The Pisces opens with one of the strangest paragraphs I've ever read. Just reading the first page made me wonder what I was getting myself into and whether this was the right book for me.

Which really set the tone, because I'm still not sure.

The Pisces is like American Psycho (minus all the murderous rampages) and Bridget Jones's Diary had a millennial baby.

It critiques and explores sex, addiction, loneliness, romance, desire and consumerism in the Tinder era. In a time where we distract ourselves from our feelings, hitting rock bottom is disturbing, uncomfortable and a reality the characters try to avoid facing.

It's dark and strange and funny, but depressingly so. 

We see so much of Lucy's inner dialogue and hear all her judgemental thoughts (the ones that we would never normally speak out loud), which makes her a brutally honest and bitter character. She's relatable and unlikable all at the same time.

The Pisces shows a realistic side of sex and dating in the 21st century. There's the good, the bad, the underwhelming, and the awkwardly weird. The random, meaningless hook ups and the mind-blowing love making.

And then there's the less realistic side to the book. Lucy meets and falls in love with a merman. I think it's meant to have a magic realism feel to it, but the merman didn't seem normal to me. Was he real? Was he fantasy? Are we meant to know?

I'm still not really sure what I read and maybe that's the point. When Lucy can't make sense of her life, can we make sense of her love affair with a merman? Can love save you when it's the reason you feel so destroyed? 

2.5/5 stars

This wasn't the book for me, but I know lots of people liked it.

It would make a great book club read. There's lots to discuss: the weirdness, dependency and addiction, relationships in the swipe right era, selfish friendships, misguided romance, sex, self sabotage, depression, the value of unlikeable but relatable characters and more.