“American Mermaid” by Julia Langbein ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Genre: Satirical Magical Realism. Location: (Penelope) Los Angeles, California, USA. (Sylvia) East Coast USA and across the North Pacific Ocean. Time: Near present.
NOTE: It’s a book about a book being made into a movie.

There are 2 stories here. The 1st is the story Penelope, 33, tells: She’s an introspective Connecticut high school teacher. She writes a book that begins with Sylvia (a 24-year-old woman in a wheelchair) falling into the Atlantic Ocean. Hollywood recruits her to adapt her feminist mermaid novel into a screenplay. Naturally, typical Hollywood types want her to change Sylvia from a strong, androgynous eco-warrior to a teen sex symbol. Penelope is a dreamer. Her voice is sadly ironic as she navigates Hollywood’s meaningless, temporary social contacts.

The 2nd story, interspersed throughout the book, is from Penelope’s novel. It’s the story of a hurting woman’s return to the sea. Fictional mermaid in a wheelchair Sylvia, convinced that she’s broken, is quietly sad, lonely, and longing to belong. But then-the 2 stories start to connect. When threats show up in the screenplay, and co-writers are siren-called into danger, Penelope is convinced fictional Sylvia has become real. Is she? It’s not that simple- it’s very twisty-turny.

Author Langbein has written a brilliant and savage Hollywood satire. She’s also written a magical realism vision of evolution and nature. It’s an amazing blend of the two. Her wordplay is sharply funny, oddly alluring, full of jokes and metaphors. Langbein’s book is elegantly literate. Favorite sentence: “…and his hard rs are the only thing curbing his formless vowels.” Her writing is also thought-provoking and soulful. My only complaint is that the book ended! It’s 5 stars from me. Thank you to NetGalley, Doubleday Books, and Julia Langbein for this early ecopy. Publishes 3/20/2023.

This was really unique and interesting! I loved the novel within a novel setup and found it incredibly intriguing and different.

I found the hollywood setting fun, if a bit overplayed in books, but I felt connected with the characters and invested in the storyline.

The cover totally felt different than the story within, not a critique, just an observation!

Penelope is a high school teacher. So as anyone can imagine, she is pretty broke. When her book American Mermaid sold, she was thrilled, and when she sold the film rights she was beyond. She quickly moved to LA to help write the script. When her writing partners try to kill off Sylvia the mermaid however, things start getting weird. This is a book in a book-we follow Penelope in LA and her book about Sylvia the American Mermaid.

So I gotta say, I enjoyed the excerpts from American Mermaid more than the rest of the book, but luckily it was about half and half of the book vs. the book in the book! Penelope’s book immediately captivated me. I adored Sylvia, and I just wanted her to find her peace. This was a unique story that I really enjoyed! It moved a little on the slower side, but that didn’t keep me from being totally entranced in the story!

"American Mermaid" took me completely by surprise. It is funny and incisive, a book that I look forward to sharing with other readers. The novel-within-a-novel format is delightful, and Langbein's commentary on the strange cultural norms of Hollywood are sharply honest. Her two screenwriters have helped me to understand some of what goes on when a book is adapted into a film: what is lost, what is gained, and how change is negotiated or driven by power.

I think I was more attracted to the book cover over the story. I just could not connect with this book and character.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

American Mermaid is quirky, interesting, and a very refreshing read. With that said, while I enjoyed it, there were parts that I found my attention drifting away from the story. I really enjoyed the premise of Penny, a former school teacher whose book suddenly becomes a success and gets optioned to become a movie. She moves to LA, gets an agent, and begins working with writers to adapt her book into a screenplay, where she encounters the ups and downs of the film industry.

Penny's dialogue, both with herself and those around her, was funny and entertaining. I felt like I was sitting in a room with her and listening to her discussions. I did really enjoy reading excerpts from the book she wrote, "American Mermaid" as well, and in a way, I wanted to know more about Sylvia and the doctor.

Overall, a good read. Some parts were better than others.
Thanks, Doubleday Books and NetGalley for the eARC!
3.5/5 stars

What a unique and original story! Penelope Schleeman thinks she has successfully launched into adulthood but can’t accept the constant financial struggles. She is stunned when her feminist novel, American Mermaid, hits the best seller list. So with big dreams of making big money she quits her teaching job and moves to LA to turn her novel into an action movie. This is where strange events begin to happen, threatening everything Penelope thought she knew, causing her to question whether the process of production will be worth it in the end. Thank you Netgalley, Doubleday Books, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase March 21, 2023

Julia Langbien’s new novel American Mermaid is funny and fresh! It’s a fast-paced, easy-to-read story that I read in one sitting! Penelope’s wit and determination make this one a winner! I absolutely loved it and would highly recommend!

This. book. is. SO. funny. I think we all need a book like this right now that you can just escape into and enjoy but not feel like your brain is rotting out. I initially picked this book up because the author, Julia Langbein, made me laugh out loud during a debut authors discussion panel. If you've ever attended an author discussion panel you know that this is no small feat.

DNF at 25%. I'm usually all about weird books but I had a hard time following this one. The story is told in various methods, there's a current timeline, then experts from the book the protagonist wrote, as well as emails and text exchanges between characters. It was a lot of back and forth and a lot of characters to keep track of.

Other reads may like this format but it didn't work for me. It didn't allow me a point to become invested in the characters.

