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The Pisces: A Novel Hardcover – May 1, 2018

by Melissa Broder (Author)

2,539 ratings

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LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE
LONGLISTED 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.

From the Publisher

pisces;literary fiction;shape of water;Psychological;merman;mermaid;los angeles;humor;group therapy

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In recounting one woman’s star-crossed relationship with a folkloric beau, Ms. Broder has crafted a modern-day mythology for women on the verge — if everything on the surface stops making sense, all you need to do is dive deeper.”—The New York Times

“A page turner of a novel…The Pisces is many things: a jaunt in a fabulous voice, a culture critique of Los Angeles, an explicit tour of all kinds of sex (both really good and really bad)…Broder’s voice has a funny, frank Amy Schumer feel to it, injected with moments of a Lydia Davis-type abstraction.”—The Washington Post

" 'The Pisces' convincingly romances the void."—Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker

“The dirtiest, most bizarre, most original works of fiction I’ve read in recent memory."—Vogue.com

“Explosive, erotic, scathingly funny…Its interspecies romantic intrigue buttresses a profound take on connection and longing that digs deep.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Bold, virtuosic, addictive, erotic – there is nothing like The Pisces. Between a broken-up Sappho academic and a Venice-beach merman, Melissa Broder miraculously captures everything absurd and pure about falling in love. I have no idea how Broder does it, but I loved every dark and sublime page of it.”—Stephanie Danler, author of Sweetbitter

"Funny and dark, vicious and tender, The Pisces is a sexy and moving portrait of a woman longing for connection and pleasure in our strange and alienating world. I can’t stop thinking about it."—Edan Lepucki, author of Woman No. 17

“The Pisces is an intellectual, enthralling voyage into one woman’s swirling mind as she brushes with the extraordinary.”—Refinery29

“Time for the easiest game of ‘if you loved this movie, read this book’ ever: If you loved ‘The Shape of Water,’…you should definitely read The Pisces by Melissa Broder, a book about fish sex…[The Pisces offers] an exploration of how deeply impacted we all are in the corrupted world, and how far we’d have to swim to escape it.”—Huffington Post

“Melissa Broder joins the mermaid craze, but she does so with a focus on how our fantasies can help us move past romantic codependency.”—Bitch

“The debut novel by poet and essayist Broder (So Sad Today) is an alternately ribald and poignant fantasy…Broder makes her merman a more complex and believable character than most romantic heroes; her novel is a consistently funny and enjoyable read.”—Publisher's Weekly

"It’s a knife-tip dissection of 21st-century anomie, and its clear-sighted depiction of muddy-headed people makes for bracing reading – like a dip in the freezing, salty sea."—The Guardian

“The Pisces is as hilarious as it is heartbreaking, with a keenly satirical eye towards our culture of therapy and recovery. It also features a bunch of lady-and-fish sex, which is apparently having a moment.”—Vulture.com, "10 Books We Can't Wait to Read This Spring"

“In her first novel, essayist, poet, and Twitter-star Broder (So Sad Today, 2016; Last Sext, 2016) wraps timeless questions of existence —those that gods and stars have beseeched to answer for millennia—in the weirdest, sexiest, and most appealing of modern packaging. Brilliant and delightful.”—Booklist, starred

“Broder delivers her signature hilarity, intelligence, and spot-on examination of the human (et al.) condition.”—Marie Claire

"No one writes about love like Melissa Broder, who captures the feverish obsession with both the lover and the self in hilarious, mesmerizing detail. I scarfed The Pisces in handfuls, surprised and delighted by every inventive detail and compelled by the lucid insights and chillingly familiar compulsions of the narrator. This is a book for every smart person who has made very bad decisions, who thought love might save them from themselves, who has been hypnotized by pleasure and become willing to give up everything for just one more taste."—Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart and Abandon Me

"A peerless combination of heartbreak and horniness, this novel's journey through the surreal throes of desire is a trip you'll want to take again and again. Broder's wit, vulnerability, and brilliance make me delirious with gratitude. What manic pleasures, perfectly rendered in a naked confessional voice, await you. It's impossible not to read (and revere) this book obsessively."—Alissa Nutting, author of Made for Love

"The Pisces has everything – devastating honesty about love, intimacy and loneliness, tonally perfect writing, propulsive plotting, laugh out loud hilarity, and genuinely hot sex with a merman."—Emily Gould, author of Friendship

“The Venice Beach of The Pisces is familiar at first, but it quickly transforms into a new place in which fantasy can become reality overnight. I love how Melissa Broder navigates the anticipation of lust, the consequences of love, the lure of self-destruction, and the indecision between what seems right and what seems crazy. This book is for anyone that’s wondered where their longing will take them next.”—Chelsea Hodson, author of Tonight I’m Someone Else

