragonlilly
Chlorine by Jade Song

dark reflective tense fast-paced

3.0

This was a very fascinating book. Even the body horror of the story was interesting, even when I had to skim over the climax of that horror because it was too descriptive for my own sake, and even with the tons of general triggers throughout the book that should probably be looked up by those that may be affected by them. From the start I was a big fan of the author's note, and I enjoyed the narrative voice because it matches the main character and how she sees herself and the world quite well. This story was a good exploration into how much children and teenagers are affected by adult figures and things they see throughout their life, and how much certain ideas can be internalized to the extreme. The sports team aspect was explored pretty well, and I was able to clearly see how certain slogans and teachings could be ingrained into Ren to the extreme alongside her other experiences in early life, which very often revolved around pain (pain from working out, the IUD, painful periods, abuse). Eventually pain becomes Ren's associated with strength, because that is what she is taught, especially when her pain is either disregarded or stated to be weakness leaving her body. Overall, through the horrors of human life, Ren searches for an escape from humanity, and it is very easy to see how this progresses throughout the story. I also heavily enjoyed the Chungking Express references and surprisingly in-depth exploration of those scenes. Epic movie. I do have some qualms about certain bits in the writing that didn't make a ton of sense and were a bit strange and plot-holey, and it didn't seem to be due to Ren's state of mind, but the general progression of the story made sense at least, even if little things were not perfect. In general, this story was disturbing for a large number of different reasons, and it was meant to be, and I don't think it was entirely unrealistic or over the top for the sake of it, and it was instead used as an exploration of the horrors many people may face in similar situations. 

I was, however, displeased by Ren's treatment of Cathy when they obviously had an attraction to one another, even though they were both worried about ruining their friendship, but somehow it seemed like both their lives would have been easier if they had just gotten together, and Ren wouldn't have experienced certain terrible things. But in general, I get that Ren's character was slowly going mad as a result of many things in her life, so that's partially why she was so upset at Cathy, especially since Cathy was one of the few people that were really in her life in the first place. I must admit, reading the letters from Cathy made me think this story would end in Ren's suicide driven by madness, but the actual ending makes sense as well, and past Cathy's letters you can quickly see where things are going with Ren's transformation, and I thought that bit of body horror was very neat, even though I had to skim it. 
 
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