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The Shape of Water
"Spollen interweaves elemental, evocative images of what is formless and boundless―water, air, grief, death―with what is solid and limited-earth, objects, human love and forgiveness. This enchanting novel starts quietly, draws the reader in and weaves a seductive spell that holds until the last page."
-- Kirkus (starred review) "I had come to know silence well during those months after my mother died. When you sit in silence long enough, you learn that silence has a motion. It glides over you without shape or form, but with weight, exactly like water." Magda's mother always said the world was full of strange and beautiful secrets only the two of them could see. But now she's gone and Magda's world is flooded with anxiety and loneliness―and maybe, madness. As an imaginary family of bickering fish begins to torment her, Magda's only outlet is starting beautiful but destructive fires in the marshes near her house.
The Shape of Water is a darkly lyrical and surprising tapestry of the mundane and the surreal, in which Magda begins to untangle her family's secrets and search for a stable place in the world.
-- Kirkus (starred review) "I had come to know silence well during those months after my mother died. When you sit in silence long enough, you learn that silence has a motion. It glides over you without shape or form, but with weight, exactly like water." Magda's mother always said the world was full of strange and beautiful secrets only the two of them could see. But now she's gone and Magda's world is flooded with anxiety and loneliness―and maybe, madness. As an imaginary family of bickering fish begins to torment her, Magda's only outlet is starting beautiful but destructive fires in the marshes near her house.
The Shape of Water is a darkly lyrical and surprising tapestry of the mundane and the surreal, in which Magda begins to untangle her family's secrets and search for a stable place in the world.
305 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2008
21 people are currently reading
1238 people want to read
About the author
Anne Spollen
3 books51 followersI was born in Staten Island, New York and grew up by the Atlantic Ocean. In the first grade, I turned over a book and saw that a human had created it. I asked my teacher how people got to write books. She said, "They read all the time." I took this very, very seriously.
I went away to New Paltz College and after graduating, I got a teaching job there and stayed. Teaching adverbial clauses and meeting with state auditors to discuss literacy scores was soul crushing so when my first son was born, I stayed home and returned to writing poetry while he napped. I eventually wrote faster (he napped less and soon had a new brother) and began writing short stories. Even better, editors began buying them. Eventually, my first novel, The Shape of Water, was published.
Right after that, I moved from New Paltz, back to a town near the Atlantic Ocean, but south of Staten Island. In February, 2010, my second novel, "Light Beneath Ferns," will be released. They are both young adult.
I finished a third that is still in the nether world, and I am working on a fourth. In the meantime, I teach English and Spanish part time and stalk my two teenage boys while raising their younger sister.
I went away to New Paltz College and after graduating, I got a teaching job there and stayed. Teaching adverbial clauses and meeting with state auditors to discuss literacy scores was soul crushing so when my first son was born, I stayed home and returned to writing poetry while he napped. I eventually wrote faster (he napped less and soon had a new brother) and began writing short stories. Even better, editors began buying them. Eventually, my first novel, The Shape of Water, was published.
Right after that, I moved from New Paltz, back to a town near the Atlantic Ocean, but south of Staten Island. In February, 2010, my second novel, "Light Beneath Ferns," will be released. They are both young adult.
I finished a third that is still in the nether world, and I am working on a fourth. In the meantime, I teach English and Spanish part time and stalk my two teenage boys while raising their younger sister.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
March 16, 2009
I picked this up pretty much at random because I thought Ken Wong's cover was lovely. It turned out to be about a teenage girl having trouble dealing with the death of her mother, which is not my usual interest, but it was extremely well-written. It was not merely about coping with loss, which is rather over-used theme in YA lit, but also a consideration of the difficulties of being a deep-thinking, introverted person when those around you are not. Magda's father and aunt love her, but she lives her life interiorly and they are focused on work, friends, activities. Magda's family doesn't even notice her emotional problems, lack of friends, religious doubts, and increasing disassociation from reality. They think because she stays out of trouble and gets good grades everything is fine, but in reality she talks to imaginary fish and sets fires in the woods. The story is narrated almost completely inside Magda's thoughts.
February 20, 2009
Some of the most amazing imagery I've ever run across in anything; it had me hooked from the first paragraph. Ms. Spollen takes concepts I was only vaguely aware of before(different qualities of silence, the subtleties of water and atmosphere) and has painted them so vividly that, after reading the book, I found myself looking at things in entirely new ways. It felt like growing up speaking a language with words for only "light" and "dark", and then having someone introduce the colors to me. The actual plot is a fairly simple one, and it feels almost incidental; the real story is the heroine (Magda, Maggie, Lena, Magdalena; depends on who's talking to her) learning how to deal with her far-from-normal (??) mind, and how to live in a normal world in spite of herself.
May 28, 2013
I really love this cover.
I just wish the book lived up to it. I'm only a couple of chapters in, but I'm seriously considering abandoning this book because there's so much about it that I just cannot stand. I'm going to rant about it in list format.
1. Okay, I guess I should have seen this coming, what with the title and all, but this book is WAY TOO heavy on the allusions to water. I get it, water is a big deal. That doesn't mean every sound or image has to be compared to water in some overblown metaphor/simile (usually simile).
