Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the eArc of this work in exchange for my honest review.

Langbein's work follows Penelope as she leaves teaching after her novel, American Mermaid, is sold to Hollywood, and she heads to LA to help write the screenplay. The premise sounds fantastic, and for some I am sure it will be considered a perfect read for them. Told from Penelope's perspective with excerpts from her novel, this book takes readers on a journey. I understood the tones of feminism from both Penelope and Sylvia's POVs, and I can appreciate the genre mixing throughout. I wanted to love this...

To me there are few moments of comedy, moments of family drama, moments of honesty about what it is like to have a lot of education but no payout from the job and having someone take your work and dissect it until it is wholly theirs, and moments of...confusion. As Penelope deals with two seasoned Hollywood writers completely taking her work and changing it, attends and flounders at "all the right parties" the story turns into a whirlwind of alcohol, frustration, and paranoia.

Both Penelope and her fictional mermaid Sylvia have happy endings, but I often felt lost and frustrated reading this. I can see why others may like this newest work, but for me it was a miss. It was a struggle to get through, and I almost DNF'd this book so many times over the month of daily reading that it took me to finish.

American Mermaid by Julia Langbein is a Story Within a Story!

Penelope Schleeman is a Connecticut high school English teacher who writes a novel titled 'American Mermaid' and, through the hype of an Instagram Influencer, it becomes a best seller. She gets a movie deal, goes to Los Angeles to help write the screenplay and during her Hollywood adventures she becomes disheartened, and kind of crazed, with the changes being made to her beloved book.

The chapters of American Mermaid alternate through the book between Penelope's novel, which gets more convoluted and complex as the story progresses, and Penelope's escapades in Hollywood, which are over-the-top with stereo-typical characters, none of which are likable.

The author's writing, especially concerning Penelope's first person narration of thoughts and dialog, uses overtly descriptive similes and metaphors that are difficult to comprehend and mostly nonsensical. This story is described as both humorous and satirical. I didn't find the humor and I'm at a loss trying to figure out the author's message to the reader.

I love books that are different, original, and creative and this story is all those things. With that said, the writing needs to be either simple and clean or beautifully descriptive and, above all, it needs to make sense. This story didn't hit either of these prerequisites and, at this point, I'm simply craving closure.

I'm glad to see that this author has many glowing reviews for her debut novel. Sadly, American Mermaid is not a book that resonates with me.

2.5 stars rounded down.

Thank you to NetGalley, Doubleday Books, and Julia Langbein for an ARC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review.

Book Review: American Mermaid by Julia Langbein

American Mermaid is an contemporary novel about a debut author (and high school teacher) that moves to Hollywood to adapt her book into a screenplay.

When the book opens Penelope Schleeman is a thirty-three year old tenth grade English teacher and debut author. Her novel about a wheelchair bound woman who discovers she’s a mermaid (after rolling her wheelchair off a pier) has become a hit and Hollywood is calling. The fees for selling the rights and adapting the screenplay mean that she can finally pay for the double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery she needs after testing positive for the BRCA gene. During the day she’s paired up with two experienced Hollywood scriptwriters who are slowly chipping away a her feminist mermaid story and making it more palatable while she spends her nights at Hollywood parties trying to make connections but often feeling like the odd woman out.

In a lot of ways this is a fish out of water story (pardon the pun) where an east coast educator is plucked out of nowhere to live in an executive apartment in Culver City and move through the rarefied air of creative types. Her attempts at humor on a podcast anger her family, a quick pee in the ocean ends her up in a riptide and she is skewered by a group of smart and confident teenage girls in a basement. But every scene with Penelope has a sly sense of humor that you can’t help but laugh along with. My favorite scenes are the ones with her sister questioning Penelope’s sexuality and when her writing team decides to exclude the book’s scenes of “sperm harvesting” from the screenplay. The hardest part to swallow are the actual chapters from her book which seems like a very unlikely hit even as a fictional book within a book.

