Weird, and unnecessarily gross in many ways but utterly mesmerising!!! It is one of those books that throughout your time reading it, that you really dont know whether you like it but at the same time you cannot stop reading and have to know what happens!!!

An interesting read that was a little slow to begin with, but quickly had me hooked. Broder is unafraid to write characters that are unlikeable but interest you enough turning the page to see what happens to them next. The book does try to tackle a lot of heavy subjects in the one space, whilst also mixing in some fantasy elements, making it a little over whelming in parts. With that in mind, I do feel quite different about the book a few days after reading it, after having had time to process a lot of these elements.

What a wild ride. I honestly couldn’t put this book easily into a category if I tried. Would you label it fiction, yes that sounds about right. Fantasy? I guess it is a gloriously odd fantasy tale. Contemporary? Well, in style of writing and setting of course, although it does echo of fable, myth and legend. A tricky book to pigeon hole, but all the more reason to give it a try.

Honest, awkward, racy and original. For those searching for a break from reality – pick this pleasantly surprising book up, immediately!

The Shape of Water in book form. Disillusioned with men in general, Lucy moves to California to look after her sister's dog and ends up falling in love with a merman she meets on the beach - he is the only one who can fulfil her many needs. An enjoyable read though you are never quite sure whether the merman is real (obviously he's not in real life but this is fiction so anything goes!) or whether he is a figment of Lucy's dysfunctional imagination.

Thank you to both Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, I was not engaged enough by the book to finish it. I think the appeal of the cover and the perhaps misappropriated term 'literary fiction' to this book, which I'm assuming was attributed to it due to the 'shocking' events, mermen erotica, and excessive description of dog feces. It had the same high brow chic-lit feel to me and excessive attempts at being shocking as The Optimist, which I also DNF.
It just, in my opinion, wasn't that good. The main character felt forced. Not for me. A star for the gorgeous cover, though.

Sometimes the most divisive books are the most interesting or, at least, the most fun to discuss. The furore surrounding Yanagihara’s massively successful novel “A Little Life” sparked dozens of articles, hundreds of impassioned reviews and countless spirited discussions between readers. Perhaps Melissa Broder’s “The Pisces” hasn’t caused as big a storm, but plenty of people who’ve read it have very strong opinions about it – both positive and negative. There was a lot of anticipation surrounding this debut novel. Usually it feels gauche to quote the number of followers an author has on Twitter, but it’s interesting how Broder’s Twitter account @sosadtoday with it’s 800K followers invokes a tone of voice so similar to the nature of Lucy, the narrator of “The Pisces”. Indeed, the sort of clipped dour statements made on Twitter “reality has never been my favorite” or “so how do you, like, be a person?” are the kind of mopey reflections Lucy often makes throughout the book. But because this is a story we’re given a lot more depth to the existential feelings which inspire these quips and how they fit into the life of a wayward grad student who goes to live on Venice Beach in LA and has a fantastical romantic encounter.

Lucy is writing a dissertation on Sappho or, rather, avoiding working on the dissertation amidst the breakdown of a long term relationship. She falls into a gloomy state where she schemes to get back the boyfriend that she no longer wanted and spends the little money she has on astrological and psychic readings. Her wealthy sister offers her a period of recuperation and reflection by having Lucy housesit in her beautiful beachside residence and watch after her dog Dominic who she thinks of as her child. This offer also comes with the stipulation that Lucy attend group therapy to deal with her anger and sexual compulsions. Lucy does so, but develops a combative attitude towards many of the women in her group and engages in desultory sexual encounters which leave her unsatisfied - until she meets a mysterious man on the beach.

I think the majority of objections to this novel come from Lucy’s unlikeable character who is frequently severely judgemental towards other people (especially women) and in the book’s frank portrayal of sex and sometimes unsavoury nature of our bodies. But while she’s a deeply troubled and oftentimes ornery character I don’t think she’s unsympathetic. She’s someone who gets hung up on gloomy thoughts and she acts out because she can’t understand why everyone isn’t equally effected by them: “Why were some sadnesses so much more permissible than others? Why did it seem like everybody was going to be okay but me?” I appreciate how a lot of her interactions are composed of spontaneous acts of self-creation. Quite often she’ll say or do something to another person without any awareness of her own motivation behind the action. This felt true to life in the way we’ll deal with people in destructive ways but find it difficult to psychologically understand why we’re acting this way without a serious amount of reflection.