2. She's an ARSONIST? Seriously? I'm supposed to sympathize with this protagonist? I hate her.
3. I guess it's an attempt to make the arsonist-protagonist likeable, but the excessive similes grate on my nerves.
4. The plot. I mean, I guess it's original to make the protagonist an ARSONIST; but there are already way too many YA books about moody teens whose mother/father/caretaker-person is (recently) dead, with the protagonist trying to deal with it but ending up acting out and learning a lesson about life (probably via some romantic relationship after she gets isolated from her friends/home). Just...no. I'm already pretty certain where this is heading, and my only reason to continue reading would be to try to prove my (pessimistic) predictions wrong. I don't know if I can stomach this much...water, though.
In conclusion:
Not my cup of tea. Maybe I'll give it another shot. After I've taken a break. A long break.
I just wish the book lived up to it. I'm only a couple of chapters in, but I'm seriously considering abandoning this book because there's so much about it that I just cannot stand. I'm going to rant about it in list format.
1. Okay, I guess I should have seen this coming, what with the title and all, but this book is WAY TOO heavy on the allusions to water. I get it, water is a big deal. That doesn't mean every sound or image has to be compared to water in some overblown metaphor/simile (usually simile).
2. She's an ARSONIST? Seriously? I'm supposed to sympathize with this protagonist? I hate her.
3. I guess it's an attempt to make the arsonist-protagonist likeable, but the excessive similes grate on my nerves.
4. The plot. I mean, I guess it's original to make the protagonist an ARSONIST; but there are already way too many YA books about moody teens whose mother/father/caretaker-person is (recently) dead, with the protagonist trying to deal with it but ending up acting out and learning a lesson about life (probably via some romantic relationship after she gets isolated from her friends/home). Just...no. I'm already pretty certain where this is heading, and my only reason to continue reading would be to try to prove my (pessimistic) predictions wrong. I don't know if I can stomach this much...water, though.
In conclusion:
Not my cup of tea. Maybe I'll give it another shot. After I've taken a break. A long break.
June 24, 2009
I haven't encountered writing as talented as this in a long time. Anne Spollen writes in the language of the soul. The way she describes things.. It's hard for me to imagine someone writing this who did not go through what this poor girl went through. How can Spollen not be a teenage girl who's mother recently died? She writes about grief and bordering insanity so well that I felt like I myself was going through it. Spollen has an immense gift. Some might say she's too wordy, too descriptive. But honestly, every word or phrase is full of so much meaning, it takes your breath away. It was like reading one long poem. It can be slow in the beginning, but soon you'll feel like you've entered a trance.. Like you're underwater.
July 30, 2012
This review is also featured on Tasty Books!
Actual rating: 2.5
15-year-old Magda's mother has recently died. Now Magda must cope with the loss, while also trying to solve family secrets and find her own place in the world––all the while dealing with several surreal elements that have leaked into her mind.
I'll be honest … I picked up this book because the cover is freaking gorgeous. There's no denying that. Seriously, the back of the book could have said "POOP POOP POOP" and I still would have read the book anyway. Because, man … THAT COVER. Such gorgeous artwork. And a cool, ironic title as well. Sounds good!
Well, the inside of the book was a bit disappointing for me. It wasn't bad, but I felt like I'd seen the same thing done before, but done better than this.
Some areas for discussion:
The writing:
When I first started this book, I was in love with the writing style. I found it unusual and poetic, with a lot of great imagery. That didn't necessarily change, but after a while it started to kind of lose its glamour. Sure, the writing was very good, but it just didn't strike me as particularly realistic. Although it was pretty, it didn't flow naturally; it started to feel a bit forced, and it made it harder to connect with Magda when she didn't narrate like a normal person or have much of a distinct voice.
In addition, Anne Spollen went a bit overboard with the metaphors and similes. Obviously, water and fish and other aquatic things are a big theme in the book, but there were so many references to water that it started to feel like this:
After a while, it was just like, OKAY I GET IT. You can stop that now.
Speaking of Magda…
As I said, I didn't feel very connected to her. It was partly the writing style and partly that I found her to be an unlikable person.
*Minor Spoiler* My main problem with Magda was that she was an arsonist. She enjoyed going off into the forest near her home and starting fires, apparently not giving a crap for the lives of the people living in her neighborhood.
Sorry, but grief isn't an excuse to endanger other people's lives. I understand she was sad, but that doesn't make it okay for her to do such a horrible thing. Not only that, but she allowed another girl to be wrongly accused and driven out of town, and didn't do a thing about it. Ummm. Not cool, girl.
The pretentiousness:
I feel like a snob when I call something pretentious, because I feel like it's a harsh word. But, that's the term that comes to mind. Over all, I felt that this book was just trying way, way too hard. As I mentioned before, the writing was a little too heavy on symbolism, but it was more than that.
There was a lot going on in the book that felt really unnecessary. Magda encountered a lot of people/situations that served pretty much no purpose in the story, and instead it just felt like filler. For example, she had a conversation with a lady whose job was putting make-up on dead people, and talked to a guy who made women out of driftwood, and she had a random lesbian encounter with one of her friends. … I mean, these things could have been necessary, but they all went by so quickly and were hardly ever mentioned again after they happened. Ultimately, they just felt like artsy/quirky things that the author just wanted to add in for no particular reason.
Then, there was the surrealistic aspect of the story. Where to begin.
