An aching siren song, one that points us towards those uncharted dimensions of desire and identity that swim and shimmer, in and out of being." This fantastically strange, explosive debut novel entrances even as it unsettles. It’s so brilliantly written’ Chlorine is about the reclamation of tender monstrosity. It’s about athletic discipline/delusion. But most of all, Chlorine is about the longing to be free. Welcome to the Hive, Jade. Firstly, congratulations on your debut, Chlorine! Firstly, how does it feel to have your book out there in the wild?

i loved the idea of this book so much (satirical ish literary horror about a swimming star who chooses to become a mermaid because of the weight of misogyny and homophobia and racism), but the execution...not so much! I didn’t enjoy the writing. I didn’t enjoy the story. There’s not much about this book that I particularly enjoy at all. I do like the author though. Jade Song (she/they) has a nice social media presence, they seem cool and maybe with more maturity, I’ll read a better book by them. I like their love of Wong Kar-Wai and Leslie Cheung films because same. This fantastically strange, explosive debut novel entrances even as it unsettles. It’s so brilliantly written‘– Buzzfeed Chlorine” follows Ren Yu, a competitive high school swimmer, who pushes her body to the limits every day in pursuit of an athletic scholarship. Ren must simultaneously navigate puberty, adolescent sexuality, and a complex relationship with her Chinese immigrant mother. In a fantastical twist, the mermaid fairytales from Ren’s childhood begin to infuse into her present thought, pulling her toward the freedom of their underwater lives. This book was viscerally unnerving and I could not put it down." — Sarah Gailey, author of The Echo WifeFierce... so vivi d... both b eautif ul and frightening. Chlorine isn’t just a coming of age story. It’s the tale of transformation from human to something wilder and more transcendent. It’s about lov e and longing and the willingness to do anything to become who you truly are." And yet, Ren isn’t interested in resolving these contradictions so much as they manifest into her singular yearning to adapt herself into the ideal of mermaid. For Ren, the pool is everything. She imagines herself as thriving in chlorine. Shedding the weaknesses of a sloppy human body to reveal iridescent scale. Can you blame her? “Mermaids are not born, we are made,” she says, with religious fervor. And given her training—brutal if only to make her tougher and faster; painful if only to escape regular old “pain due to the agony of everyday human life,” it becomes clear that her becoming-mermaid is not a naïve fantasy or a grotesque, disfiguring fate.

This book follows the classic horror structure of the main character going through a lot of horrible/miserable events as rising actions, thus leading the character to the climax of some sort of breaking point. In horror, the climax is usually the main character killing everyone. In drama, the climax would be a suicide. In the vein of The Piscesand The Vegetarian, Chlorineis 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.From her Asian family conformity to the chlorinated pool as a competitive star swimmer…. to her steady climb to independence…. big words and long sentences do not a good writer make. in fact, in this book, they make for a writing style that is pathetically self-conscious, so obviously eager to impress that it is genuinely embarrassing to read. when not beating you over the head with Earnest Messaging, this book makes word salad of the simplest phrases. even the most entry-level editor could have easily halved its length. But these are human concerns. The concerns of those confined to land. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Stories that called sailors to their doom. Stories that dragged them down and drowned them. Stories of the creature that she’s always longed to become: a mermaid.