This is a unique book, two stories in one. Penelope's story of her novel being turned into a film, and excerpts from Penelope's novel interspersed throughout. I found Penelope pretty funny and really enjoyed her voice as she stumbled through Hollywood. The excerpts were more serious, and the juxtaposition of how the writers wanted to change the novel for the film made this book quite entertaining. I would recommend this for anyone who likes an off kilter story, who has a dark sense of humor, who appreciates sarcasm and satire. This would be a fun beach read!

This debut novel is truly unique and fresh. American Mermaid is a story about an author getting her novel adapted to a screenplay. Penelope is a high school teacher who has just written her first novel, an unexpected best seller. When Hollywood becomes interested in making the screen adaptation, Penelope is lured to L.A. by the money and stability it will provide her. The author’s novel gets diluted as the decision makers in Hollywood change the film’s message from feminism and the environment to an action movie money maker. Will she compromise her novel for the paycheck or will she stay true to her voice like her mermaid character in the story?

Julia Langbein uses humor and intelligence to discuss deeper issues in American Mermaid. The story is told in alternating storylines of the plot of the book and the struggles surrounding the making of the film. The creativity in this story was outstanding while also providing thought provoking insight into current topics like environmentalism, feminism and the Hollywood industry.

Such a fresh and original book that I thoroughly loved reading. Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

I found out about this and received an advanced reader’s copy from NetGalley. This novel was about a teacher who writes a novel called American Mermaid that gets optioned to be a movie. The story goes back and forth between the text of her book and her struggles in adapting it to a screenplay. I thought it was strange and debated about abandoning it several times and didn’t find when I finished it that it was worth reading.

Penelope has written a hugely successful novel, American Mermaid, that gets optioned in Hollywood for movie production. When she heads to Hollywood to work on the screenplay she quickly finds that she has very little control over her work and her life. Alternating stories of Penelope's struggles and excerpts from her novel make up this highly original, unputdownable book.

When Penny's novel about a mermaid raised as a human blows up, she is allowed on the team adapting it for film. She casts aside her quotidian life as an English teacher and joins the Hollywood whirlwind of meetings and parties with beautiful people whose names she can't remember. However, when the professional script writers insist on turning her feminist ecowarrior into a teenage sexpot and killing her off, strange things start happening. The screenplay changes overnight and an increasingly violent series of accidents happen in Penny's vicinity. Is Sylvia the mermaid rescuing her own story? Weird, but fun. Intercut with excerpts from the novel, an altogether more straightforward fantasy.

I read the first few chapters before deciding that it's not for me. The writing is long-winded and I dont really care about anything that's happening.

The novel goes back and forth between what happens in Hollywood when a high school teacher's surprise hit novel about a mermaid is being adapted into film and sections of the novel itself.

I'm a bewildered by the description of this novel because while I was very intrigued by the story, I didn't find it to be as humorous as some of the blurbs lead me to think it would be.. I guess the parts where these two male "script doctors" are changing the story of a mermaid adopted and raised as a woman, into a whole different story including super powers were definitely funny.

There were a lot of twists and turns which means this book will be popular with a lot of readers when it comes out. I'm glad I read it. At times I have trouble grasping the satire in a novel and I think this might be one of those times.

Wholly original and interesting. What on the surface is a simple story about artistic integrity vs the vapid and shallow finds it’s depth in its unique premise and thoughtful, intentional prose. The meta story within is just as intriguing as the story itself, which is rare in my experience and displays Langbein’s ability to genre shift seamlessly. I also enjoyed the asexual representation

I wanted to like this book. The writing is great but the storyline and characters just weren’t for me. I enjoyed the dumpster fire that was script writing, but the contrast between the excepts from the book (within a book) was jarring and the story felt bizarre.

American Mermaid defies genre, capturing a weird mix of sci-fi, feminist lit, and action thriller.
Penelope Shleeman was a high school teacher, tired of “doing lawyer hours and making babysitter money”. She’s as shocked as anyone when her novel is a hit and even more shocked when Hollywood wants to make it into a movie. She moves to LA where she’s teamed up with two professional screenwriters to adapt the novel into a screenplay. But their ideas swing wildly away from the original plot. They want the heroine, an asexual scientist in the book, to become a teenage sex goddess.
Stories that rely on a “book within a book” demand that both stories are equally engrossing. Both stories started off well. I loved what Langbein had to say about being a teacher and Penny’s thoughts on helping to develop unformed minds. And her initial experiences in Hollywood as a fish out of water (pun intended) also worked. But as the story goes on, it seemed that the Hollywood movie machine was the butt of every joke which grew tiresome. Langbein is making the point about sexism and the dumbing down of storylines in Hollywood. But it was like she thought she was pulling back the curtain on some fresh idea, not a given.
American Mermaid, the name of Penny’s book, quickly evolves into a story of a cliched evil genius trying to ruin the world for his own gain. Like the action movies this book makes fun of, the basic plot behind American Mermaid was too wild and unbelievable to work for me. But I did like the character of Sylvia. Penelope has returned to the original idea of mermaids, of them as sirens. Instead of mermaids that want to come ashore for love, they are dangerous creatures that entice men to their deaths. And given their lack of genitalia, they are a symbol of asexuality. As much as the majority of this story didn’t work for me, I appreciated her ending and the importance of maternal rather than amorous love.
This book had a good premise but it needed more finesse to work for me. I wanted more fresh thoughts.
My thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday Books for an advance copy of this book.