Look, I'm a big fan of surrealism if it's done effectively, and I've seen it done very well in several YA books. But surrealism is hard to pull off, and if it's not executed properly then it just ventures into "WTF" territory––and I felt like that's what happened with this book.
Anyway, the surreal parts mostly involved Magda imagining a family of fish talking in her head, dressing up in weird costumes and arguing with each other. I understood it was supposed to be like, memories of her parents arguing that she had kind of suppressed or something. But why fish? As much as I tried to get into it, I just couldn't help but feel it was a little too ridiculous.
And then there was this thing where, whenever she was upset, Magda imagined herself turning into a giraffe. Uhhh … ?
I don't know, I can't even try to understand what that was supposed to symbolize.
So! In conclusion, this book was just okay for me. The writing was generally good, although I started to lose interest in it towards the end. It was original at least, but the surrealism and quirkiness felt rather forced.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, I've read similar books that just pulled off the themes much better. If you want to read a YA book involving surrealism and grief, then read A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. Or if you just want a surrealist YA book in general, check out The Book Thief by Markus Zusak or Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma.
Actual rating: 2.5
15-year-old Magda's mother has recently died. Now Magda must cope with the loss, while also trying to solve family secrets and find her own place in the world––all the while dealing with several surreal elements that have leaked into her mind.
I'll be honest … I picked up this book because the cover is freaking gorgeous. There's no denying that. Seriously, the back of the book could have said "POOP POOP POOP" and I still would have read the book anyway. Because, man … THAT COVER. Such gorgeous artwork. And a cool, ironic title as well. Sounds good!
Well, the inside of the book was a bit disappointing for me. It wasn't bad, but I felt like I'd seen the same thing done before, but done better than this.
Some areas for discussion:
The writing:
When I first started this book, I was in love with the writing style. I found it unusual and poetic, with a lot of great imagery. That didn't necessarily change, but after a while it started to kind of lose its glamour. Sure, the writing was very good, but it just didn't strike me as particularly realistic. Although it was pretty, it didn't flow naturally; it started to feel a bit forced, and it made it harder to connect with Magda when she didn't narrate like a normal person or have much of a distinct voice.
In addition, Anne Spollen went a bit overboard with the metaphors and similes. Obviously, water and fish and other aquatic things are a big theme in the book, but there were so many references to water that it started to feel like this:
After a while, it was just like, OKAY I GET IT. You can stop that now.
Speaking of Magda…
As I said, I didn't feel very connected to her. It was partly the writing style and partly that I found her to be an unlikable person.
*Minor Spoiler* My main problem with Magda was that she was an arsonist. She enjoyed going off into the forest near her home and starting fires, apparently not giving a crap for the lives of the people living in her neighborhood.
Sorry, but grief isn't an excuse to endanger other people's lives. I understand she was sad, but that doesn't make it okay for her to do such a horrible thing. Not only that, but she allowed another girl to be wrongly accused and driven out of town, and didn't do a thing about it. Ummm. Not cool, girl.
The pretentiousness:
I feel like a snob when I call something pretentious, because I feel like it's a harsh word. But, that's the term that comes to mind. Over all, I felt that this book was just trying way, way too hard. As I mentioned before, the writing was a little too heavy on symbolism, but it was more than that.
There was a lot going on in the book that felt really unnecessary. Magda encountered a lot of people/situations that served pretty much no purpose in the story, and instead it just felt like filler. For example, she had a conversation with a lady whose job was putting make-up on dead people, and talked to a guy who made women out of driftwood, and she had a random lesbian encounter with one of her friends. … I mean, these things could have been necessary, but they all went by so quickly and were hardly ever mentioned again after they happened. Ultimately, they just felt like artsy/quirky things that the author just wanted to add in for no particular reason.
Then, there was the surrealistic aspect of the story. Where to begin.
Look, I'm a big fan of surrealism if it's done effectively, and I've seen it done very well in several YA books. But surrealism is hard to pull off, and if it's not executed properly then it just ventures into "WTF" territory––and I felt like that's what happened with this book.
Anyway, the surreal parts mostly involved Magda imagining a family of fish talking in her head, dressing up in weird costumes and arguing with each other. I understood it was supposed to be like, memories of her parents arguing that she had kind of suppressed or something. But why fish? As much as I tried to get into it, I just couldn't help but feel it was a little too ridiculous.
And then there was this thing where, whenever she was upset, Magda imagined herself turning into a giraffe. Uhhh … ?
I don't know, I can't even try to understand what that was supposed to symbolize.
So! In conclusion, this book was just okay for me. The writing was generally good, although I started to lose interest in it towards the end. It was original at least, but the surrealism and quirkiness felt rather forced.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, I've read similar books that just pulled off the themes much better. If you want to read a YA book involving surrealism and grief, then read A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. Or if you just want a surrealist YA book in general, check out The Book Thief by Markus Zusak or Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma.
January 20, 2010
The Shape of Water is rich with elemental metaphors that connect the underlying themes of loss, grief and recovery.