Overall, this a memorable and hilarious story about a smart and funny woman trying to navigate Hollywood.

great book and such great characters. I enjoyed the mystery and some romance. I also enjoyed the journey of the characters. I didn't know what to expect with this book but I enjoyed it .

I adored this novel - both of them! I'm generally a big fan of books within books and Langbein totally nailed this one.

Admittedly, at first, I was like WTH am I reading? (I don't read the synopsis before I start a book as I generally love going in blind and though sometimes it backfires, why change my ways now?!) But quickly enough, I was completely engrossed in both stories.

For much of the beginning, I loved the American Mermaid story about Sylvia and I was less interested in the present day story. That changed about a third of the way through though when I loved both stories equally and really couldn't get enough.

I adored that both stories were so completely different. Penelope was quirky but also totally relatable and her love for her novel felt authentic. She had poured her heart and soul into American Mermaid and the characters had become family to her. It also added so much to the story that Penelope was really trying to make it in the literary and Hollywood worlds in order to save her life. Again, it felt authentic that she got pretty wrapped up with the money and glamour and parties, and that made the book more entertaining and fun to read even though there was serious subject matter at heart.

Sylvia's story was incredible. I loved the way her character grew and that story went in a direction I never could have anticipated. I almost wish it was an entire novel by itself - I would definitely be reading it!

Overall, this one was fantastic. Heartfelt, relatable, totally unique, funny at times, and completely bingeable. If you want a great book and don't know what you're in the mood for, I feel like this book is exactly it.

Thank you to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

I don't know what it was about this book, but I couldn't get through it. To be fair, I had just had a baby and I think that it was just too sad for me to stomach at the time. The whole premise of this poor creature that nobody wanted was just too devastating for me.

When Penelope writes a successful novel about a mermaid, quits her teaching job, and moves to California to help with the movie adaptation everyone is surprised - most of all her. When she gets there she struggles as more and more people want to change her story and turn it into the “Hollywood” version she hates. As weird things start happening around her (last minute script changes, injuries, a near drowning) she starts to question if she is going crazy or if her mermaid is real.

This is a quirky little book. It doesn’t really fit into a genre and it’s a bit of a struggle to describe it. The book bounces between Penelope’s life and her novel and shows the similarities happening between the two. It’s funny but tackles deeper issues such as sexism and climate change. Overall I enjoyed this one and I think that people who like reading books that are just a bit different will like this one too.

Thank you Net Galley and the publisher for this ARC!

Penny is a Connecticut school teacher whose debut novel “American Mermaid” has caught the attention of an Instagram influencer, skyrocketing it to success. Penny finds herself in LA to work on the screen adaptation with two seasoned Hollywood screenwriters. Before long, Penny’s partners have taken her intelligent, asexual, scientist mermaid heroine Sylvia and dumbed her down into a sexy teenage hottie. As Penny becomes increasingly frustrated with the direction the screenplay is taking, the lines between reality and her imagination start to blur.

I really wanted to love this genre-defying debut novel, but it ultimately fell a bit flat for me. For the story-in-a-story device to be effective, both plots need to be equally compelling, but I found myself far more invested in Sylvia’s story. Penny’s naïve fish-out-of-water schtick and her drunken antics became repetitive, and while I appreciated what the author was trying to say about Holllywood and sexism, Penny wasn’t exactly doing herself any favors either. Between the two plots plus excerpts of the screenplay, there was a lot to keep track of and this book felt longer than it actually was.

I loved the ace representation in this book and the author’s message about the importance of maternal/platonic love rather than romantic love. Langbein’s writing style is smart, engaging, and observant, and I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for providing me an advance copy of this book.

This was an interesting debut. Penelope is a school teacher in Connecticut who wrote a novel "American Mermaid" on the side. When it gets picked up to be made into a movie, she leaves her job and goes to LA.

It's a book within a book with excerpts from both "American Mermaid" the book and screenplay and Penelope's life in LA. It was an entertaining read with a lot of laugh out loud moments (especially the ways the screenplay writers want to change the original story). I can honestly say I have no idea what genre this is with elements of action and fantasy and themes of feminism and self-discovery. It's such a unique book and if you are looking for a different kind of read then this is it!