Also, Lucy isn’t someone who could be considered a “good feminist” as she actively seeks the attention from men to validate her existence and actively sneers at women in her support group who frequently feel victimized. She wonders “Who was I if I wasn’t trying to make someone love me?” and puts herself through multiple humiliating or degrading circumstances letting men sexually use her in order to feel that she has worth or value. I can understand why this sort of character would irritate or anger some readers. But I think it’s understandable how people can fall into a cycle of seeking casual sex in the hope of achieving validation but finding it inevitably leads to disillusionment because what they really want is an emotional connection rather than a physical one. The sex portrayed is often ugly because it’s not about a romantic connection or even achieving fleeting physical pleasure with the person she’s with but using them as a substitute to give her life meaning.

Her fantastical encounters with a merman which might be real or a fantasy show how she’s attempting to break this cycle. She’s trying to form a better relationship with herself first because she can’t really love someone else without loving herself first. One of the most effective things about this novel is how it shows the ways we avoid and distract ourselves from what we’re feeling. She states “This is just what people did now. We went from emotion to phone. This was how you didn’t die in the 21st century.” Rather than deal with the mess of our emotions we find it easier to casually project our despair or anger or frustration outward and cast around hoping for any small bit of attention from social media. So I felt this novel represented an exaggerated form of our compulsive neediness and an aspect of modern life where we frequently feel adrift.

While I felt this central message was meaningful there were aspects of the novel which weren’t quiet successful. The most glaring annoyance to me was in the character of Claire who becomes Lucy’s closest friend from group therapy. She’s an interesting individual with an insatiable sexual desire and streak of depression. Claire is also British but the way Broder uses English idioms within her speech feels so forced and untrue that I couldn’t believe in her character at all. It may seem like a minor gripe but she becomes quite an important character in the story and the way she’s portrayed is so clumsy. Nevertheless, I thought the novel as a whole worked in how seriously it takes Lucy’s existential angst and the complicated dynamics of sexual relationships.

I wanted this book to be better than it was. Thats not to say it was bad, it just didn't blow me away. The book is pretty sexually explicit - not something I was expecting - and I didn't love that part of it, personally. However, this book is full of humour and character and is super creative and interesting and while I didn't love it I would definitely recommend it.

As someone who did not enjoy the film The Shape of Water, it comes as no surprise that I did not enjoy the written word version of this either.

Lucy has come to Venice Beach, LA, to write a dissertation about Sappho and get over a failed relationship, which has left her with a “void” inside. She sets about finding ways to fill this void, and stumbling upon a merman. This aquatic erotica may be a satire looking at modern consumerism and dating practices, but it just did not float my boat.

I was expecting an empowering, love-yourself novel that felt like a mini-break in sunny L.A. with a cool, intellectual main character. I clearly had no idea what I was signing up for. It’s hard to say what the “plot” of this book is, since it’s mainly a procession of increasingly awkward hookups and Lucy wallowing in misery while doing nothing to help herself. The really bad part is that The Pisces perpetuates all these really awful stereotypes about women, particularly the unmarried and over thirty, as being desperate and love-starved. Lucy sneers at the idea that any woman can be happy if she’s single. Read with trepidation.

Very different story. Great writing. Loved Melissa Broder since So Sad Today.
Not your usual mermaid story.
Great descriptions of mental health issues.
Quick and easy read.

Unusual book but kept me hooked once I started! Cleverly written and an interesting subject matter. Enjoyable!

3.45/5

This is quite a interesting book and I see how people could absolutely hate it, but I liked it a lot.

It’s very real, raw and because of that, uncomfortable to read. Being inside someone’s head like that, following their unfiltered thoughts, no sugarcoating, (specially when they are going through awful things mentally and emotionally) can make you Very uncomfortable.