Magda is cast adrift after her mother’s death, floating dreamily in a neglected beachy community in the outreaches of Staten Island, NY she thinks of as the Drift. The Drift is the wild place she and her mother existed, with little to connect her to The Standard, the controlled “safe” area of her community, a place she feels she can never gain acceptance to. The book is filled with metaphors of water that underscore Magda’s sense of alienation. In her numb state, she imagines a campy family of talking fish that gradually reveal the truth behind her parent’s marriage. Eventually, Magda believes that she has discovered the “shape” of the water that holds her and that she can finally swim out. The shape of water is a metaphor for the shape of Magda’s grief. While submerged, it seems boundless, but as she continues to paddle for shore, she can discern its shape, and her release from it. This is a hopeful book, a story of one girl’s journey toward self awareness, healing and self-acceptance.
Magda is cast adrift after her mother’s death, floating dreamily in a neglected beachy community in the outreaches of Staten Island, NY she thinks of as the Drift. The Drift is the wild place she and her mother existed, with little to connect her to The Standard, the controlled “safe” area of her community, a place she feels she can never gain acceptance to. The book is filled with metaphors of water that underscore Magda’s sense of alienation. In her numb state, she imagines a campy family of talking fish that gradually reveal the truth behind her parent’s marriage. Eventually, Magda believes that she has discovered the “shape” of the water that holds her and that she can finally swim out. The shape of water is a metaphor for the shape of Magda’s grief. While submerged, it seems boundless, but as she continues to paddle for shore, she can discern its shape, and her release from it. This is a hopeful book, a story of one girl’s journey toward self awareness, healing and self-acceptance.
January 12, 2015
The book The Shape of Water is about a girl named Magdelena who after her free-spirited mother’s untimely death, is plagued by the most severe forms of grief, self-lost, and mental disorientation in the forms of depression, social anxiety, setting fires to create joy, an unhealthy obsession with the ocean, and, after reading the book and coming up with my own diagnosis, an acute form of dementia in the form of seeing things that aren’t really there and communication with the family of fish that live inside her head, giving her advice in the most complex ways and portraying the bad memories of her truly broken family. They are memories that she has subconsciously repressed for years. Magdelena’s mother meant everything to her and was ultimately her role model in so many ways- her carefree attitude, spiritual insight and philosophy, and attention to the little, seemingly unimportant things- fascinating Magdelena and shaping her into the teenager that she is during the time that the book is written. Although the gracefulness and beauty of her mother made Magdelena favor her and admire her over her orderly father, it is later revealed to Magdelena that many people thought of her mom as a restless, irresponsible, and overall difficult human being to get along with, let alone marry in her father’s case. It is because of Magdelena’s subconscious that all of the fights that occurred between her parents, are never remembered until they are brought into light in the most unusual way- a talking family of fish that reside inside Magdelena’s mind.
The book begins describing the slow progression of Magdelena getting over her grief until she is finally able to leave the house, only to start fires in the woods. These fires, create a sort of haze in her that numbs the pain of losing her mother- a cancer stricken free spirit who dies after falling off of a pier and drowning due to a drug induced stupor. Never being close to her father Magdelena loses the one person that understands her. Not long after she comes out of the worst of her grief, her best friend is forced to change school and leave Magdelena behind with nothing but her own thoughts. It is during this part of the book that the fish are first truly introduced. Mrs., Mr., and soon Baby fish begin to communicate with Magdelena. Never really learning social etiquette or how to communicate with others, Magdelena’s biggest handicap would have to be her social anxiety, forcing her to see herself and the people around her as animals. To top that off, social conversation is troublesome because of the constant fighting that is going on between the fish family. It is not long before the connection between the fish’s fights and the fights that Magdelena’s parents use to have are connected as a way for her to process past memories that she had subconsciously repressed as a child. When Magdelena’s father meets another woman, this begins Magdelena’s healing process. Her healing doesn’t begin because of having a new, orderly and normal mother, but because she finally comes to the realization that no matter how put together people may seem, everyone in the world is really just trying to get by and be happy. Adopting this viewpoint into her own life, her social anxiety begins to dwindle, the fish become less frequent until the point when they finally disappear, and her grief and self-pity induced depression finally clears. Magdelena becomes the person that her mother always meant for her to be- confident, free-spirited, in-sighted, and understanding of the people and world around her.
This novel shows the growth that a human being can have, especially after great moments of sadness or difficult childhoods. For a person like Magdelena, someone who is sheltered a lot to the social standards of society, there is nothing harder to be suddenly abandoned by the one person they trust the most and thrown into a social pool that they have no understanding of. This is how Magdelena lives her life. Her mother is very opinionated about the way a person’s life should live and that there are two types of people: the people who watch, observe, and pay attention to the little and, arguably, most important things in life and then there are the people who are content with living a life of structure, soundness, and ordinariness. At the beginning of the book, we really see Magdelena struggling with the acceptance of getting into the accepted group of sociality- the group of structure and acceptance. As the book progresses and she comes in contact with her new step-mother, Magdelena finds herself and settles in a place that is somewhere in-between; she is content with having this structure in her life, while she never loses that view of life that her mother instilled on her as a child. She has been accepted into both worlds and finds the power to dismiss the talking fish from her life, diminish her social anxiety and depression, and finds joys in the similar things in life that aren’t as destructive as lighting fires.
