Review of Chlorine by Jade Song

*Chlorine* by Jade Song (2023). Published by William Morrow.

I don’t know where I first saw the cover of Chlorine for the first time, but once I saw it that time, I kept seeing it throughout a bunch of different channels. Social media, the book newsletters I read, anything you can name.

This was primed to be one of the books that I read simply through exposure, although I was really interested in the title and the cover on a superficial level when it came to first impressions. When I read the plot of the book on one of these many forms of content, I was hooked immediately. You can take that previous as a pun if you’d like.

Anyways, I put in an order for Chlorine at my local library immediately, and because I was at the top of the waitlist when the book finally came out, I got ahold of it pretty quickly.

Over the course of two days, I devoured the book, and overall I thought it was a pretty easy read, as it wasn’t as dense as some books can be.

It takes me forever to read certain kinds of books because of how layered they are, and while I wouldn’t say this book isn’t complicated, it was much easier to read than the other text I’m reading right now (Les Miserables). That one I need breaks from constantly.

Let’s get into the review!

High schooler Ren Yu wants everyone to see her for what she is: a mermaid.

Our protagonist throughout Chlorine is Ren Yu. From early on, we get the sense that something major has happened by the end of the book, as there’s admissions to the time when Ren Yu wasn’t a mermaid, and a catalyst that led her to run away from everything she once knew.

There are also interjections from her former classmate and swimmer Cathy, who we see later on had an unrequited crush on Ren Yu. Ren Yu’s parents are immigrants from China, and her father returns to China at the beginning of the novel for work, leaving her mother and her alone in the United States.

They discovered that their daughter has a talent when it comes to swimming, and it becomes a source of family pride when Ren Yu might be able to go to a top college because of her skill.

So, despite the fact her mother is essentially a single mother, they enroll her in the competitive swim club despite the other kids already having some kind of experience. Ren Yu rises to the top, but this is mixed in with regular teenage shenanigans.

But from the beginning, Ren Yu begins to realize that she belongs in the water permanently. The LGBTQ+ subtext begins when she undresses in front of Cathy during one swim meet, tangling their fates even more so, and they become closer, despite Ren Yu having a fling with another boy in their swimming group later on in the book. That said, Ren Yu doesn’t feel like a human, and desires to return to a body of water later on.

The rest of the novel delves deeper into the consequences of Ren Yu believing this is her destiny, especially when it comes to crunch time and scouts from the Ivy League are coming to her competitions.

The writing in this feels like it’s all in her head until suddenly it becomes extremely real in a graphic way, and some readers would definitely find themselves shocked at some of the decisions Ren makes towards the end of the novel. I certainly was gasping because of it, and there’s definitely a shock factor involved to it, even if we can kind of seeing it coming already.

There’s one overt theme to all of this: trying to maintain your identity in a coming-of-age story when no one else will. Ren Yu is facing immense pressure, there’s a coach that’s absolutely terrible to her and other girls in the long run, then there’s also the fact that she’s simply a teenager just trying to make it in this society.

Those would make anyone crumble, even without the more grotesque elements.

Overall Thoughts

This was a really compelling novel for me, and while I don’t think it’s one of my favorites ever, I found the way it introduced its themes and overarching agendas to be really interesting.

I think in the future I’ll be keeping an eye on Jade Song’s books, as this was such a unique concept. I don’t know how she thought of it, and I’ll be off to read interviews after writing this blog post.

Read this one if you haven’t already—just be warned about the climax of the book, as it can be a little disturbing to some once they get to it.

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