No Surprises Here

At thirty=three years old, Penny Schleeman, an English teacher at a public high school, bemoans the fact that she does not earn enough money. She believes it is impossible to have a middle-class job and financially survive. This could be true so she writes a successful novel about Sylvia, a young woman, who transforms into a mermaid. The book becomes a bestseller - hard to believe. What is harder to believe is Penny is naive enough to think that when she gets a deal to adapt her book for the screen, she will have control. The two veteran screenwriters rewrite the premise of the novel changing Sylvia into a typical teenager who is starving for love.

There are some good laughs, but the novel moves at a slow pace and I was waiting for the plot to move faster. Most of us want to live on our own terms and Langbein is trying to make Sylvia into a hero. The book became cryptic and proved that a first-time novelist is really a hard job.

My gratitude to Doubleday and NetGalley for this pre-published book. All opinions expressed are my own.

American Mermaid feels unique and fresh. A little different, a little out there at times, but I liked it.

After an influencer helps boost the sales of Penny’s debut novel, American Mermaid, Penny moves to Hollywood to work on the screen adaptation, and she finds herself navigating unfamiliar waters (pun intended).

It is evident that Julia Langbein is a comedian, and I found Penny’s inner dialogue and observations of Hollywood, its people, and its ways to be very entertaining. I love Penny’s vivid imagination.

Some readers will enjoy the story-within-a-story, as the novel alternates between chapters of the fictional novel American Mermaid, where Sylvia is a mermaid who is discovering that she was taken from the sea and raised as a human. While this storyline is very creative, I preferred Penny’s point of view more, but I loved the way the two storylines echoed one another and both address ideas of feminism, sexualization, environmentalism, and greed.

Teachers and former teachers, you will appreciate the way Penny reflects on teaching teenagers and her desire to be able to be a teacher without having to work a second job. I honestly picked this one up because the idea of a high school English teacher moving to Hollywood and immersing herself in the world of movie-making really interested me. Others may want to pick this up due to a love of mermaids and mermaid lore. Whatever the reason, it’s an entertaining novel.

Reviews posted on Goodreads (Michelle Beginandendwithbooks) and FB and IG Beginandendwithbooks

In American Mermaid, Julia Lanbein embeds a novel within the novel. It’s this embedded story that captures the reader and keeps them reading the main book.
Penelope Schleeman’s book American Mermaid becomes a bestseller. It’s a story of a girl with a disability who finds out she is a mermaid. Penelope leaves her teaching job in Connecticut and moves to LA for the summer. She has been hired to co-write the screenplay of her novel along with two males who have been successful in movies but missed the feminism intrinsic to the novel. Penelope spends her time going to parties, getting drunk, and writing/arguing with her co-writers. The studio wants to sex up the story and change the end of her mermaid. Strange things start to happen; Penelope is almost killed in the sea and the screenplay script keeps getting changed in the night. That’s only the beginning of the weird circumstances. Is this payback for her allowing Hollywood to change her tale?
The main novel about Penelope is mostly boring, insipid, and not funny. Until creepy things start to happen and the reader thinks the book may fall into another genre, doesn’t capture the attention. I can only read about Penelope getting smashed at a party and waking up in the morning not sure about her own actions only so many times. Observations by the character that are supposed to be funny, seemed jealous and trite making Penelope look whiny and self-absorbed. She overvalues her education as she continues to do stupid things leading up to the book’s apex. I mean is the character a woman or a freaking teenager?
American Mermaid is saved by the excerpts from Penelope’s book throughout. These sections were well-written with more subtle themes. This tale of a wheelchair-bound woman whose misformed legs turn into a mermaid tale does deal with the patriarchy and eco-issues without being so obvious and in your face like the main novel. It is these sections where we follow the post-college student and her true coming-of-age story that were worth reading. I suffered through Penelope’s character and her actions just to get to this story. I would have loved for this section to have been the whole book.
The book is probably pretty spot-on about Hollywood and screenwriting and what it’s like to be a new author in the movie world. But it was written in thinly veiled contempt swinging what might have been humorous to being trite. It is the novel within the novel where the story shines.

