The Pisces

Originally posted on 3/2/19.

Author: Melissa Broder.

Genre: Fantasy, erotica, psychological.

Year of Original Publication: 2018.

First Line: "I was no longer lonely but I was."

Any Triggers? After some deliberation, I'm going to give this book a trigger warning for animal cruelty. Also, though this is not necessarily a trigger per se, this book is very honest about bodily functions in a way that some people will find too graphic.

Summary: After punching her ex-boyfriend in the face and surviving a very dangerous meltdown, Lucy moves into her sister's ocean-side house to babysit her dog, finish her dissertation on Sappho, and complete group therapy sessions. Lucy is a woman with severe emotional problems who constantly seeks validation through sexual encounters with men, and the bulk of this book is about her journey towards finding peace with herself. Oh, she also has a love affair with a merman.

My Thoughts: So, a couple of warnings right off the bat. This book is often recommended to people who loved The Shape of Water. I...wouldn't. While there are superficial similarities, the two stories are tonally nothing alike. The Shape of Water is a whimsical modern fairy tale romance with some real world elements. The Pisces is a gritty story of a woman dealing with severe mental issues with some supernatural elements. They have very different priorities.

I would also not go into this book expecting it to be funny. I know humor is subjective, but this got not one laugh out of me and I don't think it's too much to expect that a book marketed as "hilarious" should actually be funny. This book is a lot like Where'd You Go, Bernadette in that the marketing around it has apparently confused quirkiness or larger than life situations with actual jokes. This didn't necessarily bother me, since I read some reviews beforehand and figured out that this would be "one of those" books. But I recommend not having any expectation of humor going into it, so if it does make you laugh out loud it would be a happy surprise.

With that out of the way, let's move on to the actual story. While I think this book has something interesting to say and I do think it's worth picking up, I would be lying if I said that I fell in love with it. A big part of why I didn't was the lead character. I found her extremely grating and I had a hard time empathizing with her world view. She's the type of person that believes that all a woman wants is men and their dicks and thinks that anyone who says otherwise is lying. Come on honey, I know that you know that lesbians exist. You're studying Sappho. She also rates the attractiveness of everyone around her which is a character trait I can't stand. Near the beginning, she mentally criticizes her only friend, saying that her hair looks "pubic" and that she would be shocked if her husband has sex with her. Just...wow.

Fortunately, the book knows that Lucy's point of view isn't correct, and Lucy eventually starts to recognize her unhealthy behavior and thoughts. And there is a reason why she is the way she is. Lucy is what happens when a woman fully ingests the toxic societal messages that says that being with a man is the only possible source of happiness. That's what I'm talking about when I say that this book is worth picking up.

Another thing that grabbed my attention was the subtle Pagan elements. Lucy has a bit of a new age side to her that she is in equal parts gaining solace from and is critical of. She's interested in things like crystals and mythology. She improvises something that feels like a spell before the merman shows up for the first time. There are references to Lucy longing for a mother goddess presence in her life. Now some people might roll their eyes at me and say, "You mean the part about her dead mom? She just misses her dead mom." And I agree, but there are still tons of suggestions that she's looking to get in touch with the divine feminine.

The merman character is also interesting. Broder uses a lot of feminine descriptions for him and because of that I half expected that the twist was going to be that he was a figment of Lucy's imagination. I thought that Theo (that's the merman's name, which I can't help but notice is Greek for "God," and I'm starting to think that's not a coincidence) was Lucy's animus, which in Jungian philosophy is a masculine archetype that all women have that shape the way they relate to men. That's not what the twist is. Except maybe it is? The more I think about it the more I'm convinced this is true...although the dog reacting to him is a bit of a sticking point. Nevertheless, I don't think we're supposed to take his existence at face value and I suspect that there's something very Jungian going on here. This book is a strong contender for an analysis post at some point in the future.

So yeah, extremely mixed feelings about this one. A lot of people hate it and a lot of people love it if Goodreads is any indication. On my side, it was something I enjoyed analyzing but it wasn't a book that swept me away.