“This anticipated first novel from poet/essayist Broder is hilariously narrated…Those wo take the plunge will be rewarded with a wild ride from a narrator whose sardonic outlook reveals profound truths about the nature of the self.”—Library Journal

“The sex scenes are often funny (“his balls were delicious, like raw oysters”), but Broder balances the weirdness of merman erotica with a realistic look at depression and recovery. The Pisces is perfect for anyone who wishes The Shape of Water as more explicit, but is also great for those looking for a novel that gets real about mental health, with a little fantasy thrown in.”—Bust Magazine

"I've long been a Melissa Broder fan but I had no idea a fabulist novelist lived in her too. I've never quite read anything like the surreal merman romantic comedy that is The Pisces! Broder has always been a simultaneously out-of-this-world & very-much-in-this-world poet/comic, so it's a wild delight to watch her transition to modern-day mythologist. Sappho and Tinder, mermaid porn and nervous breakdowns, the banal and the bananas gloriously litter this uncanny marvel that is pretty impossible to put down."—Porochista Khakpour, author of Sick: A Memoir and the novels The Last Illusion and Sons & Other Flammable Objects

“Starting with Sappho and ripping through the Los Angeles lovelorn, this exquisite story of romantic obsession deftly blends existential terror with sexy surrealism for a one-sitting absolute thrall. This book has my number so hard, I’m waiting for its midnight texts."—Amelia Gray, author of Isadora

"The characters in The Pisces are so finely drawn and palpably real. These are some of the most real, relatable merman sex scenes I have ever read in any book."—Megan Amram, TV Writer and author of Science...For Her!

“Melissa Broder has officially written the modern myth: a hilarious, surreal tale of addiction and academia, depression and desire, mania and melancholy. Through the eyes of our merman-obsessed anti-heroine, we become attuned to both the poignancy and pointlessness of the human experience—from illusory ambition to unruly erotic fantasy. (Broder writes sex like no one else I’ve read.) The Pisces will have you LOL-ing while you’re longing while you’re cringing while you’re philosophizing—this is what it feels like to exist, and to attempt love, in the deluded torpor that is our time.”—Molly Prentiss, author of Tuesday Nights in 1980

"Dazzling, bold, unforgettable—Melissa Broder has written a seismic love story for the incurably curious. —Kristen Iskandrian, author of Motherest

"By turns fearless and perverted, full of desolation and of hope, The Pisces is a novel that delves head on into the many dark, absurd facets of human connection and coping in search of meaning and comes back bearing fantastic flashes of a twisted rom-com surreality only Melissa Broder's gemstone-studded brain could conjure up."—Blake Butler, author of There Is No Year

About the Author

Melissa Broder is the author of the essay collection So Sad Today and four poetry collections, including Last Sext. Her poetry has appeared in POETRY, The Iowa Review, Tin House, Guernica, and she is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize. She writes the “So Sad Today” column at Vice, the astrology column for Lenny Letter, and the “Beauty and Death” column on Elle’s website. She lives in Los Angeles.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

I was no longer lonely but I was. I had Dominic, my sister’s diabetic foxhound, who followed me from room to room, lumbering onto my lap, unaware of his bulk. I liked the smell of his meaty breath, which he didn’t know was rancid. I liked the warmth of his fat belly, the primal way he crouched when he took a shit. It felt so intimate scooping his gigantic shits, the big hot bags of them. I thought, This is the proper use of my love, this is the man for me, this is the way.

The beach house was a contemporary glass fortress, sparse enough to remind me nothing of my life back home. I could disappear in a good way: as if never having existed, unlike the way I felt I was disappearing all fall, winter, and spring in my hot, cluttered apartment in Phoenix, surrounded by reminders of myself and Jamie, suffocating in what was mine. There are good and bad ways of vanishing. I wanted no more belongings.

On the second-story deck of the beach house I escaped the hell of my own smelly bathrobe, wearing one of the silk kimonos my sister had left behind. I fell asleep out there every night, tipsy on white wine, under the Venice stars, with my feet tucked under Dominic’s gut, belonging to nothing familiar. I felt no pressure to fall asleep, and so, after nine months of insomnia, I was finally able to drift off easily every night. Then at three a.m. I would wake gently and traipse to the bed with the Egyptian cotton sheets, kicking my legs all over them in celebration, rolling around and touching my own skin as though I were a stranger touching someone foreign, or cradling the big back of the dog to my front to die to the world for another eight hours. I might have even been happy.

