American Mermaid is weird. And even more weird is the fact that in a story about an author that writes a story about a young woman who discovers that she’s a mermaid and her adoptive human father wants to destroy the world, the mermaid story feels more cohesive than the author’s life in LA. If the book had only been about Sylvia, the mermaid, it probably would have still been pretty offbeat, but I feel like it would have been easier to stay engaged with. As Penny, the author, flits around LA, going to parties, getting drunk, getting high, and getting lost in the diaspora that is Hollywood I regularly felt myself tuning out, getting completely confused, or desperately hoping for more mermaid excerpts. In all fairness, Penny starts losing her mind (and her dignity) the further the reader gets into the story, so it’s not that hard to get lost. Between the parties that accomplished nothing, and the passive aggressive arguing with the bro-twin screenwriters (that remind me why I spend WAY more time reading books than watching TV) I couldn’t get into this storyline at all. The best thing I can say about it is that it lays bare all of the banality that exists and how much gets stripped out of good stories for the sex appeal that brings eyeballs to screens. This story may appeal to those that like quirky books that get pegged as literary, but it was just not the right type of book for me. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

AMERICAN MERMAID by Julia Langbein // When Penelope’s book about a wheelchair-bound woman who discovers she’s a mermaid is optioned for a film, she leaves behind her teaching job and heads to LA to work on the script. I really liked the first half of this book - Penelope is a fish out of water (ha!) who is dazzled by the culture shock of LA and starts to seriously spiral. But the constant interjections of excerpts from Penelope’s book (which I hated) became really annoying for me and the second half just fizzled. Penelope is a strange person and I really hoped her strangeness would lead somewhere surprising and bring everything together, but it didn’t for me.

Thanks to @doubledaybooks for this #gifted ARC. Out 3/21/23.

Penelope, a teacher from Connecticut, writes a book about a mermaid called Sylvia which ends up becoming a huge hit. With the book set to be adapted into a big Hollywood movie, Penny relocates to LA to mingle with the right people while helping write the script. However, things don't go according to plan when Penny starts believing Sylvia has come to life and is mad at the scriptwriters, including Penny herself, about the changes they're making.

I enjoyed the writing style and I really liked the first half. It's funny and a little out there but enjoyable to read while dealing with issues like climate change, feminism, and the entertainment industry. The chapters alternate between Penny's life and excerpts from her book American Mermaid. The further I got into the book, the harder it became to really follow along though. I honestly didn't really understand the ending - maybe the intention was to leave the reader confused about what was real and what wasn't but I couldn't tell if Penny was having a psychosis at the end or if mermaids were actually real.

While I greatly enjoyed the first half, this probably isn't really my type of book.

This took me a long time to finish. The premise was great but it didn't come together the way I'd like. I enjoyed the book within the book more than the writers story itself. I applaud the ambition of the story but I didn't get what I'd want for the time invested.

This was very quirky and offbeat! It follows a young writer as she sells her book to "Hollywood" and moves out to LA to help work on the screenplay. Interspersed through her story are chapters from her book. I loved reading those. Her book is about a disabled girl who tried to commit suicide, and when she falls in to the ocean, finds that she is actually a mermaid! She finds out her Dad is not the kind man she thought she was. The ending kind of fell out for me, though, the last few chapters seemed a bit confusing and I wasn't sure what was happening. But the author's voice is very fun and I will read more from her!

I’m so sorry- I’m positive there are people who will love this book, but it wasn’t for me. I couldn’t get into it and it was confusing for me to read. It didn’t work well for me to read about a woman writing a book that is the same as the one I was reading. Was it nonfiction or just another story?
I didn’t finish it , so my 1 star rating is because it was DNF and Netgalley made me put a star rating.
I applaud the author on publishing her art and give my best wishes to her and her future readers!

In this wry social commentary, broke teacher Penelope writes a hit novel and is swept away to Hollywood by the promise of big money if she will help turn her book into a movie. But before long, the movie industry has twisted Peneope's feminist story is twisted into a sexy action flick and her message is gutted. But the story won't die quietly--mysterious things start happening to the script and the people involved. Could the mermaid possibly be more than a figment of Penelope's imagination?