Thank you to DoubleDay and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

An unusual read that is both funny and frustrating. Penny, a teacher, is thrilled that she's sold her novel about a mermaid to Hollywood-the money is more than she's had and more importantly, will allow her to pay for a preventative mastectomy. This is her story as well as the story of her mermaid Sylvia, who was rescued as a baby by Nell, whose husband is an evil genius who will ultimately see mermaids as the way to exploit energy from the ocean bed. Penny's adventures in Hollywood where she attends parties and works with two other script writers are sharp and pointed. Everyone wants to make changes to Sylvia- and chapters of the original book are interspersed with Penny's. And there's the texts between the script writers and Penny. Sylvia, who has always believed herself to have useless legs and was treated by the same doctor for spinal pain, throws herself off a pier in Boston and discovers her true self but then must hide- with the help of her physician who has his own back story. I'm at a loss for how to describe this-it's definitely got its charms but it's also snarky in spots and doesn't always stick the landing. And Penny's ending is, well, a quibble for me. That said, I found this one I didn't want to put down. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

This book has so many hilarious parts but sadly it lagged in others and the fact that it’s a book within a book because there are excerpts from her book and why it became a success added into it was awesome because the story is amazing, I couldn’t connect with Penelope like the way I wanted to. She was such a sad character. The synopsis was awesome but this book was not for me, and that’s ok. Thanks Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

RUSH OUT TO GET this utterly superb, brilliant, and thought-provoking debut novel! It’s the best book I’ve read so far this year and I’m already organizing a book cocktail party for 40 women friends to talk about it- there’s just so much packed in it!

As a mash-up of action thriller, feminist novel and dystopian sci-fi, there are two deeply intertwined stories within the novel. The first centers on Penelope who teaches English literature for little money at a Connecticut high school and in her spare time has written a novel (within the novel) called American Mermaid. The novel gets praised by a powerful online influencer and becomes an overnight viral sensation and bestseller. Penelope leaves her job, having been offered high pay to go out to L.A. to turn her novel into a screenplay for a major film studio.

The second story consists of “excerpts” woven throughout the book of Penelope’s novel, about a baby mermaid found stranded on shore by a uber-wealthy childless couple the Grangers who take her in as their own and name her Sylvia. They pay huge sums of cash to a doctor who splits Sylvia’s tail into two legs. But the legs do not work leaving Sylvia both wheel-chairbound and in constant terrible pain. At 24, Sylvia tries to kill herself by throwing herself overboard into the sea, only to see her tail come back together and her realization that her adoptive father is seriously up to no good around profiting from pending climate disaster as the world’s oceans heat up.

Upon arrival in Hollywood, Penelope’s assigned two fellow young “bros” who while experienced crafting novels into screenplays, want to turn Sylvia into from a strong warrior to a sexy teen and unintelligent siren for men. Penelope starts attending Hollywood parties with humorous observations of celebrity life, amid she fears as more and more things go wrong with the screenplay that Sylvia actually may be haunting her out of disgust with the movie’s direction.

There are so many LAUGH-OUT-LOUD moments, as well as deep insights into self-acceptance, what makes a strong woman, and a ridiculously BRILLIANT tie-in to the Starbucks logo.


Thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

American Mermaid by Julia Langbein is a unique debut that is hard to categorize. We meet English teacher Penny who has just published her first novel, "American Mermaid", and it's completely taken off. She sells the rights to a big Holiday Studio which takes her to LA and into a new life that looks very different from her past. While she is the co-writer on the screenplay things start to veer off course, and completely out of her control on and off the page.

This book is seriously unique - it's hard to categorize by genre and is ultimately full of surprises. It takes a couple of storylines and blends them which requires a very active reading experience. It wasn't totally successful for me, but conceptually I appreciate what the author was trying to achieve here. Overall, I don't think I am the reader for this book but it is certainly one that many will really enjoy.