It’s not a book for everyone, but like I said before, enjoyed it a lot more than I expected, even more when I tried turning off my judgement towards Lucy’s thoughts and actions. Did she make mistakes? Yes, lots. Was she a terrible person at times? Yes. Lots of the things she did cannot be excused? Definitely. But she is so Real, it was so refreshing. Even though at times I wanted to just stop reading out of frustration, everything kind of made sense in the middle of the mess. She’s flawed and terrible and she suffers and she knows her rights and wrongs but she still screws up and suffers because of it and she’s looking for something and it’s like all of us, in our own different ways, in our contexts.

I love and I am curious to read almost everything written in more than one language, except vampire stories. Nor my sense of humour either my life and literary interest. I am a person of simple tastes after all. This was until yesterday, when I added on my 'not/never to read' list a new category: adult books with a merman/mermaid character. Merman erotica, to be more precise.

At 38, Lucy just broke up with her boyfriend and is about to loose the stipendium for writing her PhD thesis on the poet Sappho. Unsure about her future she accept the offer of her sister to petsit a diabetic dog in her house in Venice, LA while attenting a women therapy circle and trying to figure out her future. Lucy is lost, surrounded by other women even more lost than her and life goes on, with hook-ups on Tinder or other adventures. Until she met the merman, Theo. 'Did it take a mythological deformity to find a gorgeous man who was as needy as I was?'.

The writing is ok, the topics are relatively common - the millenial searching for herself while working a non-sense PhD. Introducing the mythological hottie may be new and challenge the narrative, but it is not exactly the kind of stories I am interested in. My bad, I know. But my literary logic doesn't accept that although the life of Lucy is often going through deep periods of emptyness and depression - skilfully described - an impossible romance may be the way out. Meanwhile she is neglecting the poor dog who will pass away until the end of the story.

The next time I will read more carefully the plot descriptions of the books I am supposed to read and review.

PS. Although the temptation was enormous, I decided, for the sake of the review, to read The Pisces until the very end.

This book is at oftentimes weird and oftentimes wonderful. It's can be quite an uncomfortable read in some parts but Broder's writing is so raw and unflinching, you can't help but get stuck in.

Lucy is at a very loose end. Her interest has diminished in both her PhD and long-term relationship and life in her college town has grown pretty stale. But when her boyfriend enthusiastically jumps at the idea to break-up and a deadline is set for her dissertation, Lucy finds herself without loveless and almost definitely jobless. Her sister throws her a lifeline, offering up her Venice Beach house for the summer while she travels around Europe, in exchange for looking after her much-adored dog. Newly single, and hoping the months away will help her finally finish her writing, Lucy plunges headlong into life by the sea in one of the world’s most iconic (and bonkers) beach suburbs. Balancing group therapy sessions with Tinder dates and dog walking duties, Lucy finds herself unravelling until she meets a secretive night swimmer who has a strange hold over her.

So, this book is pretty weird. It’s a modern reversion of the mythical sirens, and Lucy is definitely lost at sea. This woman is definitely not making smart choices in her life and this is probably why I really loved this character and the other women that surround her. There’s this idea that our 20s are for messing things up and our 30s are for getting our sh*t sorted. As anyone over 30 will tell you, this is hilariously untrue – you’re pretty much the same silly person but with more responsibilities. So it’s really refreshing to read a book from the perspective of women who are really not getting anything right. There were a couple of hands over my eyes and cringe moments were Lucy’s poor choices led her into some pretty unsavoury situations, but Melissa Broder’s acerbically funny internal dialogue saves you (nearly) every time.

