A review by oliviaaschumer
American Mermaid by Julia Langbein

3.0

This book was definitely one of my most unique reads of the year. What was marketed as a YA book about mermaids was quickly revealed to be a satirical look at the lowest personas of LA and the life of an author trying to deal with the fame of her debut novel “American Mermaid” which we receive sporadic excerpts of throughout Penny’s story. The start was slow, but it picked up when she started discovering the things happening in her script for the American Mermaids movie adaptation were coming to life. However, this aspect of the novel didn’t start happening until 80% in and wasn’t explored nearly as much as I would’ve enjoyed. Perhaps if she did explore this more I would’ve seen this novel more worthy of 4 or 5 stars.

It was refreshing reading about an asexual main character. It wasn’t anything special, but it's still nice to see it there. Better than it being tokenized.

Some criticisms and strengths which I believe this review pointed out more articulate than I could:

Strength

Sylvia and Penny mirror each other in many ways. When Sylvia enters the water and becomes a mermaid, she blacks out—as though becomes a different person. Similarly, Penny gets blackout drunk and can’t recall if she is the one making the script changes. Penny’s asexuality means she, like Sylvia, doesn’t fit into society. Langbein finds a narrow space of ambiguity where we can wonder if they are in fact the same person and not just an author and her character.

Chaos helps keep the book refreshing. The chapters are short, and swapping perspectives between Penny’s present and excerpts from her novel incentivizes page-turning. And the chaotic energy means there is no shortage of surprises and twists.

Critique

It’s hard to know if this (The American Mermaid excerpts) is a satire of a comic book movie or an accurate reflection of contemporary history.
If there is a weakness to the novel, it is the inclusion of so many disparate components. Some threads, like Penny’s initial concern about raising money for a mastectomy, fade away once they become less useful to the plot.

The final quote I will quote from this review that is neither a critique nor strength, but up to the reader's interpretation is:

Langbein has written a sincere novel about art, Hollywood, sexuality, feminism, global warming, the cultural zeitgeist—and managed to do so while entertaining with a modern voice and a light touch of humour.

I found the ending quite interesting especially with Penny adopting elements of the person she was mocking at the beginning. Even the ending of her saying “take me to the sea” mirroring Sylvia’s first transformation scene I thought was quite clever.

Overall, when you look at the premise and synopsis of this novel it’s very difficult to think how this could go wrong, and it is by no means bad, yet I finished the book missing the same “WTF” feeling I experienced finishing novels such as Mona Awad's “Bunny” where I’m excited to figure out what it all means. Instead, I was left with this feeling that I can only describe as okay, onto the next hence the 3-star rating.