I rated this book five out of five stars because it has a very good story line and goes into depths about the inner battle that goes on inside us that determines what kind of human being we grow up to be. I think the book was beautifully written and would be perfect for a young adult entering highschool and adults alike. The book does contain some moments of sexuality and goes into depths about divorce and similar topics, so it would be best if it was read by a mature audience. I believe that girls would get more out of the book than boys because it covers topics that, in my opinion, that wouldn’t interest a boy as much. It is definitely one of my favorite books for the year and I would recommend it to friends and family.
The book begins describing the slow progression of Magdelena getting over her grief until she is finally able to leave the house, only to start fires in the woods. These fires, create a sort of haze in her that numbs the pain of losing her mother- a cancer stricken free spirit who dies after falling off of a pier and drowning due to a drug induced stupor. Never being close to her father Magdelena loses the one person that understands her. Not long after she comes out of the worst of her grief, her best friend is forced to change school and leave Magdelena behind with nothing but her own thoughts. It is during this part of the book that the fish are first truly introduced. Mrs., Mr., and soon Baby fish begin to communicate with Magdelena. Never really learning social etiquette or how to communicate with others, Magdelena’s biggest handicap would have to be her social anxiety, forcing her to see herself and the people around her as animals. To top that off, social conversation is troublesome because of the constant fighting that is going on between the fish family. It is not long before the connection between the fish’s fights and the fights that Magdelena’s parents use to have are connected as a way for her to process past memories that she had subconsciously repressed as a child. When Magdelena’s father meets another woman, this begins Magdelena’s healing process. Her healing doesn’t begin because of having a new, orderly and normal mother, but because she finally comes to the realization that no matter how put together people may seem, everyone in the world is really just trying to get by and be happy. Adopting this viewpoint into her own life, her social anxiety begins to dwindle, the fish become less frequent until the point when they finally disappear, and her grief and self-pity induced depression finally clears. Magdelena becomes the person that her mother always meant for her to be- confident, free-spirited, in-sighted, and understanding of the people and world around her.
This novel shows the growth that a human being can have, especially after great moments of sadness or difficult childhoods. For a person like Magdelena, someone who is sheltered a lot to the social standards of society, there is nothing harder to be suddenly abandoned by the one person they trust the most and thrown into a social pool that they have no understanding of. This is how Magdelena lives her life. Her mother is very opinionated about the way a person’s life should live and that there are two types of people: the people who watch, observe, and pay attention to the little and, arguably, most important things in life and then there are the people who are content with living a life of structure, soundness, and ordinariness. At the beginning of the book, we really see Magdelena struggling with the acceptance of getting into the accepted group of sociality- the group of structure and acceptance. As the book progresses and she comes in contact with her new step-mother, Magdelena finds herself and settles in a place that is somewhere in-between; she is content with having this structure in her life, while she never loses that view of life that her mother instilled on her as a child. She has been accepted into both worlds and finds the power to dismiss the talking fish from her life, diminish her social anxiety and depression, and finds joys in the similar things in life that aren’t as destructive as lighting fires.
I rated this book five out of five stars because it has a very good story line and goes into depths about the inner battle that goes on inside us that determines what kind of human being we grow up to be. I think the book was beautifully written and would be perfect for a young adult entering highschool and adults alike. The book does contain some moments of sexuality and goes into depths about divorce and similar topics, so it would be best if it was read by a mature audience. I believe that girls would get more out of the book than boys because it covers topics that, in my opinion, that wouldn’t interest a boy as much. It is definitely one of my favorite books for the year and I would recommend it to friends and family.
September 11, 2009
Reviewed by Randstostipher "tallnlankyrn" Nguyen for TeensReadToo.com
Magda's life is slowly bursting into flames, as it changes for the worst. The ones most important to her are departing from her life.
First it's her mother who passes away. Then it's her best friend, Julia, who moves away, and then her father is slowly becoming disconnected as he tries to move on. For Magda it is just too soon, but her father has quickly found someone else to fill her mother's shoes.
The only thing Magda finds solace in is by setting fires in the woods right next to her home. This action is the introduction for the reader to decide whether Magda has become unstable. We must further question her sanity as the appearances of two fish, who converse in Magda's head, are made throughout the story.
Can Magda overcome all of these tragedies, find her identity, and discover the secrets she's been looking for? Or will it all just push her over the edge?
Right off the bat, THE SHAPE OF WATER looks like your typical novel where the main character is hit with numerous tragedies and must face her emotions and the future. However, Anne Spollen weaves an intricate and poetic novel that flows right from the very first word to the very last. Magda is a character full of many levels, and as the story progresses the reader is able to understand her actions and her thoughts.
What seems crazy at first becomes enticingly beautiful in the end. THE SHAPE OF WATER is a novel full of thought and sorrow that will take the reader on a journey that will leave a lasting impression.
Magda's life is slowly bursting into flames, as it changes for the worst. The ones most important to her are departing from her life.
First it's her mother who passes away. Then it's her best friend, Julia, who moves away, and then her father is slowly becoming disconnected as he tries to move on. For Magda it is just too soon, but her father has quickly found someone else to fill her mother's shoes.
The only thing Magda finds solace in is by setting fires in the woods right next to her home. This action is the introduction for the reader to decide whether Magda has become unstable. We must further question her sanity as the appearances of two fish, who converse in Magda's head, are made throughout the story.
Can Magda overcome all of these tragedies, find her identity, and discover the secrets she's been looking for? Or will it all just push her over the edge?