Thank you to Netgalley and Doubleday Books for the ARC. American Mermaid is out 3/21/23!

3.5 ⭐️‘s
When Penelope pens a tail (pun intended 😉) about a wheelchair bound scientist, no one is more surprised when it becomes a bestseller. When the book is optioned for a movie and Penelope is asked to co-write the screenplay, Penelope is on the next plane. There wasn’t much to think about as Penelope is a broke high school teacher and the lure of easy money is quite appealing. Soon Penelope is caught up in Hollywood life, but finds that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. As pressures mount to change her story, unexplainable things start to happen. Has fiction crossed over to real life or is Penelope losing her mind? Penelope vows to protect her creation no matter what it takes. Langbein writes a tail (pun intended again 🤪) about truth, love, and acceptance, as two characters learn to move between worlds without giving up their voice. Thank you to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Thanks to Doubleday and NetGalley for a digital advance reader copy. All comments and opinions are my own.

This was a surprise for me. I don’t usually choose to read fantasy, and am cautious about debuts, but the description sounded too good to pass up, and the book turned out to be clever, entertaining, witty, and hard to put down. It’s a book within a book, and a screenplay also makes an appearance. The characters were likable (and the villain was appropriately evil).

I loved the way symbols and themes appeared and reappeared in the various platforms – the actual book written by Julia Langbein, the fictional novel written by main character Penny, the screenplay adapted by Hollywood scriptwriters. And there was even a mystery as to who was actually editing the screenplay.

I tried to describe the story to a friend but discovered it sounded convoluted and confusing and it’s so much better than I could explain. I think it’s best to just read and let the novel/book/screenplay take you where they want you to go – very much like floating on a current in the ocean. And with a story about mermaids, of course there are lots of references to oceans, riptides, and even the Starbucks logo. But there are also humorous observations about teenage girls, satiric portrayals of Hollywood, themes of feminist strength, and a subplot about saving the world from climate change.

This is a clever and unique novel that I thoroughly enjoyed, even if I wasn’t sure what actually happened at the conclusion – and that was after I went back and read the last few chapters a second time. It didn’t really matter because it was still a satisfying, “fabulously insightful tale of two female characters in search of truth, love, and self-acceptance as they move between worlds without giving up their voices.” I highly recommend.

I had high hopes for this book because I love the "book within a book" trope and mermaids! Unfortunately, it let me down.

I liked the story within the story better than the author trying to make it in Hollywood. The mermaid parts were far more exciting and I wish this book was solely that! The synopsis claimed there would be some parts where "the author believes her heroine has come to life" and uh, that's a lie?! There's like one mention of this. Also, supposedly this story is hilarious?! 🤔 I feel like I read a completely different book than the synopsis describes.

American Mermaid is a book you will love or hate, and I wish I could help you decide in which camp you will fall. I was intrigued by the premise of a book within a book, and I appreciated the underlying themes, but the humor skipped right past my funny bone. Many of the Hollywood characters, especially the writers, felt contrived. The author deployed every Hollywood trope available. I know this was to provide humor, but I mostly rolled my eyes rather than smiled. The spirit is sarcastic and satire based and just fell flat for me.

There is a broad range of opinions about this novel; some readers love it, and others fall into my camp. If the premise calls to you, read the first 100 pages and decide if it's worth finishing. Some books get better if you hang on, but this one is consistent enough that you'll know if it's working for you by then.

I received an electronic ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

***Thank you to Netgalley and Doubleday Books for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. ***

It's rare to see representation of people who are disabled in contemporary fiction. As a result, I was immediately attracted to Julia Langbein’s new book, American Mermaid. 

Langbein introduces us to a young English teacher, Penelope, who is on the cusp of Hollywood stardom. She is the author of American Mermaid, a book that exploded onto the scene after a prominent Instagram influencer promoted it. Just to clarify in case you are confused, the title of Langbein’s real book is the same as the title of the character’s fictional book. Still with me?  Good.  Once the attention began, Penelope's life changed. She sold her book to a movie studio and moved to Los Angeles to help pen the script with two of the studio’s writers, Murphy and Randy. While she was at a party one night, a riptide almost caused Penelope to drown.  From that moment on, Penelope begins wondering if her fictional world is bleeding into her real life when weird additions start showing up in the script. 

