A dark surrealist coming-of-age story that explores gender, misogyny, sapphic love and the Chinese American immigrant experience.

The story reads like a fever dream, and Ren Yu and Cathy are wonderful narrators. Cathy is filled with regret and yearning over in action, while Ren is a character who takes her future into her own hands. She knows who she is, and who she needs to be, and while she can cruelly block out the world and her loved ones to become herself, she has moments of love and introspection over her choices.

I greatly prefer this kind of story/character and intention over seemingly similar books of the "girlhood is a horror story" genre like 'My Year of Rest and Relaxation'. Where My Year of Rest and Relaxation is gross purely for the shock factor and features disgusting apathy for humanity, the dark obsession and gore of Chlorine is far more nuanced and impactful.