Julia Langbein is a wordsmith! Every word crackles and flows into the next to create a rhythmic, cohesive whole. So much of this work was a social commentary: men trying to conquer nature; men trying to conquer women. The narrative posits that society teaches women not to trust themselves and their own inner voices, preventing them from being their best selves and accessing their own power. We watch as Penelope trudges through an isolated, depressing life, barely squeezing by and lacking meaning and connections--feeling different and alone and left chasing shallow things that give a false sense of security. And her mermaid protagonist feels the same--like something's wrong with her which makes her isolated and alone. Both feel a distinct asexuality in a world where society tells women that men have a right to their bodies. The mermaid world in Penelope's book, however, lifts up a matriarchal society immune to the sexual power and destruction that men hold, where mermaids lure men to their deaths through the promise of pleasure, and then gutting them as cleanly and carefully as humans gut a fish. In the end, the superpower is really the love of women for each other and for their offspring, a deeply resonant truth about society and self. I can see this as an excellent book for a university class or a thinking group of people who want to examine and improve society and how we treat each other and the planet.

It's almost like getting two books in one! A humorous one and a tragic one. Here's how it works. The fictional author of a novel, American Mermaid, is hired by Hollywood to write the screenplay. Hollywood wants to sex it up and put in more action. Can Penny save her story from the Hollywood machine? This is the fun part of the novel.

Intertwined with that is the dystopian story, American Mermaid, where a billionaire has the knowhow to speed up climate change and plans to use it in such a way that only billionaires survive--and they must pay him for their survival. Only one person (?) stands in his way--his adopted mermaid daughter.

Science fiction plus humor. Comedy plus tragedy. Parts of the book had me laughing out loud and parts had me feeling sad for the mutilated mermaid and her compromised doctor. Even though the two-story lines share space between the covers of American Mermaid, it's never confusing as to what's what. In fact, it's quite clever.

Science fiction, comedy, dystopian, and the perils of being an ingenue in La La Land. What a fun ride!

Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for allowing me to read and review an eARC of American Mermaid.

I've never read a book quite like this - which makes it that much more difficult to describe. The novel is essentially a story inside a story; in "reality", we follow the perspective of Penelope Schleeman, a high school teacher in Connecticut struggling to make ends meet. She spends her free time writing a novel that is eventually published under the title of "American Mermaid", and to her surprise, it sells exceedingly well and catches the eyes of a team of screenwriters in Hollywood that reach out to her to turn it into a movie. With the help of a newly acquired agent, Penelope agrees to do so, quits her job, and moves out to LA to work on the future production.

Interspersed across Penelope's story are passages from her novel, telling the story of young Sylvia, a wheelchair-bound woman who discovers as an adult that she's actually a mermaid, and uses her science background to champion ecological preservation. (Honestly, I loved the glimpses into this novel that we did get, and would have loved to read a full-blown novel focused solely on Sylvia.) However, Penelope finds that working in Hollywood is far from glamorous, and watches as her story gets completely twisted and transformed into a completely different creation to appease the masses. As time goes on, she begins to wonder if her creation has come to life to get revenge on her...

For a debut novel, Langbein has crafted a witty, tongue-in-cheek satire that calls out the ridiculousness of media today, while also calling out present day issues faced by women in society today. While I didn't love some of the inclusions she made (long-winded emails or text conversations between Penelope and her screenwriters, long conversations about script changes, etc.), I think the overall story framework and concept was well-written and framed. She was able to take on different writing styles and tones going between the two different stories, and tied both of them together at the end.

Rather long and drawn out and felt like there was no real story. I made it through 33% of the novel before I stopped and read the last three chapters. The sections with the mermaid story were good. It just got tiring to read through the rest.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This novel is easy to read and quick to get lost in.

I selected this book because of the cover. A hand-drawn mermaid’s tail superimposed over a photo-realistic image of a California beach town with the title scribbled above suggested a story that didn’t take itself seriously. The title suggested American sensibilities blended with nautical folklore. The packaging delivered on its promise, but the novel had so much more.

I was immediately hooked by the witty voice of the narrator, Penny; Langbien’s eccentric humor; and the whirlwind plot. I noticed I was often reading with a smile on my face as zany one-liners, silly metaphors, and whacky descriptions cruised through the zippy narrative. There were times I laughed out loud. But it’s written by a woman who began her professional life in New York City’s stand-up comedy scene, so of course it’s funny—and smart and unexpected and twisty and tender. I mean, Penny, an aspiring novelist, writes a story about a mermaid who’s afraid to drown. How clever is that?

Told in first person, Penny “works lawyer hours for babysitter money,” while she writes American Mermaid. Her debut novel gains traction when an influencer posts about it and it becomes an instant bestseller. Penny’s an average looking high school English teacher who leaves her teaching job in New Haven, Connecticut, and moves to LA. As her novel is turned into an action film, she’s hilariously insecure as she finds she’s not as attractive as the Hollywood set.

As a female on land, I related to both Penny and the mermaid, and I kept turning pages to find out what was going to happen. If you like humorous feminist fiction like Bonnie Garmus’s 2022 debut “Lessons in Chemistry” you’ll like this contemporary version of a mermaid’s Hollywood tale.