Penelope has just moved to Los Angeles after her debut novel, American Mermaid became wildly popular thanks to an Instagram influence who skyrocketed her books success, landing her on the Today show. and she’s doing her best to woo Hollywood and see how far her success can take her. She abruptly left her job teaching English in New Haven and her close friend, Derek and now she’s uncomfortably hobnobbing with agents and writers and going to parties with people she can’t relate to. Alternating between her chapters and actual excerpts from American Mermaid, her novel about a mer-child adopted into a human family. When threats begin taking hold, Penelope wonders if her fictitious mermaid is coming to life to take revenge on the powerful people trying to take control of her narrative. This is a wildly funny, bittersweet and wonderfully weird novel that explores issues of power, class and money. I loved it and I think fans of Melissa Broder, Lydia Millet and Emily Austin will enjoy this book! Thank you to Doubleday and to Netgalley for the advanced review copy.

Not my typical read (Hollywood) but couldn’t resist the cover and the synopsis of the book within the book featuring someone with a disability! Really enjoyed the humor!

Thank you to @doubledaybooks for my advanced e-galley!

I can’t describe this without giving a lot away, but in brief, it’s about a Connecticut teacher who makes her way to LA to develop her novel of a mermaid into a Hollywood film, and some weirdness ensues.

It did have some genuine laugh out loud moments, and our narrator/MC reminded me a lot of Karen Kilgariff.
I’m refraining from giving this a star rating, because it’s like nothing I’ve ever read before 😂 if you’re looking for a book within a book comedy that is very weird and different, this book is for you.

Happy pub day to AMERICAN MERMAID 🧜‍♀️ and let me know if this is on your radar!

Review // American Mermaid by Julia Langbein

American Mermaid is a quirky, enjoyable but uneven tale of success, failure and stories within stories.

Penelope Schleeman’s first novel is not a best-seller and she is struggling to make enough money for rent, food and a potentially life-saving surgery on her teacher’s salary. But when a famous influencer posts about Penny’s book, sales suddenly go through the roof and there’s a lucrative offer for a movie adaptation. Penny quits her job, heads to Los Angeles and starts working with two hilarious but ruthless screenwriters. Her cowriters want to water down Penny’s ideas about mermaid power into a splashy action movie with a sexy mermaid protagonist who, of course, must die in the end. Penelope resists and turmoil follows.

Langbein's novel alternates between Penelope's chaotic and accident-filled adventures in L.A. and excerpts from her movie manuscript. The humor often feels a bit slapstick as the protagonist stumbles through mansions and gets in trouble with producers, agents and screenwriters. You can tell that the author is a standup comedian: some lines don’t land so well, while others make you cackle with delight and recognition. I appreciated Penelope’s self-deprecating thoughts on vanity, fantasy and friendship and preferred her romps around town to the movie manuscript chapters. To me, as a non-expert on the mermaid genre, these chapters seemed to be mostly a confusing and bizarre mash-up of various shows and movies, including The Shape of Water, Splash and Killer Mermaid.

Mermaids may not be my thing after all, but I think Langbein’s novel would be a fun summer read for bookclub or vacation: the flesh-eating mermaids will make you think twice about going for a swim, but the champagne-filled parties in Malibu, the sympathetic protagonist and the sharp comedy turn this novel into a delightfully weird beach read. And in the right hands, it might even make a decent movie.

Many thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for providing a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5/5 ⭐️

This is the story of Penelope, a teacher turned writer who relocates to L.A. and begins helping turn her debut novel about a mermaid into a film. The story is told in chapters from Penny’s perspective and then excerpts from her book, American Mermaid.

This is definitely a very different kind of story and while I liked some of the banter and the oddities of the female writer I also found myself a little weary of that same banter more often than not. The American Mermaid story within the book was my favorite part.

Overall, I think I liked the concept of this one more than the actual story. The best word to sum up how I felt about this debut novel… Peculiar. I’m curious to hear what others will think of this one.

Thank you Doubleday Books and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is such an interesting story. Satire and wit at its finest. It also is impossible to define the genre, as it hits so many different ones. The uniqueness of American Mermaid ensured I’ll be thinking of this for a long time to come.

I was looking forward to jumping into this novel, especially since I love anything mermaid. Sadly, this one just didn't deliver for me, and I found myself trudging along reluctantly until I finally decided to give up.

