Chlorine

"Chlorine" reminded me of Han Kangs "The Vegetarian" towards the end of the story. It shows the same decay of humanity in the main character and their - sometimes terrifying - new reality. Ren is caught in a coming-of-age story painted by horrifying tales while swimming for her life. Although this book seems to describe the normal upbringing of a potential star-athlete, it has the potential to haunt you. This book is definitely the right pick for you if you enjoy absurd asian literatur and if you can stomach slight body horror. If this is a new genre for you, I suggest that you start with something like "Pizza Girl" by Jean Kyoung Fazier, which is also a sapphic and slightly uncomfortable read about different desires.

A Powerful, breathtaking and brilliant debut. Jade Song writes about racism, sexism and mental health problems and doesn't mince words. The story starts as a harsh social criticism about growing up as a competitive athlete while also being a Chinese American girl struggling with discrimination and exclution. The protagonist Ren finds protection in the dream of being a mermaid until she finally decides to transform herself into it. Bloody body horror elements mixed with a brutal coming of age story.

Chlorine is horror in its purest form or rather, a deep exploration of how far horror can go. Jade Song delves into the dark side of competitive swimming, adolescence and pressures from all the sides. Blending racism and misogyny with a slow, chilling descent into madness. The story is tense and suffused with dread. As a reader you know something is coming, but not when, how or why. The book also serves as a bitterly honest portrait of growing up as a girl in a patriarchal society, in a culture that fetishizes women’s bodies. Song handles this with raw realism rather than pure shock value, making it gut-wrenching and profoundly haunting. This isn’t a book for new horror readers! Chlorine is intense! It’s perfect for anyone ready to confront darkness that feels all too real. But even for me, some chapters and scenarios were almost too much to handle. All in all, Jade Song is an author to watch, and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for their future work.

Chlorine“ ist ein Coming-of-Age-Roman, roh und intensiv. Er spricht klug über Körper, Druck und Selbstfindung, mit starken Bildern für innere Zerrissenheit. Leider verliert er sich aber etwas im Warten auf die am Anfang versprochenen Meerfrauen-Thematik. Das bleibt dann doch eher Metapher als Magie.

I was excited to read this, but I had to DNF it after 100 pages. Disgusting and uncomfortable pages about the smell of someones poop and a child forcing their friend to insert a tampon in them... It reads like a melodramatic teenagers diary. The number of times I rolled my eyes at how deep it tries to be should have caused them to be permanently stuck in that position. The main character is also insufferable.