I couldn’t finish this book. Perhaps it’s a reflection of me as a reader rather than the author as a writer, but I found it either nonsensical or confusing and sometimes both. Not for me.

This review will appear on episode 15 of. my podcast which will drop on Montay, July 3, 2023. It will also appear on the website for the show. The link I have provided will not be active until then.

I received an Advanced Reader's Copy from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This review contains minor plot spoilers from the book, so if you'd prefer to go into this one completely blind, go ahead and skip to the next review using the chapters in the show notes.

After reading the summary of this book, it sounded like it might be right up my alley. It sounded as though it would be a fun and quirky comedy, and while parts of it were absolutely hilarious, it never fully grabbed me and at the end I was left scratching my head wondering what I had just read.

The book begins with our protagonist - Penelope “Penny” Schleeman reflecting on the book that she wrote and how she’s gone from a schoolteacher in Connecticut to bestselling author living in LA while she helps co-write the screenplay for the movie.

Penny is awkward, self-deprecating and absolutely hilarious. I think many of us can relate to her. She has no idea what it takes to write a screenplay, but she’s determined to make this work, because as her no-nonsense agent Danielle tells her - all she has to do is get her name out there and learn the ropes and she’ll make millions. Her days of teaching ungrateful kids are over.

This all sounds great to Penny, the only problem is the two male writers that the studio has hired to pen the screenplay with Penny’s help don’t really seem to get the book and have changed several characters and plot points to make it more appropriate for a movie. They’re kind of dickish and condescending to Penny. She’s not entirely on board with the changes, but she also doesn’t feel like she has a lot of say in the matter - she really needs the money for a double-mastectomy. She tested positive for the BRCA gene that gave her mother breast cancer. The surgery will pretty much save her life, but her insurance won’t cover it.

Since Penny can’t seem to find her voice, some unknown person makes changes to the script. Randy and Murphy are certain that it is Penny, but Penny insists it isn’t. Could Sylvia - the mermaid in her story - be real? Is she the one messing with things?

While we read Penny’s adventures in screenwriting as she, Randy and Murphy work to get the screenplay in shape and ready for the table reading, we also get chapters from Penny’s book - American Mermaid - the story of a mermaid who was found on the shore when she was a baby and adopted by a couple of scientists worried about climate change. The couple has tried to conceive a child of their own, but could not do so, so they employ the help of a brilliant surgeon who gives the baby legs - though she is unable to walk and has to use a wheelchair - take her in as their own and name her Sylvia. When she is 24, she tries to commit suicide by throwing herself into the ocean and that is when she transforms into her true form and the real adventure begins.

Seem like a lot? It kind of was. In the beginning, I was on board, but as the book progressed, I struggled to stay interested. Anytime we switched from Penny’s life to Sylvia’s story, it took me a minute to reorient myself. The tone shift was a bit jarring. It got to where I would need to set the book down and then I struggled to want to pick it back up.

Honestly, I would have been perfectly fine had we not had the chapters from the actual book and just focused on Penny. I thought her figurative fish out of water story was much more fun and entertaining than Sylvia’s literal fish out of water story. I think had we maybe just had snippets from Penny’s book, it would have been fine. I also felt that there was a real missed opportunity with the character of Derek. He was a fun character, but at the end of the book it left me wondering why he was necessary to the overall story. In the end, it felt like I was reading two very different books simultaneously - one that I enjoyed and the other that wasn’t interesting at all, but I was forced to finish.

The book does a great job of satirizing the book to film process - how many times have any of us book nerds said “The book was better”? In the end, I loved Penny. I thought she was hilarious - I just wish the book had flowed better. In the end I gave it 2.5 stars. It just didn’t fully resonate with me.

American Mermaid had me on the back foot from woah to go, I had no idea what was going to happen! At first the story within a story thoroughly confused me, but I began to look forward to getting further snippets of the interior story, and enjoyed the insight it gave into the broader narrative at all. Definitely one for fans of Otessa Moshfegh, Melissa Broder etc.

As soon as I saw the gorgeous cover of American Mermaid by Julia Langbein, I immediately trotted over to NetGalley and magically got approved to read it, thanks guys you’re my heroes 🙌🏼🧜🏼‍♀️. I love anything mermaid related and was so excited to read a mermaid themed tale that wasn’t also an intense fantasy read as I don’t think fantasy is my jam. Sadly this fell a little flat for me but I can’t exactly pin point why… but watch me try to work it out below. I think the main issue for me was that it felt like it was trying really hard to be something and just couldn’t quite get there. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Hear me out..

The story is centred around Penelope, a high school English teacher who wrote a book titled (you guessed it) “American Mermaid”. Penelope packs up everything to move to LA when her book sales go through the roof and it is picked up to be made into a movie. Half of the book is Penelope’s story trying to very awkwardly break into the LA social scene with limited success and also work with her wacky writing team to adapt the book into a screenplay with many speed bumps along the way. The other half is excerpts of the book she wrote, making it into a bit of a confusing book within a book situation. To be really honest, I was way more interested and invested in Sylvia the American Mermaid’s story and didn’t care much for Penelope and her awkward and bizarre storyline at all. Felt a bit like the author (actual author not Penelope the fictional author) was trying to turn Penelope into one of those unhinged millennial girlies who are all over literary fiction currently, but just missed the mark and I found I knew/cared very little about her and found her more irritating than anything else.

I gave this one ⭐️⭐️⭐️ because it was a unique storyline and frankly I do really love mermaids. Pretty disappointed as I wanted this to be so much better than it was but I still did have a fun time reading and it satisfied my ✨weird and wonderful✨ tastes quite well.
Side note, I was fairly devastated by the UK/AUS cover so I’ve just pretended my gifted kindle copy had the US cover, it’s so perfect…!

Thanks @textpublishing @netgalley for the advanced copy, appreciate you guys giving me a chance every time I go on a NetGalley requesting binge 😘