Langbein writes the text in the first person, and it is written as a thought process. Personally, I found it too wordy and hard to follow, I was struggling through Penelope's story. The 'book within a book' was more insteresting. I don't mind the 'book within a book' style, but in this case it didn't work for me. It felt like a filler and there wasn't any connection between Penny and Sylvia. All of the characters were one-dimensional and lacked development, and the plot was messy and redundant. From some of the reviews I have read I can see that this book might be enjoyable for some, but for me personally it didn't work.

The cover is the best thing about this one. It started with some dark comedy that made me chuckle but then it was just constant self-deprecation. I also like a book within a book format but I don't know which of the two was worse with this novel.

I haven’t laughed out loud while reading in a LONG TIME like I did in Julia Langbein’s AMERICAN MERMAID. Smart and funny and topical - this one kept me on my toes. A schoolteacher writes a book that gets noticed because an online influencer has it on a table for a post - it gets optioned for a movie - the teacher moves to LA and…we’re off. Go in cold and just go with it. It’s odd and fun and smart. How great is that? Thanks to Doubleday for the advanced copy!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the eArc of this work in exchange for my honest review.

Langbein's work follows Penelope as she leaves teaching after her novel, American Mermaid, is sold to Hollywood, and she heads to LA to help write the screenplay. The premise sounds fantastic, and for some I am sure it will be considered a perfect read for them. Told from Penelope's perspective with excerpts from her novel, this book takes readers on a journey. I understood the tones of feminism from both Penelope and Sylvia's POVs, and I can appreciate the genre mixing throughout. I wanted to love this...

To me there are few moments of comedy, moments of family drama, moments of honesty about what it is like to have a lot of education but no payout from the job and having someone take your work and dissect it until it is wholly theirs, and moments of...confusion. As Penelope deals with two seasoned Hollywood writers completely taking her work and changing it, attends and flounders at "all the right parties" the story turns into a whirlwind of alcohol, frustration, and paranoia.

Both Penelope and her fictional mermaid Sylvia have happy endings, but I often felt lost and frustrated reading this. I can see why others may like this newest work, but for me it was a miss. It was a struggle to get through, and I almost DNF'd this book so many times over the month of daily reading that it took me to finish.

American Mermaid by Julia Langbein is a Story Within a Story!

Penelope Schleeman is a Connecticut high school English teacher who writes a novel titled 'American Mermaid' and, through the hype of an Instagram Influencer, it becomes a best seller. She gets a movie deal, goes to Los Angeles to help write the screenplay and during her Hollywood adventures she becomes disheartened, and kind of crazed, with the changes being made to her beloved book.

The chapters of American Mermaid alternate through the book between Penelope's novel, which gets more convoluted and complex as the story progresses, and Penelope's escapades in Hollywood, which are over-the-top with stereo-typical characters, none of which are likable.

The author's writing, especially concerning Penelope's first person narration of thoughts and dialog, uses overtly descriptive similes and metaphors that are difficult to comprehend and mostly nonsensical. This story is described as both humorous and satirical. I didn't find the humor and I'm at a loss trying to figure out the author's message to the reader.

I love books that are different, original, and creative and this story is all those things. With that said, the writing needs to be either simple and clean or beautifully descriptive and, above all, it needs to make sense. This story didn't hit either of these prerequisites and, at this point, I'm simply craving closure.

I'm glad to see that this author has many glowing reviews for her debut novel. Sadly, American Mermaid is not a book that resonates with me.

2.5 stars rounded down.

Thank you to NetGalley, Doubleday Books, and Julia Langbein for an ARC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review.

Book Review: American Mermaid by Julia Langbein

American Mermaid is an contemporary novel about a debut author (and high school teacher) that moves to Hollywood to adapt her book into a screenplay.

When the book opens Penelope Schleeman is a thirty-three year old tenth grade English teacher and debut author. Her novel about a wheelchair bound woman who discovers she’s a mermaid (after rolling her wheelchair off a pier) has become a hit and Hollywood is calling. The fees for selling the rights and adapting the screenplay mean that she can finally pay for the double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery she needs after testing positive for the BRCA gene. During the day she’s paired up with two experienced Hollywood scriptwriters who are slowly chipping away a her feminist mermaid story and making it more palatable while she spends her nights at Hollywood parties trying to make connections but often feeling like the odd woman out.