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday Books for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

#AmericanMermaid #ladyplots

American Mermaid is a cynical and illuminating take on entertainment culture, feminism, climate change, storytelling, and writing. Sometimes funny and often horrifying, it's a roller-coaster ride of narrative form and expectations, odd and expressive in unforeseen ways. The book's disjointedness is deliberate, and some may like it, or see it as rebelling against craft. I'm all for rebelling against craft. That said: did I like it? Not really; would I recommend it to others, probably. I think it's a great book for writers to read, especially new writers.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The opinion: This book felt like I was in a room with terribly smart, funny people and I was only getting about 30% of the conversation. I had to DNF at 46% [27 chapters was enough]. It was really well written, but it wasn't written for me. I'd recommend it for people who read P.G. Wodehouse and watch Seinfeld. Or The Office. None of which I enjoyed either. I read it for WEEKS and I just couldn't get through it, so I'm done.

Beautiful cover, completely bonkers book.

Penny is a former school teacher who has come to Hollywood to help write the screenplay for her smash hit book about a feminist mermaid. This is a good one to know very little about before you start reading so you can enjoy the experience.

Such a witty and clever debut! I laughed out loud many times and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy.

A wild ride. A unique premise and razor sharp prose. This book is nothing like anything I’ve read before.

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for an opportunity with this title. I found a lot to enjoy in this, a fun concept brought forward in meaningful ways to the characters. The mystery holds you with a compelling premise and solid follow through.

American Mermaid is a unique story a book full of heart.I was drawn in from the first pages a book that had me laughing out loud a story that will charm you,.Blends many genres in to one five star read.#netgalley #doubledaybooks.

Penelope is an author that has found herself struggling to maintain the authenticity of her book and strong female lead. With a movie option in the works, her main character becomes picked apart, and Hollywood execs call for a younger, sexier version of her strong eco-warrior mermaid. As the real world begins to mirror her fictional world, Penelope must figure out how to remain authentic in this ruthless industry.

Overall, an enjoyable read. The beginning started a bit shaky for me, but I was one hundred percent invested in the story.
Unfortunately, I do believe I hyped this book up too much in my head, so I already had a bias when starting this novel. But surprisingly enough, I wasn’t let down.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Penelope aka Penny is a high school English teacher in Connecticut who happened to write a best selling novel, which Hollywood has decided to turn into a movie. So Penny does what anyone would do, quit her job & moved to LA to make it big. But things are more difficult than they seem & she’s struggling to figure it all out…

Ok so my first thought when I finally managed to finish this book was what the hell did I just read. For starters, it’s kind of a book within a book, so every few chapters it’s an excerpt from Penny’s novel American Mermaid and then it goes back to Penny’s story. The breakup between the two is done well enough where the reader doesn’t get confused but I’m still not fully sure if the excerpt chapters were a good way to go.

As for Penny’s part of the story, I was super confused for a lot of it & also found Penny’s inner monologue to be a bit annoying. She came off as super whiny & extremely immature. The whole taking ecstasy with teenagers thing definitely made me like her even less. As far as book heroines go, she wasn’t really all that heroic in my opinion.

Thank you #NetGalley & Doubleday Books for providing me with an ARC of #AmericanMermaid for my honest review

American Mermaid is a perfect beach read - in every way. Romance, intrigue, great characters, and the mermaids, natch. Penny, who teaches high school English for near-poverty wages, has written a novel called American Mermaid on the side. The main character, Sylvie, was raised by scientist parents and a caring doctor to be a seemingly disabled teenager, unaware of her aquatic powers until she uncovers a global conspiracy to drown the world for profit. Penny soon finds her novel blowing up on social media - and Hollywood knocking on her door. Seduced by the glamour (and especially the money), Penny agrees to help with a script to film Sylvie's story. Little does she know what the script doctor bros from Hollywood have in store. As Penny struggles to maintain her character's independence and female power, the events of her novel come alive in her own life. What is real? What is power? How do we resist the seduction and oppression of patriarchy and capitalism in our own lives?

This might sound like a downer sermon of a book, but Langbein's writing is absolutely delightful. The prose zips along like a summer breeze that hides the depths of the sea beneath. Penny's quirkly foibles are contrasted with her slacker coworker, her power-driven agent, her stoner cowriters, and the teens who mentor her. The text of Penny's novel is also sprinkled throughout the book, showing another alternate story of a woman embracing her power in the face of domination. Highly recommended as a compelling and fun read that carries a vital message in our 21st century world.