The Pisces by Melissa Broder
pages : 270
released: May 2018
publisher: Hogarth Press
cover love: ♥♥
Lucy has been writing her dissertation about Sappho for thirteen years when she and Jamie break up. After she hits rock bottom in Phoenix, her Los Angeles-based sister insists Lucy housesit for the summer—her only tasks caring for a beloved diabetic dog and trying to learn to care for herself. Annika’s home is a gorgeous glass cube atop Venice Beach, but Lucy can find no peace from her misery and anxiety—not in her love addiction group therapy meetings, not in frequent Tinder meetups, not in Dominic the foxhound’s easy affection, not in ruminating on the ancient Greeks. Yet everything changes when Lucy becomes entranced by an eerily attractive swimmer one night while sitting alone on the beach rocks. (from Goodreads)
Review:
So, The Pisces was definitely not what I was expecting. When I first read the summary, I was thinking of a light, funny rom-com featuring men with tails. However, once I dived into the story, I quickly realized this wasn’t what I had in mind at all. And after reading the first two chapters, I was ready to dnf this book. But I’m so glad I didn’t and that I stuck with it (this is why when I’m not enjoying a book right away, I keep going ).The main character, Lucy, is having trouble getting over the fact that she and her boyfriend have broken up. Her sister, concerned about Lucy’s well-being, invites her out to her California home to dog sit while she’s away. While in Cali, Lucy joins a therapy group for women who are addicted to sex and relationships. The story then follows Lucy going on a lot of bad dates and making even more crappy decisions in her love life. In the middle of all this, she meets a very attractive man, Theo, on the rocks at the beach and starts to grow an attraction to him. Only to find out he’s not a night surfer but an actual merman.
The Pisces made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me emotionally uncomfortable. It was fantastic! I felt a deep connection to the main character and all her issues with love. We are the same age and have had similar relationship issues with men and family that I resonated with. I felt very uncomfortable reading this book at times because it paralleled so many things I feel within myself. The book was very funny at times but it fared on the darker side of things. I was just soooo emotionally wrapped up in Lucy, who’s looking for love in all the wrong places and overthinking every little detail about her feelings. And what sets this book apart from other fiction about love and relationships is that fantasy element Broder adds with a mythical creature. It really makes her work stand out.
Theo, the merman, was an interesting character and their sorted relationship really had me engrossed in the story. Though he seemed like the better man for Lucy, you could tell as their relationship carried on that it was becoming another one of her obsessions. Her desperation for love overpowers her at many points and it definitely comes down to all or nothing with Theo. He was, in many ways, just like her but a bit more intent on how far she should go to pledge her true love for him. I myself was almost convinced that they would have that fairytale ending but no, Miss Broder shut that notion down real quick. I was a bit shocked and not gonna lie, a bit hurt that Theo wasn’t the man (or fish) of Lucy’s dreams.
I know most people will go into this book thinking this is a fluffy read about a girl having a summer fling with a merman but sorry it’s not. But I’m glad it wasn’t. I really did love this book and I’m looking forward to reading more books by Melissa Broder. The Pisces is actually the first book I’ve seriously enjoyed in a long time. It single-handedly got me out of my reading funk and gave me feels for fiction again!
(and side note, I now have a huge craving for books with mermaid sex and romance so I must go find some more).
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