Right off the bat, THE SHAPE OF WATER looks like your typical novel where the main character is hit with numerous tragedies and must face her emotions and the future. However, Anne Spollen weaves an intricate and poetic novel that flows right from the very first word to the very last. Magda is a character full of many levels, and as the story progresses the reader is able to understand her actions and her thoughts.
What seems crazy at first becomes enticingly beautiful in the end. THE SHAPE OF WATER is a novel full of thought and sorrow that will take the reader on a journey that will leave a lasting impression.
July 15, 2008
I found this book to be my favorite YA book so far in 2008, and probably one of my fav YA books ever. The prose was lyrical,and as I read it, I felt completely swept into Magda's world. It's not a typical YA in that it focuses on her one world, without romance, and it speaks more of her internal life than her external life, at least in the beginning.
I do understand why some people might not like this book right away. It does seem weird, but it's weird in like a creative way. When I first started it, I looked around the Internet to see if it was reviewed, and I saw it got a starred review in the Kirkus Review. I usually agree with them, so I stuck to Magda's story, and I am really, really glad I did.
It's the kind of book where you think about the character after you are done reading. That was the same for me with Catcher in the Rye. I think this book was as good.
I do understand why some people might not like this book right away. It does seem weird, but it's weird in like a creative way. When I first started it, I looked around the Internet to see if it was reviewed, and I saw it got a starred review in the Kirkus Review. I usually agree with them, so I stuck to Magda's story, and I am really, really glad I did.
It's the kind of book where you think about the character after you are done reading. That was the same for me with Catcher in the Rye. I think this book was as good.
June 4, 2009
I loved the author's characterizations. All of the people in the story are very real and relate-able, esp. the main character. ( I can't remember her name.) A surprisingly good YA book.
August 20, 2009
Read this not realizing it was a teen fiction, needless to say it was very good, painfully bright.
November 13, 2009
Beautiful writing, if a bit slower in pacing than many teens will be used to. But I love how she strings words together.
January 26, 2019
Reading this feels like slowly descending into madness. It's just really fucking strange and I really like it.
January 6, 2015
This book was an interesting find for me. I was wandering the library, and I don't know what compelled me to pull this random black spine from the shelf, but when I did the cover just captivated me. Seriously, take a good look at that cover. It's freaking gorgeous (although, I have to admit what made me take this lovely home was the fact that the protagonist's name is Magda . . .).
Okay, so firstly, there's no mistaking that this book deals with water themes. Every other sentence has some simile or metaphor relating to water. Which is beautiful for a while, and then starts to get tedious. But don't get me wrong, Spollen's writing is lyrical, gorgeous, and can create some fantastical images. I don't think I've read anything that has so many beautiful lines. Just . . . the water thing can get a little overused.
This book, though, was beautiful. It got me sympathizing with an arsonist, of all people (with such great symbolism, too). The book bordered on surrealistic at times, too--with the fish family moving into Magda's head--, but never fully went over-the-top. Three-fourths of the way through, though, things started to drag, what with Magda's character seemingly not developing and her trudging through the same ruts where she didn't care about anybody or anything that I almost didn't want to continue reading. I'm really glad I did. The ending really wrapped things up in a wonderful, almost sad way. It was in the last few pages, and I wished it had started earlier on in the book, but there was closure with her decision to move forward with her life, and I was satisfied.
It's really like nothing that I've personally read before, so it was really refreshing, to be honest, although I'm not sure that I'd read it again . . .
Okay, so firstly, there's no mistaking that this book deals with water themes. Every other sentence has some simile or metaphor relating to water. Which is beautiful for a while, and then starts to get tedious. But don't get me wrong, Spollen's writing is lyrical, gorgeous, and can create some fantastical images. I don't think I've read anything that has so many beautiful lines. Just . . . the water thing can get a little overused.
This book, though, was beautiful. It got me sympathizing with an arsonist, of all people (with such great symbolism, too). The book bordered on surrealistic at times, too--with the fish family moving into Magda's head--, but never fully went over-the-top. Three-fourths of the way through, though, things started to drag, what with Magda's character seemingly not developing and her trudging through the same ruts where she didn't care about anybody or anything that I almost didn't want to continue reading. I'm really glad I did. The ending really wrapped things up in a wonderful, almost sad way. It was in the last few pages, and I wished it had started earlier on in the book, but there was closure with her decision to move forward with her life, and I was satisfied.
It's really like nothing that I've personally read before, so it was really refreshing, to be honest, although I'm not sure that I'd read it again . . .
March 18, 2019
TLDR: Quickly became a favorite. A must read if you love water, the ocean, if you feel drawn to it. A must read for anyone feeling lost or adrift.
I loved this book. I grabbed this book at Goodwill because I thought it was the book the Guillermo Del Toro film was about but it is definitely NOT. I’ve never seen the movie but one of my coworkers was talking about it and how it weirded her out so naturally it jumped to the top of my TBR list. However this book is about a teenage girl named Magdalena (Magda, Maggie or Lena for short), who is totally on the verge of losing it. She’s adrift in life after losing her mother and starts imagining fish are in her head and talking to her, and people start turning into animals when she gets uncomfortable. She lives by the ocean and water is a big part of the book. I read most of it during a period of rainy days in February, I swear I could hear the ocean while reading it but I know it was just the sound of the wind blowing the rain about. The book is about her slow journey realizing that she’s going to be okay, that one day everything will be good and normal, and that was something I needed to hear recently. I also learned some cool new words from this book, like susurrus & gimcrack.
