Review | Chlorine by Jade Song

Chlorine is a debut literary fiction/horror novel by Jade Song.

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, 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. Ones that called sailors to their doom. Ones that dragged them down and drowned them. Ones that feasted on their flesh. Ones of the creature that she's always longed to become: 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.

Wow - I have so many feelings about Chlorine! I will start with the most important since that's why we are all here - I loved this book.

Chlorine is a debut coming-of-age novel that follows Ren Yu - a swimmer who grew up loving tales of mermaids and the water. I could really relate to Ren and her obsession with being in the water. In fact, the synopsis for Chlorine sounded like a perfect read for me, and it was.

The comparison to Han Kang's The Vegetarian had me curious about what kind of horror I would find in Chlorine (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...). I find sometimes a book that is strange or unsettling gets labeled as horror because there's not really another marketing box to put it in. I wondered if this was the case with Chlorine and for the first 150+ pages I feared I was right. Chlorine is a wonderful work of literary fiction. The character building was incredible, and I was heavily invested in the story. I was side-eyeing the claims of "horror" in Chlorine until Jade Song spelled out for the reader exactly what horror was going to take place, and I absolutely could not look away.

So be warned. This book is wonderful. I loved it, and it will be one of my favorite books of the year, but the last 100 pages are disturbing. They're amazing, but they're disturbing. I had to put the book down, take some breaths, and pick it right back up again.

I loved these characters, and I miss these characters already. Chlorine is a really great coming-of-age story, and I highly recommend it if you can handle having horror in your literary fiction. I think I'm going to buy this one for my mom for Mother's Day, and you should treat yourself, too.

5/5 stars
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