And yet, walking on Abbot Kinney Boulevard one night at the end of my first week there, passing the windows of the yuppie shops—each their own white cube gallery—I saw two people, a man and a woman, early twenties maybe, definitely on a first or second date, and I knew I still wasn’t okay. They were discussing intently where they should go to eat and drink, as though it really mattered. He had an accent, German, I think, and was handsome and fuckable: hair close-cropped and boyish, strong arms, an Adam’s apple that protruded and made me think of sucking on it.

The woman was, as the undergrads at the Arizona university where I worked as a librarian might say, a butterface.

For nine years I had been at Southwest State in the dual lit and classics PhD program. Somehow, miraculously, despite having not yet turned in my thesis, they hadn’t withdrawn my funding. In exchange for thirty hours of work per week in the library, I was housed in a below-market-rent apartment off-campus and received a yearly stipend of $33,000. I was supposed to be working on a book-length project entitled “The Accentual Gap: Sappho’s Spaces as Essence.” This year, as a result of my tardiness, I’d been appointed a new advisory committee, comprised of both the classics and English department chairpersons, and I was no longer flying under the radar.

In March, I had met with them at a Panera Bread, where they delivered the news over paninis—Napa almond chicken salad for the English chair in her coffee-stained Easter sweater and tuna salad for the classics chair, his nose swollen with rosacea—that I was to have a full draft completed by the fall semester or my funding would be pulled and I would be out. So far, this had not made me hustle any faster.

It wasn’t that I no longer felt impassioned by Sappho. I did, or sort of did, as much as you can feel impassioned by anyone you have lived with for nine years. But it had dawned on me around year six that the thesis of my thesis, its whole raison d’être, was faulty. In fact, it was not just faulty. It was total bullshit. But I didn’t know how to fix it. So I’d just been riding it out.

The book operated under the notion that scholars always assumed a first-person speaker when reading Sappho’s poetry. Scholars were kind of assholes and they actually hated mystery—they detested any inability to fill in the blanks. They were victims, like the rest of us, of the way their brains worked: trying to compartmentalize every fragment of information into a pattern. They wanted the world to make sense. Who didn’t? So when reading Sappho’s work, they took details that they already knew, or thought they knew, of Sappho’s life, and used them to fill in the blanks. But they did so erroneously, like a psychologist who, after learning three extraneous things about a person’s childhood, believes they know the whole person.

My book presented the argument that one should read the vast number of erasures in Sappho’s work as intentional. True, Sappho had not included these herself. They were created by the passage of time and dirt since 600 BCE. Most of her work was actually missing, with only 650 lines of 10,000 surviving. But I argued that to reimagine these blanks as created by Sappho herself was far less of a co-option than filling in the gaps with what little we know of her life, creating our own meanings for them out of a desire to make history our own, and above all, projecting a first-person speaker upon them. I felt that the only way we would cease projecting was if the blanks were read as intentional text themselves. Forget whether she was a lesbian, preferred younger men, was hypersexual, bisexual, or had multiple male lovers. If we were going to ascribe meaning, let’s do it with what was there rather than what was not there.

Unfortunately this was a total garbage proposition. I, myself, had a very complicated relationship with emptiness, blankness, nothingness. Sometimes I wanted only to fill it, frightened that if I didn’t it would eat me alive or kill me. But sometimes I longed for total annihilation in it—a beautiful, silent erasure. A desire to be vanished. And so I was most guilty of all in projecting an agenda. I knew it, which was why I had not really pressed ahead. I wasn’t sure if my advisory committee knew it. But I was about to be cut off and I figured that a shitty book was probably better than no book at all.

So I continued to trudge, not wanting to quit and get a “real” job, not really knowing what I could do anyway. Most of my time in public was spent in the library, amidst the undergrads, and that was where I had heard them use the words butterface and brown bagger. They used these words to describe women of attractive body and unattractive face, and this woman on Abbot Kinney was, in my opinion, definitely one. I moved quickly behind her to observe her further.

Her visage, when she turned her head to talk to the man, was hard and pronounced, with a jutting nose and chin, but she had good hair and a hot body to save her. She wore a pair of tiny navy silk shorts from which the very bottom of her ass cheeks protruded ever so slightly. You almost felt compelled to touch them. Everything she said was filtered through her own awareness of how good her ass looked, the words she spoke merely an afterthought compared to the glory at the bottom of those shorts. She was almost like a vehicle for shorts and an ass. She sort of danced a little down the sidewalk and flicked her hair.

He was no better. He asked stupid questions—“So how long have you lived here?” and “Do you like it?”—but every question was a chance to put his own hotness into action. Why were they even bothering to speak? Who had time for all of this? Why weren’t they just fucking, right there, out in the open? The entire performance was merely a vessel for something else. It was nothingness.