In a lot of ways this is a fish out of water story (pardon the pun) where an east coast educator is plucked out of nowhere to live in an executive apartment in Culver City and move through the rarefied air of creative types. Her attempts at humor on a podcast anger her family, a quick pee in the ocean ends her up in a riptide and she is skewered by a group of smart and confident teenage girls in a basement. But every scene with Penelope has a sly sense of humor that you can’t help but laugh along with. My favorite scenes are the ones with her sister questioning Penelope’s sexuality and when her writing team decides to exclude the book’s scenes of “sperm harvesting” from the screenplay. The hardest part to swallow are the actual chapters from her book which seems like a very unlikely hit even as a fictional book within a book.

Overall, this a memorable and hilarious story about a smart and funny woman trying to navigate Hollywood.

great book and such great characters. I enjoyed the mystery and some romance. I also enjoyed the journey of the characters. I didn't know what to expect with this book but I enjoyed it .

I adored this novel - both of them! I'm generally a big fan of books within books and Langbein totally nailed this one.

Admittedly, at first, I was like WTH am I reading? (I don't read the synopsis before I start a book as I generally love going in blind and though sometimes it backfires, why change my ways now?!) But quickly enough, I was completely engrossed in both stories.

For much of the beginning, I loved the American Mermaid story about Sylvia and I was less interested in the present day story. That changed about a third of the way through though when I loved both stories equally and really couldn't get enough.

I adored that both stories were so completely different. Penelope was quirky but also totally relatable and her love for her novel felt authentic. She had poured her heart and soul into American Mermaid and the characters had become family to her. It also added so much to the story that Penelope was really trying to make it in the literary and Hollywood worlds in order to save her life. Again, it felt authentic that she got pretty wrapped up with the money and glamour and parties, and that made the book more entertaining and fun to read even though there was serious subject matter at heart.

Sylvia's story was incredible. I loved the way her character grew and that story went in a direction I never could have anticipated. I almost wish it was an entire novel by itself - I would definitely be reading it!

Overall, this one was fantastic. Heartfelt, relatable, totally unique, funny at times, and completely bingeable. If you want a great book and don't know what you're in the mood for, I feel like this book is exactly it.

Thank you to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

I don't know what it was about this book, but I couldn't get through it. To be fair, I had just had a baby and I think that it was just too sad for me to stomach at the time. The whole premise of this poor creature that nobody wanted was just too devastating for me.

When Penelope writes a successful novel about a mermaid, quits her teaching job, and moves to California to help with the movie adaptation everyone is surprised - most of all her. When she gets there she struggles as more and more people want to change her story and turn it into the “Hollywood” version she hates. As weird things start happening around her (last minute script changes, injuries, a near drowning) she starts to question if she is going crazy or if her mermaid is real.

This is a quirky little book. It doesn’t really fit into a genre and it’s a bit of a struggle to describe it. The book bounces between Penelope’s life and her novel and shows the similarities happening between the two. It’s funny but tackles deeper issues such as sexism and climate change. Overall I enjoyed this one and I think that people who like reading books that are just a bit different will like this one too.

Thank you Net Galley and the publisher for this ARC!

Penny is a Connecticut school teacher whose debut novel “American Mermaid” has caught the attention of an Instagram influencer, skyrocketing it to success. Penny finds herself in LA to work on the screen adaptation with two seasoned Hollywood screenwriters. Before long, Penny’s partners have taken her intelligent, asexual, scientist mermaid heroine Sylvia and dumbed her down into a sexy teenage hottie. As Penny becomes increasingly frustrated with the direction the screenplay is taking, the lines between reality and her imagination start to blur.

I really wanted to love this genre-defying debut novel, but it ultimately fell a bit flat for me. For the story-in-a-story device to be effective, both plots need to be equally compelling, but I found myself far more invested in Sylvia’s story. Penny’s naïve fish-out-of-water schtick and her drunken antics became repetitive, and while I appreciated what the author was trying to say about Holllywood and sexism, Penny wasn’t exactly doing herself any favors either. Between the two plots plus excerpts of the screenplay, there was a lot to keep track of and this book felt longer than it actually was.

I loved the ace representation in this book and the author’s message about the importance of maternal/platonic love rather than romantic love. Langbein’s writing style is smart, engaging, and observant, and I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for providing me an advance copy of this book.