I loved this book. I grabbed this book at Goodwill because I thought it was the book the Guillermo Del Toro film was about but it is definitely NOT. I’ve never seen the movie but one of my coworkers was talking about it and how it weirded her out so naturally it jumped to the top of my TBR list. However this book is about a teenage girl named Magdalena (Magda, Maggie or Lena for short), who is totally on the verge of losing it. She’s adrift in life after losing her mother and starts imagining fish are in her head and talking to her, and people start turning into animals when she gets uncomfortable. She lives by the ocean and water is a big part of the book. I read most of it during a period of rainy days in February, I swear I could hear the ocean while reading it but I know it was just the sound of the wind blowing the rain about. The book is about her slow journey realizing that she’s going to be okay, that one day everything will be good and normal, and that was something I needed to hear recently. I also learned some cool new words from this book, like susurrus & gimcrack.
June 14, 2011
I liked this book. Well, what I really liked was the writing, those long passages describing how Maggie saw and experienced the world. Then I started feeling . . . confused. The book veered from introspective and fanciful to straight up soap opera fodder. Aside from a couple of tragic parental deaths, which can be overlooked given the nature of the story, there was the aunt's secret son (who apparently had no issues about his mother abandoning him as a baby, even though her [flimsy] reasons for doing so sounded exactly like what I experience every day with my infant son, and probably what lots of other mothers experience too), Maggie's closeted lesbian friend who tries to hit on her, and the to-be stepbrother's attempted suicide. Some people might enjoy such drama, but for me it was a bit much.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 22, 2015
I have never read a book that so beautifully explores and exemplifies what it is to inhabit a place of disconnect and unattachment and otherness. I've often been in that place where I feel like I don't understand some basic part of interaction that everyone just innately kbows that Magda lives in for almost the entire book, and I deeply appreciated the exploration of that place. The Shape of Water also approaches grief and recovery and mental illness very respectfully without romanticizing or belittling it in any way. The characters are all allowed to be their own people and fully fleshed out as Magda comes to know and understand them all better. On top of that, the prose itself is some of the most beautiful, poetic prose I've ever read. This is definitely a book I'd highly recommend, and one I will definitely reread in the future. :)
December 22, 2010
This novel helped me let go of some painful and shameful things I had a difficult time with in my own life that I had, including being able to confront my ex-husband who abandoned me with a letter that was difficult to write, since he avoided all of the important matters essential to ending a marriage and I was able to finally speak up to my father about anger that I had never been listened to without him cutting me off mid-sentence and that was the one main thing I was angry about. This novel changed my being able to speak up for myself, by persisting and clarifying what I meant to him. I have never been able to say that before about a book. I really love this book. As a result of reading this book, I dealt with tying up some loose ends in my own life. TERRIFIC!!! HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
July 17, 2012
This book was beautiful, whimsical, and untouchable in places. The thing that stuck out to me most was the narration; it was solid, fluid, and downright imaginative.
This book also strikes me as a grieving book, which may explain why I felt a little disconnected with it. Maybe if I had read this book during a different time, I would have connected stronger with Magda. On the whole though, I burned through the last 2/3s of the book in an afternoon, despite my break in reading.
Also, I love the cover art. It was what truly drew me to the book in the first place. The artist can be found here: http://ken-wong.deviantart.com/ Check him out, he's awesome.
This book also strikes me as a grieving book, which may explain why I felt a little disconnected with it. Maybe if I had read this book during a different time, I would have connected stronger with Magda. On the whole though, I burned through the last 2/3s of the book in an afternoon, despite my break in reading.
Also, I love the cover art. It was what truly drew me to the book in the first place. The artist can be found here: http://ken-wong.deviantart.com/ Check him out, he's awesome.
May 22, 2012
This book was randomly displayed in my school's library, and I picked it up after being impressed at the cover art. I then read the short summary on the back or the inside or whatever, and was instantly interested. So I checked it out and began reading it immediately.
I have to say, this book was completely amazing. With me, I'm usually into reading sappy romance books, but this book caught me by surprise. I completely loved how the whole book was about the main character growing as a person, learning to move on from the struggles in her life.
It has easily moved up to be one of my favorite books.
I have to say, this book was completely amazing. With me, I'm usually into reading sappy romance books, but this book caught me by surprise. I completely loved how the whole book was about the main character growing as a person, learning to move on from the struggles in her life.
It has easily moved up to be one of my favorite books.
April 21, 2015
I personally prefered her second novel to this. But it was still an interesting book and I would love to read her other works as well- when they are published.
December 8, 2019
"My mother was the opposite of a placebo person. She took you inside her soul. Perhaps she did not show me how to iron a blouse or how to make soup, did not mop the floor often enough and never gave me vitamins or worried about matters like bedtimes or age-appropriate films or conversations, but she had shown me how to listen to people, how to see what people meant even when they could not say what they meant. She would have wanted me to find enlargement inside loss. Even in the most unimaginable of losses, she would want me to find enlargement in the diminishment. She had shown me how these two could be connected. This is what I needed to remember: what she had shown me, not what she had not shown me."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 11, 2025
The imagery in this book? Chefs kiss. I was absolutely absorbed in it, hooked from the get go. It tackles her grief, lostness, and sense of alienation so beautifully.