Sure, compared to the greater nothingness—the void, the lack of explicit meaning in life, the fact that none of us knows what is going on here—it was at least something. Their engagement in this dance of elevating a stupid restaurant to high levels of importance, discussing kombucha, making the fleeting matter, the shorts: all of these were a fuck-you to emptiness. Or perhaps these details were symptomatic of their ignorance of nothingness. Was nothingness so imperceptible to them that these things could matter?

Could anyone be totally ignorant of the void? Didn’t all of us have an awareness of it, a brush with it—perhaps only once or twice, like at a funeral for someone very close to you, when you walked out of the funeral home and it stopped making sense for just a blip that you existed. Or perhaps a bad mushroom trip where one’s fellow trippers looked like plastic. Could there be people on this Earth who never stopped for a moment, not once, to say: What is everything?

Whether these were those people or not, I knew that in this moment neither of them was asking that question. If they had tasted the nausea of not knowing why we are here or who we are, or if they had not, now they were willfully and successfully ignoring it. Or maybe they were just stupid. Oh, the sweet gift of stupidity. I envied them.

But really, I knew that everything came down to her shorts. All of the answers were in that ass line—the reduction of all fear, all unknown, all nothingness, eclipsed by the ass line. It was holding its own in all of this. It was just existing as though living was easy. The ass line didn’t really have to do anything, but it was running the whole show. All dialogue began and ended at that ass line. The direction of their evening, their dialogue, and in a way, the universe ended there. I hated them.

I hated their ease with everything. I hated their lack of loneliness, their sense of time stretching out languidly like something to be toyed with, as though it were never going to get too late tonight or in their lives. I didn’t know who I resented more: the man or the woman.

Chapter 2

I have always felt that it would be good to be a man. Not only have I always wanted to have my own dick—just to walk around feeling that weight between my legs, that power—but I have longed to escape the time pressures that my body has put on me. I hated the German man on Abbot Kinney for having that, no time pressure. I hated the woman too, for being so young, for having so much time left to be hot and maybe someday have a baby.

I had never wanted a baby. I never felt the desire so many women describe that suddenly hits them. Having just turned thirty-eight, I had been waiting and waiting for that desire to overtake me, but it didn’t. So I always looked on it casually, like something mildly distasteful: a piece of onion I would prefer not to put on my plate.

But I loved having the option of having a baby if I still wanted one. I liked having the future ahead of me. People say that youth is wasted on the young and I agree in so many respects that it was wasted on me, but in one way I had appreciated it. I always had a sense of my privilege with time. Part of my casualness with the question of having children was that I sensed how lucky I was that I could one day have the choice if I wanted. I liked that that day was very far off. The distance felt luxurious.

I had secretly judged women who regretted never having children and were now no longer of the age at which they could have them. I judged them, perhaps, because I feared becoming them. But now at thirty-eight, my time was beginning to run out. I still didn’t want a child. I didn’t know what I would do with a child if I had one. But I missed having that open space before me in which to decide. And if that ass-cheeks woman had been paying attention to me, I knew she would have judged me as I had judged others my age.

She might have also judged me for being unmarried. When Jamie and I first met, I told him that marriage was an archaic declaration of ownership and it wasn’t for me. He said “good,” because it wasn’t his thing either. But four years into the relationship I wanted desperately for Jamie to ask me to marry him, if only because he wouldn’t. I’d never been a jewelry person, but something inside me longed for that ring. Outwardly I shit-talked blood diamonds, while quietly I studied other women’s rings, learning the names of the various diamond cuts: cushion, emerald, princess. I swore that married women used their left hands more than their right when they spoke, gestured, or wiped a stray hair out of their eyes, just to rub it in. They seemed to be saying, Look, someone wants me this much. I have safely made it to the other shore.

But what would I have even done as a married person? What would I have done with Jamie in my space or me in his? Choosing Jamie to love for so many years was perhaps more of a symbol of my own fear of intimacy than it was of his. He was intoxicating when we first met: a geologist, 6’2”, handsome in an L.L.Bean travel vest sort of way, golden brown and unshaven with sandy-brown hair, ten years my senior. He made me feel like a special little pea. Through his work in the desert with the university, he had received a grant from the American Geological Fund to make documentaries on the national parks. He always directed and edited the docs himself, and the grant gave him the power to travel, be free, and always be producing. Even though the documentaries aired at two a.m. on limited cable channels, he could never be accused of failing. “I’m more with the scientists than the artists,” he said. But he had the allure of an artist.

