The Most Outrageous Novel You Will Read This Year
A review of The Pisces by Melissa Broder.
If there is one thing I've learned over the years, it’s this: many novels offer shock value, some offer genuine value, and a rare few offer both — the sense of discovering new horizons combined with hard-hitting truths.
You guessed it — The Pisces offers it all.
While divisive in its delivery, the book is an absolute hit, filled with the sort of wisdom I did not expect it to hold — reader, you’re in for a treat.
The Pisces by Melissa Broder
The Pisces caught my attention by being grouped with books categorised as exploring the relationship between women and the void — a theme which has grown on me significantly within the past year.
The novel follows Lucy whose recent heartbreak lands her house-sitting in Los Angeles for the summer. Despite joining a love addiction group and meeting all kinds of comically unsuitable men, Lucy fails to find relief — until she meets…
Until she meets a merman.
No, you didn’t read it wrong — we are talking about a man with a tail.
When Lucy connects with the mythical creature, she is drawn into the depths of obsession — a combination of love, lust and anxiety.
I don’t know that we are ever really okay in life, but there are times when we feel closer to it — when we don’t remember what it feels like to suffer. During these times we are moving forward in the void, forgetting we are going nowhere, so the void feels less daunting.
Lucy stands out as one of the most unlikeable characters I have ever read, yet her unsavoury essence is exactly what makes The Pisces great. While I disagree with most of Lucy’s decisions, the beauty of her story is that it does not shy away from uncomfortable truths, the dark side of lust, and the loss of control.
The Pisces explores identity in a way that brings down the walls surrounding female desire and belonging. At times, the book felt as if it was a mirror, held up towards my own most hidden thoughts.
Maybe I didn’t need someone else to define me, but oh, I still wanted it. How vacuous was I? How empty was I that I needed a border drawn by someone else to tell me who I was? It didn’t even matter whether the person was real, a lover, a new friend, or even a dog. The person could even be imaginary, like the fancy people I saw on the street, who were not themselves imaginary, but became whatever it was I projected onto them.
The path of self-discovery turns much darker the further Lucy delves into justifying her obsession. Who are women without men? Is love an illusion? Are we fooling ourselves while we await our own very certain doom? Is death the price of true love?
Curious and daring, her questions aim to rattle the pretentious tales we often tell ourselves — about ourselves — and provide a fresh perspective.
We think we’ve grown or learned something, but maybe it’s always just a new projection. Were my incessant thoughts and feelings just a mechanism to escape the nothingness, or was the nothingness comprised of my thoughts and feelings themselves? Was there another way out besides out?
The Pisces is not for everyone — yet even those who did not appreciate it had a lot to say about it. Graphic in its depictions of lust and baring all through shameless self-discovery, The Pisces is bound to turn heads. Whether you fall in love with it or despise it, the book will not leave you unbothered.
For anyone after a thought-provoking, bizarrely unusual and somewhat genius interpretation of modern society, love and loss, this is it.