As Penelope's story is unfolding, the reader gets a glimpse into her book. Excerpts from American Mermaidintroduce us to the main character, Sylvia. Sylvia is a disabled woman who was adopted by rich parents, Dean and Eleanor Granger. Sylvia is in constant pain and has received treatment from her doctor, Masahiro, for her whole life. She is very close to him, so she falls into a deep depression when she finds out that he suddenly passed away. Overcome with grief and the pain from her legs, she decides to commit suicide by throwing herself into a bay. As soon as her legs hit the water, however, they transform into a mermaid tail. Free from pain, Sylvia feels her newfound power until she swims back to shore. Her tail transforms back into her non-operational legs, and people surround her and call an ambulance.

This is when the book became a bit ridiculous.  Sylvia obviously has questions about what has happened to her.  Who shows up to rescue her from the hospital other than Masahiro himself?  It turns out that he faked his death to save himself from Sylvia’s father.  Dean and Eleanor discovered Sylvia as a little mermaid baby and decided to pay Masahiro to cut off her tail in favor of legs.  Masahiro was blackmailed into obeying, but made the surgery reversible.  Sylvia’s legs will turn into a tail whenever they are submerged. 

Dean, Sylvia’s father, is the villain of the story.  Upon learning that mermaids exist, he decided that he wanted to bring on apocalyptic climate change effects by fracking on the ocean floor.  He plans to enslave the mermaids and make them drill.  When ocean levels rise and people die out, Dean and his company will be there to sell goods and services to the survivors.  It's now up to Masahiro and Sylvia to stop him.

If this story sounds a little weird, that’s because it is.  It’s quirky and definitely unique when compared to other books on the market.  Because it’s so different, I really, really wanted to like it.  But, I found Penelope insufferable and Sylvia’s story a bit boring.  There were SO many options for how Penelope’s story could have ended, but I felt like the one that was chosen was very unsatisfying.  Where was the magic?  Where was the whimsy?  Where was the connection between Penny and Sylvia?  I wish with all my heart that Penelope’s story would have ventured into magical realism.  Instead, the author seemed to be trying to make every aspect of the ending unpalatable.  I closed the book feeling disappointed in the characters and their decisions.  Most of all, I’m disappointed that I can’t give this book about mermaids that features both female empowerment and representation of the disabled community a five-star rating.

American Mermaid might be for you if you are looking for something truly different. Those of us who read a lot find that some books start to sound the same (I'm looking at you, thrillers). American Mermaid will get you out of that rut, and the cover art is truly beautiful. However, it will not be a contender for one of my top books of the year.

There is a lot going on in American Mermaid. The central story follows former English teacher Penelope Schleeman as she embarks on a Hollywood adventure adapting her best-seller, Amerian Mermaid, into a big-budget action film. Interspersed throughout are excerpts from said novel and also bits of the unfolding screenplay.

There is so much that many plotlines are left dangling and underdeveloped, including a mysterious relationship with a former colleague, a tense relationship with her father who seems to be the inspiration for her novel, but that idea is never borne out in any concrete way and an ending that is confusing at best.

It had some truly funny parts and I generally enjoyed the novel within the novel the most. For a debut novel, it's certainly better to have too many ideas than not enough, but here’s hoping for a better editor for the next one.

4 stars

A chaotic strange fun time. I wouldn't call it funny, but if you like books that go weirdly off the rails this one may be for you. It has a book inside of a book, and a film inside of a book really making a lot of story going on. I think this keeps you wanting to turn the pages to find out what's happening. Some of the ideas worked better for me than others. I liked a lot of the writer's collaborations and where they came apart. I didn't see the need for Steven or the teens, at all. If a slightly feminist critique of the film industry version of Bunny and Hell of a Book interests you, I would give this one a try.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest opinion.