In our earlier years together I traveled to see him on location often. I spent my holiday breaks in an Airstream at Acadia National Park, Glacier, Yosemite. He would go on shoots all day and I would go out exploring, bringing back little souvenirs. He loved hearing what I had seen, correcting my landscape terminology. My favorites were the lakes and oceans, the rivers and waterfalls, like nothing we had in the desert. The rushing water, and traveling in general, made me feel like my life was moving forward, in spite of my flagging thesis. I identified myself with his work. It felt adventurous.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hogarth; First Edition (May 1, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1524761559
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1524761554
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.77 x 0.97 x 8.57 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #941,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7,151 in Humorous Fiction
- #7,481 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #46,158 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
2,539 ratings

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Melissa Broder

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Melissa Broder is the author of the novels MILK FED (February 2021) and THE PISCES, the essay collection SO SAD TODAY, and five collections of poems including LAST SEXT and the forthcoming SUPERDOOM: Selected Poems.

She lives in Los Angeles.

www.melissabroder.com

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Customers say

Customers find the book's writing style easy to read and appreciate its erotic content as a virtuoso of erotic verisimilitude. Moreover, the storyline incorporates Greek mythology and receives positive feedback for its relatable elements, while customers describe it as fascinating and thought-provoking. However, the emotional content and humor receive mixed reactions, with some finding it a rollercoaster of emotions and hilarious, while others find it disturbing and not funny. Additionally, the visual quality and character development receive mixed reviews, with some finding it beautiful while others find it graphic than expected, and the main character receives criticism for having little to like.

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Erotic content Writing style Thought provoking Storyline Emotional content Humor Visual quality Character development

21 customers mention "Erotic content"16 positive5 negative

Customers appreciate the erotic content of the book, describing it as a virtuoso of verisimilitude with great sex scenes.

"...She never did. This book was purported to be about love, "if you love love, you will love this book". That was completely untrue...." Read more

"...This book is funny, sexy, magical and very, very real. Even though there is a merman. It is about everyone's quest for love and to be loved. '..." Read more

"...It has a great deal of sexual description and since I would find it hard to write in the manner which she did I was impressed...." Read more

"...Erotica? Um, no. Yes, there's a ton of graphic sex, some of it sexy and steamy, some of it sad and bad, but it's necessary for the story, as sex..." Read more

20 customers mention "Writing style"14 positive6 negative

Customers appreciate the writing style of the book, finding it well-crafted and easy to read, with one customer noting that every sentence is like a small gem.

"...book feels real, even with the sexy merman, because the writing is honest and vivid, the emotions true. This is really hard to do in fiction...." Read more

"...I actually got through it pretty quickly, so it's not unreadable or anything. I do think you have to be a very particular person to love it though." Read more

"...The writing style is oversimplifed, and doesn't suit the subject matter...." Read more

"...Melissa Broder has a magical way with words. I just want to scream from the rooftops for everyone to read this book!..." Read more

15 customers mention "Thought provoking"12 positive3 negative

Customers find the book thought-provoking, describing it as fascinating, salacious, and smart.

"...But more, this book is hugely profound. It asks - and in it's own twisted way answers - the big existential questions...." Read more

"...Other than that though, the book did have some thought provoking points...." Read more

"I found the sample of this book interesting, so I ordered it. I then became quickly bored, followed by totally appalled...." Read more

"...The lead character is absolutely exhausting. She makes HORRIFIC decisions throughout, including causing physical harm to a dog she's looking after..." Read more

12 customers mention "Storyline"12 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the storyline of the book, finding it interesting and relatable, with elements of Greek mythology woven throughout. One customer describes it as a fantastic raw fiction, while another notes its rich fantasy elements.

"...This book feels real, even with the sexy merman, because the writing is honest and vivid, the emotions true. This is really hard to do in fiction...." Read more

"...This book is funny, sexy, magical and very, very real. Even though there is a merman. It is about everyone's quest for love and to be loved. '..." Read more

"An interesting story but a pretty unlikeable main character. Some scenes made me a bit uncomfortable. Unnecessarily crude in parts." Read more

"...the void inside us’ exploration but with raw, real sex scenes and Greek mythology...." Read more

37 customers mention "Emotional content"15 positive22 negative

Customers have mixed reactions to the emotional content of the book, with some finding it a rollercoaster of emotions and relatable, while others describe it as disturbing.

"...'s a ton of graphic sex, some of it sexy and steamy, some of it sad and bad, but it's necessary for the story, as sex is how Lucy navigates through..." Read more

"...How to describe a story that is smart, incredibly funny, profoundly sad and highly erotic? Oh yes, and there’s a merman, too!..." Read more

"...So much angsty philosophizing. Leave the existentialism in college, lady. Philosophy is only cool if it's something new...." Read more

"...(I went into skimming mode quite often); and there was originality of plot. But, in the end, I am a little ashamed of myself for having finished it." Read more

19 customers mention "Humor"11 positive8 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the humor in the book, with some finding it hilarious while others say it's not funny.

