The Pisces
Books | Fiction / Literary
3.4
(315)
Melissa Broder
LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION“Bold, virtuosic, addictive, erotic – there is nothing like The Pisces. I have no idea how Broder does it, but I loved every dark and sublime page of it.” —Stephanie Danler, author of Sweetbitter Lucy has been writing her dissertation on Sappho for nine years when she and her boyfriend break up in a dramatic flameout. After she bottoms out in Phoenix, her sister in Los Angeles insists Lucy dog-sit for the summer. Annika's home is a gorgeous glass cube on Venice Beach, but Lucy can find little relief from her anxiety — not in the Greek chorus of women in her love addiction therapy group, not in her frequent Tinder excursions, not even in Dominic the foxhound's easy affection. Everything changes when Lucy becomes entranced by an eerily attractive swimmer while sitting alone on the beach rocks one night. But when Lucy learns the truth about his identity, their relationship, and Lucy’s understanding of what love should look like, take a very unexpected turn. A masterful blend of vivid realism and giddy fantasy, pairing hilarious frankness with pulse-racing eroticism, THE PISCES is a story about falling in obsessive love with a merman: a figure of Sirenic fantasy whose very existence pushes Lucy to question everything she thought she knew about love, lust, and meaning in the one life we have.
Thriller
Romance
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More Details:
Author
Melissa Broder
Pages
304
Publisher
Random House Publishing Group
Published Date
2019-02-05
ISBN
1524761567 9781524761561
Ratings
Google: 2
Community ReviewsSee all
"Read this via audiobook. This was... not good. I suppose it wasn't terrible either. Unfortunately, I think the author was trying too hard to be profound and honestly just ended up spewing a load of crap throughout the entire book.
You spend the entire book in the mind of the MC, who is a screwed up middle-aged woman who has no purpose in life and seems to screw up everything that comes her way. Not in a "cute, trying to find herself way," moreso in a "crash and burn, screw a bunch of men, and accidentally kill my sister's dog" kind of way.
I really hated the main character, and I was absolutely rooting against her. She's depressed and miserable and doesn't try to help herself or anyone else, for that matter. I honestly wish she had drowned herself in the end. It would have made for a better ending and overall book.
I get that the merman/siren was really more of a metaphor than anything and served his purpose, but it was just weird. Just be prepared for graphic language and sex scenes, including feces and period blood. I also hate how she talks about being attracted to the merman but, in the same thought, thinks about eating his tail fried with garlic butter. This was somehow more disturbing to me than her having sex with her Uber driver and letting him cum inside of her.
This book was rough, and I think I might be clinically depressed after reading it. No thanks, I will not be picking up other books from this author. Please spare yourself the trouble. "
"This book was a trip. After reading it I felt attacked scared and most of all breathless, this book resonated and reminded me parts of myself as a person who has huge difficulty in self image and what is self love and what is good for me and what I think is good for me.
Though this book made me stare at the ugliness that I felt and had about things and experiences similar, the whole time I read this and silently judged the main character thinking of her to much in her head and not living, it was the same judgement that Lucy did to the women and group therapy and then in some stances I WAS Lucy.
Through the discussion of abuse and anxiety and suicidal depression, which at common traits and things that flash through my own psych. I feel like this is a read most people (sex female driven tho) who are reaching those later years in life should read. Though I think it is a read people SHOULD, I know damn well it's not something you might want after the book ends.
Finished the book in 7 hrs on my day off, it was a needed read.#thriller #romance #realisticfiction #kinda #mermaids #emotional "