And now for a review of a book I read pre-release and can review/discuss in a little more detail now it’s been released! The Pisces is a cracker. This is the frankly weird story of a woman who (spoiler alert) falls in love with a merman while she’s trying to work her way through a crisis in her life. Strangely, it really works! (The concept - the merman loving does not fix her life at all). There is a lot of clever imagery and allegory in this, so it’d be a great book club book (I’ve been itching to discuss it). Does the merman represent both the best and worse of men and masculinity? What does the failure of the protagonist to even care for a dog properly mean? Why are all the women so broken and odd thanks to their interactions with men? There is a lot to unpack (to the extent where I want to write an essay rather than a mini-review). It also works as a straight-up summer read too, though, which is clever. It’s just that the main bloke has a tail, and the ending isn’t very happy. I have to reccommend it for its sheer strangeness, inventiveness, and ease of reading.
I was sent a copy of this from @hogarthbooks via @netgalley to review but as always this review and my words are my own!

This book is a good and realistic portrayal of mental health issues. It makes you want to shake the main character and make her realise so many things - often as you want to with the people around you who are suffering in that they can't see how wonderful they are or what silly mistakes they might be making.

That being said, I wasn't enthralled with the plot itself and found the book quite predictable. I don't regret reding it but it's not in my top books that I've read recently.

This is going to be a bold claim, but I actually think this is my book of 2018! The brutal honesty of this book and its no-holds-barred portrayal of a single woman adrift in life was refreshing, as was the relationship with a merman at its centre - we need more merpeople in books for adults! The cover art is also absolutely delicious - I will definitely be looking out for further tales - tails?! - from this author!

One word review: Wild

Rambling review: I want to thrust this book into the hands of everyone, regardless of whether I know they’ll adore or abhor it.

I read a lot of books through NetGalley (Du Maurier blesses you, NetGalley) and I have a wishlist of books I have read through this digital medium but want to own. I put The Pisces onto this list before I was even 20% through. I want to reread this book once a year and cherish it.

It’s dark, it’s comic, it’s disturbing, it’s bizarre, it’s progressive (or is it just modern?) It made me uncomfortable (to the point of being very conscious reading it on public transport), it made me cry with laughter, it left me highlighting passage after passing exclaiming “Yes! This!” I found it scarily relatable and I truly adored her intimacy passages with Dominic. Whilst they may have been a literary device to show her affinity with animals, I found them completely true of a relationship with a doggo.

The only thing which made me uneasy (or, at least, uneasy in a negative way) was how she “explored” mental health and specifically suicidal ideations. Whilst written very poignantly and introspectively, I think there should have been more references to other kinds of therapy and medication. I don’t believe that every character needs to feel positively about medication, but I do think the author has a responsibility to at least mention the other forms of help available, even if the character rejects it. A Line Made By Walking by Sara Baume is a great juxtaposition to this – the central character is depressed and doesn’t feel like medication is the right option for her, but the author is very responsible with the language the doctor uses in describing the other options available.

Overall, one of the most progressive books I have read.
P.S. It would be an excellent choice for a book club discussion

Star rating: 5!

Well, this book gets full marks for it's originality and I guess it is entertaining in a weird, often icky way. Did I enjoy it? The Jury is still out on that one. An erotic, fishy fantasy that I will remember for it's glorious grossness, but I am struggling to think who I could recommend it too. Certainly not my mother ;)

I was expecting a modern fairy tale similar to something by Angela Carter; instead I got something closer to Wetlands by Charlotte Roche. The protagonist is positively hateful- she selfishly neglects her sister's dog, choosing to drug it and lock it away rather than, say, send it to a boarding kennel?!
She endlessly mocks the women in her therapy group (who are all pathetic stereotypes of women in distress and very hard to empathise with, regardless of the very real issues that they face, from infidelity to addiction and even incest) Then when she finds she needs their help, she takes and takes.
I sympathise with her dating app experience but marvelled at her hypocrisy- her date was far younger than her yet their maturity levels were about equal.
The scenes with the merman over-emphasised every fish-scented detail. Strange when for 99% of the book, he is portrayed as a near-perfect alternative to the (equally disgusting!) human males.
The ending felt cheap given the protagonist's repeated attempts to break free and start again. I could see her changing her mind and throwing herself back into the ocean within a few days. As someone who experiences depression and anxiety, I could find nothing to redeem her in my eyes. Selfish, self-centred, and blind.