"...Both hilarious and heartbreaking, the story and its plot are always moving forward...." Read more

"...books and movies out now that seek to prove that women can be as rude, crude, salacious and obscene as men can be...." Read more

"...An instant classic. How to describe a story that is smart, incredibly funny, profoundly sad and highly erotic? Oh yes, and there’s a merman, too!..." Read more

"I didn’t like this book. Lol I’m sorry it was cringe. The writing was super chaotic and I just didn’t like how all over the place it was...." Read more

14 customers mention "Visual quality"6 positive8 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the visual quality of the book, with some finding it beautiful while others note it is more graphic than expected.

"...Erotica? Um, no. Yes, there's a ton of graphic sex, some of it sexy and steamy, some of it sad and bad, but it's necessary for the story, as sex..." Read more

"...Yes it is weird but it is wild and beautiful and life-affirming...." Read more

"...any sort of redeeming qualities, no sense of self, just overall very superficial and lacking in integrity. Don't believe the hype." Read more

"This was a feninine view of the classic woman falls for merman. It also delves into the mind of a woman who is immature and incredibly self centered...." Read more

22 customers mention "Character development"3 positive19 negative

Customers have mixed feelings about the character development in the book, with several noting that the main character has very little to like, while one customer mentions having a journey with characters they cared about.

"...The protagonist is tragically self-absorbed, excruciatingly self aware and totally committed to her suffering...." Read more

"An interesting story but a pretty unlikeable main character. Some scenes made me a bit uncomfortable. Unnecessarily crude in parts." Read more

"...The main character has very few redeaming qualities and is more than unlikable...." Read more

"...However, the character’s neglect and mistreatment of the dog ruined the experience for me. If you are easily upset by such things, skip this book...." Read more

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NYTimes* 10 Best Books for 2018 (* should be)
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2018
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After reading the NY Times Book Review, I was intrigued by the promise of Merman Romance set in Venice Beach. Yet when I saw the very mixed reviews on Amazon, I held off and just circled for a few weeks, hoping to see a write up that might push me over the edge. Now that I've read the book, I think it's absolutely outstanding, a true masterpiece.

Both hilarious and heartbreaking, the story and its plot are always moving forward. I liked the book so much I bought the hardback after listening to it on Audible (for the audio book, the author reads, which is a treat, as she does an awesome performance and has a great Brit accent). The audio version should come with a "do not drive" warning, as it's so laugh-out-loud funny in parts that I nearly lost control of my car. Every sentence is like a small gem, I absolutely loved the writing. One of the things that I don't always like about fiction is it often doesn't feel real. This book feels real, even with the sexy merman, because the writing is honest and vivid, the emotions true. This is really hard to do in fiction. So even if you don't like Lucy (I did), at least learn from her.

But more, this book is hugely profound. It asks - and in it's own twisted way answers - the big existential questions. So if you're just looking for a shallow, sex-fueled romance, this probably isn't the book for you.

Or maybe this is the book for you. You'll do well if you start out with the right expectations. I once heard a writer say "bad sex makes great reading." So true! Who hasn't had an awkward moment or two (or a thousand) in the bedroom? There's plenty of bad sex in this book. Not just bad but degrading, humiliating. And while this is sad and might turn off some readers, this is the world we live in, where sexting and 'swipe right' have replaced courtship and romance. If the F-words (rhymes with duck and dart) and C-words (rhymes with hunt and hock) deeply offend you, then maybe this isn't your book. But, come on, that's only language - and, sex is a necessary part of telling Lucy's tale (tail?).

Oh, and there's some really great sex too, the kind that's fun, uplifting and reaffirming. And this is kind of the point of the book: why do some people seek a destructive path whereas others accept a boring and predictable path? The destructive types are unable to maintain healthy relationships, whereas the boring types embrace long term commitment - and convince themselves they are happy. Both types convince themselves they're happy, but are they truly? I tend to be more the boring type, yet I think it's important to understand that making good choices isn't easy for everyone.

Now that I've read the book, I'm a little confused by some of the reviews from other readers. Erotica? Um, no. Yes, there's a ton of graphic sex, some of it sexy and steamy, some of it sad and bad, but it's necessary for the story, as sex is how Lucy navigates through life. And the dog - animal neglect? Well, the dog is a symbol, this is fiction, no REAL dogs were hurt writing this book. What do dogs symbolize? Unconditional love. Pay attention to when Lucy starts to neglect the dog and why.

