Incredibly controlled in its descent into horror, Jade Song's debut novel Chlorine uses the competitive, cut-throat world of varsity level swimming to ask what the pressures of sports, family, high school, and womanhood does to youth. 

Ren is a protagonist that will stick with me for a while, as her ambition and depth was deeply moving.

Particularly, Ren's relationship to  her closest friend, confidante, and love interest, Cathy, captures the uncertain footing of sapphic longing in high school.

Song crafts a story that feels incredibly real in its depictions of swimmer life -- from the locker room, to the pasta parties, to the wild post-meet euphoria -- but does so in a way that reveals the dark side of spending so much time intensely focused on your body and it's racing ability. The horror elements are incredibly unsettling but feel earned in the way that Song introduces it throughout the narrative.