As a swimmer, Ren Yu's daily life starts and ends with the pool. Even though she's constantly winning trophies, Ren can't shake the feeling of loneliness. If she swims faster and better, her coach will be kind to her, she'll be scouted and go to Harvard, and her parents will be proud of her. But maybe the road to freedom is much more straightforward; Ren just has to find a way to escape the confines of human concerns, leave the land, shed her legs, and become a mermaid, no matter the pain.

CHLORINE is a debut that is unlike any coming-of-age story I've read. Besides teenage angst, Song builds a fascinating narrative from Ren's POV and explores growing up as Asian American, the pain of assimilation, and the power imbalance between a coach and an athlete. Most of the book has an eerie undertone that isn't very scary, with only one or two scenes toward the end that has some pretty extreme body horror imo