The reader is left wondering what is real. Is all love real? Or is only healthy love real? Or is all love just what we project on to our other? Is love just mirror gazing, can we ever really see and care for the other? Is love even what we want - or are we looking for something else? Do we hurt ourselves, again and again, because we seek the wrong thing?

Bravo, Melissa Broder! If it were up to me, your book would be on the New York Time's 10 Best Books for 2018. Thank you for writing a courageous and hugely important book.

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alfienumeric
You will either hate it or love it
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2019
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I'm still talking mad ish about this book. This is a type of book in which you are either going to love it or you are going to hate it. You have to have some sort of uncouth sense of humor to just let your bun down and enjoy the tongue-in-cheek scenarios that this book puts our protagonist in.

And it will also help if you are cynical about the dating scene and living in the Westside of LA to feel extra connection to this book. (NO lie, this book mentioned about the salon where my friend works and where I got my last haircut. Thought it was cool to take a mental walk with the protagonist on familiar streets.) But I digress...

What cracks me up is that in my goodreads friends list and in the book clubs I am part of, several of my friends are into supernatural/fantasy eroticas. I had mentioned it and have often teased them about it. Well, I guess I unknowingly joined their team as this is a merman erotica, not a cynical jab at modern dating involving astrological signs.

Before you start, ask your self if you are ready. I already gifted this book to a couple of friends who can get a laugh out of it.

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alfienumeric

You will either hate it or love it

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2019
I'm still talking mad ish about this book. This is a type of book in which you are either going to love it or you are going to hate it. You have to have some sort of uncouth sense of humor to just let your bun down and enjoy the tongue-in-cheek scenarios that this book puts our protagonist in.

And it will also help if you are cynical about the dating scene and living in the Westside of LA to feel extra connection to this book. (NO lie, this book mentioned about the salon where my friend works and where I got my last haircut. Thought it was cool to take a mental walk with the protagonist on familiar streets.) But I digress...

What cracks me up is that in my goodreads friends list and in the book clubs I am part of, several of my friends are into supernatural/fantasy eroticas. I had mentioned it and have often teased them about it. Well, I guess I unknowingly joined their team as this is a merman erotica, not a cynical jab at modern dating involving astrological signs.

Before you start, ask your self if you are ready. I already gifted this book to a couple of friends who can get a laugh out of it.

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6 people found this helpful

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Flamingomotel
Absurdism, smells, and stuff
Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2019
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The main character acted like a 10 year old who just learned something new in class. She went on and on about various topics in a very obnoxious way. So much angsty philosophizing. Leave the existentialism in college, lady. Philosophy is only cool if it's something new. I've found that all of these mostly plot-less contemporary novels have a very similar absurdist-type backdrop (cough, Conversations with Friends, cough). It gets old. And I like it when narrators talk about philosophy, but does it always have to be the same stuff? Jeez. Quote some Hegel or something. Anyway, so I was thinking I'll endure her incessant blabbing if there's gonna be some sexy stuff soon. But nah. The "sexy stuff" was almost always also gross at the same time. I'm so not easily grossed out, but lets just say that smells are involved. I draw the line at smells. And there's some other sex stuff that I'm sure at least 3/4 of the population wouldn't be okay with. Other than that though, the book did have some thought provoking points. I actually got through it pretty quickly, so it's not unreadable or anything. I do think you have to be a very particular person to love it though.

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27 people found this helpful

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Alison Beckner
From interesting to appalling
Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2024
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I found the sample of this book interesting, so I ordered it. I then became quickly bored, followed by totally appalled. The protagonist is tragically self-absorbed, excruciatingly self aware and totally committed to her suffering. Even her philosophical and academic musings are shallow and just overall annoying. I can't believe I actually spent money to buy this and proceed to spend even a few hours of my time with a character so devoid of any sort of redeeming qualities, no sense of self, just overall very superficial and lacking in integrity. Don't believe the hype.

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Julianna
Warning for Dog Lovers! Don't read this book.
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2018
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IF YOU LIKE DOGS DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!! PLEASE!!! I waded through this book thinking I would like the main character more at some point, thinking she had to have some redeeming quality. She never did. This book was purported to be about love, "if you love love, you will love this book". That was completely untrue. The only good character in the book was the dog and she destroys him in the end. Gave me nightmares. Wish I had never come across this horrid book. I am hoping writing this review will give me some closure and I can forget all about it...

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20 people found this helpful

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Neridah
Darkly funny, vulnerable, exceptionally well written
Reviewed in Australia on August 18, 2018
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If you liked The Shape of Water but thought it could have more of your depression thoughts and worst actions, this is the book for you.

