Chlorine

A Novel

By: Jade Song

Narrated by: Catherine Ho, Imani Parks

Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

In the vein of The Pisces and The Vegetarian, Chlorine is a debut novel that blurs the line between a literary coming-of-age narrative and a dark unsettling horror tale, told from an adult perspective on the trials and tribulations of growing up in a society that puts pressure on young women and their bodies… a powerful, relevant novel of immigration, sapphic longing, and fierce, defiant becoming.

Ren Yu is a swimmer. Her daily life starts and ends with the pool. Her teammates are her only friends. Her coach is her guiding light. If she swims well enough, she will be scouted, get a scholarship, go to a good school. Her parents will love her. Her coach will be kind to her. She will have a good life.

But these are human concerns. These are the concerns of those confined to land, those with legs. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Creatures that called sailors to their doom. That dragged them down and drowned them. That feasted on their flesh. The creature that she’s always longed to become: the mermaid.

Ren aches to be in the water. She dreams of the scent of chlorine, the feel of it on her skin. And she will do anything she can to make a life for herself where she can be free. No matter the pain. No matter what anyone else thinks. No matter how much blood she has to spill.

©2023 Jade Song (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

A little overhyped but solid

I enjoyed this book, but felt like it’s been a little overhyped online. It’s a pretty slow burn, but the ending result is predictable. Mild body horror intertwined with a coming age story.

Original gripping story

I really enjoyed it because it’s very layered. Semi fantastical but with doses of reality in termos of competitive swimming and the blurring of roles.

An amazing debut

An amazing coming of age story for adults. I was also a swimmer all through my childhood and teen years. Quit in college. So I really related to both POV characters in different ways and both really resonated with me. The prose are also beautiful.

this is incorrectly listed as horror

it is not in the horror genre, it is slipstream. would have been good to know

strange in the best way

This book itself is amazingly well written, and the audiobook performance is great as well. I would recommend this to anyone who loves strange, unsettling, imagery. Not only unsettling in the best way, but also has a mix of other genres which makes for a captivating read. I couldn’t stop listening. Highly recommend :)

So much mislisting going on here

I saw one other review saying that this book was listed incorrectly as horror. I learned of this book from reading a most-anticipated sci-fi & fantasy books list for 2023. It is truly none of the above, at least not fully. A salad bowl, perhaps? Maybe one part coming of age drama, one part family drama, one part immigrant drama, one part LGBTQIA+ love story, one part student athletics drama, and maybe a dash of fantasy that doesn’t begin until the final 5% of the book. It’s really all over the place. But that’s not to say it’s not very interesting and well written. It is. I enjoyed it immensely. But it just wasn’t what I had been promised going in. Really the best thing you can do is just read it. Skip the reviews and read.

A24 vibes: Sapphic Body Horror Thriller Coming of Age Dark Fairytale

If A24 did a wild genre blend movie of Swimfan thriller but also body horror. This dark coming of age story is unlike anything else I’ve ever read before. Told in dual perspective looking back at a young woman learning who is she, how she fits in with this swim team, and how she carves a definition of herself in a world that is at times funny and deeply stinging. This is an exceptional Sapphic work of fiction. Highly recommend if you like weird reads.