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SRE
Eye opening
Reviewed in Mexico on June 11, 2018
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I learned tons from this book. Felt related and made me think about my previous relationships.
This was the book I needed to read to forgive myself.

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dr.akskamath
A quirky out-of-the box read..
Reviewed in India on April 26, 2019
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"How had I ended up with these losers? I hated the words they used: inner child, self-care, intimacy, self-love. I was asking life advice, couched in the language of suicide, from a friend in a mental hospital. This was the direction my life had taken. I was like a cactus, a storer of water, and not a creature who naturally immersed in the water. I didn’t take things lightly. I hoarded." Melissa Broder, The Pisces. Longlisted for the #WomensPrize for Fiction 2019.
was in for a rollercoaster ride of a lifetime..🎢
📖Title- The Pisces 📖Author- Melissa Broder
📖Publisher- Bloomsbury 📖Format - Kindle Edition 📖Total number of pages-281
📖 Genre - Literary Erotica/Magical Realism/Dark Humour 📖The Pisces talks about existential crisis in a borderline nymphomaniac who has depression with suicidal tendencies 😬 Introducing Lucy, an unlikable protagonist is stuck with her thesis about gaps in Sappho's poetry & ends her relationship with her long-term boyfriend Jamie,whom she instantly craves back. She travels from Phoenix, Arizona to Venice,LA to deal with her heart break. She joins a group therapy of women who are trying to deal with their hypersexuality. She stays at her sister's glass beach house & ignores caring for the diabetic dog, Dominic. In her pursuit of sex, lust, love & happiness, she ends up with Theo, a Merman on the rocks! 😬 📖Rating - 4.8🌟/5
.The story is simultaneously fascinating & hilarious. I finished reading the book in 3 days & quite liked the unputdownable narrative which is brutal, raw & thought - provoking. But,mind you!😬 This book's not everyone's cup of tea coz it talks about some really sensitive mental health issues & it has sexually explicit content. Do pick it up if you want to read something really quirky..📚❤

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HandoftheQueen
Pop Culture
Reviewed in Germany on July 8, 2021
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A fast and steamy read it narrates pop culture perfectly.
Highly recommended if you like Bret Easton Ellis and if you found him too cruel.

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Christina Strigas
Brilliant Debut Novel
Reviewed in Canada on April 3, 2019
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I read some reviews in which a lot of readers disliked The Pisces, based on how the main character Lucy, treated the dog in the book. No offence, to any dog lovers, but seriously? It's a book, not a reality show. I am a big dog lover, but that would not stain my whole conclusion of a book, or make me stop reading a book. I have read many books with disturbing subject matters and scenes that upset me, but that is part of the plot. We are so used to "liking" the protagonist, when a writer focuses on the flaws, as Melissa Broder does, we become appalled. What I enjoyed most about this book is the gritty, raw existential monologues in the book. There were a few that make me stop and think. Theo, the love interest, the merman, whose name literally means " God " in Greek, turns out to be a complete narcissist. I truly connected with so many parts of this book.
I felt as if the rock was a hotel room of an affair. I saw how fantasy and reality are two separate entities yet they have this life of their own. They merge in the mind. This book may not be for everyone. I think first of all you have to have an open mind and also know that Melissa Broder holds no punches. I suppose as a writer, I read and study the craft of writing at the same time; and I must say, that this book is unique. Just because an author writes dark, and satirical, it does not mean the book is horrible. Firstly, I have to say that this book is hard to categorize because of its unique style of writing and subject matter. It definitely is satirical and dark. Don't expect a love story like Twilight. If you follow Melissa Broder on her Twitter accounts you should know that it won't be a happily ever ending story. A brilliant debut novel.

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The Pisces: A Novel Hardcover – May 1, 2018

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You will either hate it or love it

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5.0 out of 5 stars NYTimes* 10 Best Books for 2018 (* should be)

4.0 out of 5 stars You will either hate it or love it

You will either hate it or love it

Images in this review

3.0 out of 5 stars Absurdism, smells, and stuff

2.0 out of 5 stars From interesting to appalling

1.0 out of 5 stars Warning for Dog Lovers! Don't read this book.

Top reviews from other countries

4.0 out of 5 stars Darkly funny, vulnerable, exceptionally well written

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye opening

5.0 out of 5 stars A quirky out-of-the box read..

5.0 out of 5 stars Pop Culture

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Debut Novel

NYTimes* 10 Best Books for 2018 (* should be)

You will either hate it or love it

Absurdism, smells, and stuff

From interesting to appalling

Warning for Dog Lovers! Don't read this book.

Darkly funny, vulnerable, exceptionally well written

Eye opening

A quirky out-of-the box read..

Pop Culture

Brilliant Debut Novel