I got this book second hand and somewhere in the middle I found a note with the words written, “I can’t remember to forget you.” And that person made this book all the more special to me. And although I am unsure if the fish were a developing mental illness of sorts or simply a metaphor to show her detachment from the “standard” world, but it was one of my favorite parts, really added to the whole stuck underwater and drowning theme.
I got this book second hand and somewhere in the middle I found a note with the words written, “I can’t remember to forget you.” And that person made this book all the more special to me. And although I am unsure if the fish were a developing mental illness of sorts or simply a metaphor to show her detachment from the “standard” world, but it was one of my favorite parts, really added to the whole stuck underwater and drowning theme.
April 11, 2021
I’m sure there is a great metaphor in here somewhere but It made me disassociate hardcore so it wasn’t really my thing.
October 15, 2022
Beautiful writing…poetic
January 22, 2013
You'd think a book with this good of a cover has got to be great, but you'd be horribly wrong in this case. Which is very disappointing, of course, because I had such high hopes for this book. But, no, just no. It had no point. NO POINT. No point besides maybe creeping me out, that is. And creep me out it did. I think Anne Spollen wrote from a weird place in her mind, a place I could never understand no matter what because it's just too out there for me. Maybe no one can understand it, and that would be a big problem, I should think, when writing a book you want others to get. But of course I got the gist. The gist of a girl with a crazy mom, a crazy mom who raises her to be crazy, and when the mom dies (or, if I gathered this correctly, killed herself)the girl just doesn't know what to do because no one else is as crazy as her. One part of her craziness I found amusing, though, and that part would be Mr. and Mrs. Fish. After a while they start to get incredibly annoying, but the thought of them was interesting. I couldn't tell if they were an analogy to Magdalena's mom and dad, or if her subconscious mind was trying to coach her into what happened by the way of imaginary fish. Either way, it was a good thing to add in a book like this, but I don't think it ever reached its full potential.
All the random characters in this book didn't leave lasting impressions. Not even Magda herself. Her dad was a big element in the story, but all he ever does is grow away from her and end up marrying some neat-freak. And as for Dorothy's son, Andrew, one of the biggest harbingers of creepiness, he does nothing except be creepy and get stoned and have masochistic tendencies, but Spollen makes him out to be some important asset to Magda. But he does nothing! Nobody does anything! This book is full of wacko nothingness! I think we're meant to believe she was struggling with her mother's death and in the end she's over it, but I don't see it. It wasn't a sudden revelation. Everything that led up to those last words was useless to me. I could have gone without and still know the whole story. Plus, she talks about water and fish way too much. After wanting to read this book for so long, it's sad to say it was terrible, but I am just so over this book now. Good riddance.
All the random characters in this book didn't leave lasting impressions. Not even Magda herself. Her dad was a big element in the story, but all he ever does is grow away from her and end up marrying some neat-freak. And as for Dorothy's son, Andrew, one of the biggest harbingers of creepiness, he does nothing except be creepy and get stoned and have masochistic tendencies, but Spollen makes him out to be some important asset to Magda. But he does nothing! Nobody does anything! This book is full of wacko nothingness! I think we're meant to believe she was struggling with her mother's death and in the end she's over it, but I don't see it. It wasn't a sudden revelation. Everything that led up to those last words was useless to me. I could have gone without and still know the whole story. Plus, she talks about water and fish way too much. After wanting to read this book for so long, it's sad to say it was terrible, but I am just so over this book now. Good riddance.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 23, 2017
This was an interesting book. I remember that I read this at a time were I was going through a book every day or two, but this one took me several weeks. This book is a piece of art that took time for me to figure out. It was not a fun read, but it was interesting.
April 27, 2015
This book took so long to get into. Spollen's overly descriptive prose, bizarre fish, and super long chapters made me reluctant to continue after reaching chapter two. But I stuck with it, and, much to my surprise, I started to get involved in the story.
Magda is a truly odd character. She comments on every detail, she obsesses over "the standard", she turns into a giraffe during many conversations, she has conversations with a small family of fish in her head , she sets fires in the woods and then strips, and she is so obviously disconnected from the world that the lasting effect is confusion with a touch of vertigo. Magda's mind goes in circles; one second she does not care about real life, the next second she does. She stays so disengaged from everything that when she does engage, it doesn't feel right and she still doesn't seem truly in the moment.
The fish were ironically what hooked me (pun intended). Despite having no interest in them whatsoever and believing them to be utterly unnecessary to the plot in the long run, once I started thinking and suspecting about what they might actually be, I started being more intrigued. Unfortunately, that was after at least a third of the book.
In conclusion: the summary states that Magda needs to find a stable place in the world. However, it should have said that Magda needs to find a stable place in her mind.
Magda is a truly odd character. She comments on every detail, she obsesses over "the standard", she turns into a giraffe during many conversations, she has conversations with a small family of fish in her head , she sets fires in the woods and then strips, and she is so obviously disconnected from the world that the lasting effect is confusion with a touch of vertigo. Magda's mind goes in circles; one second she does not care about real life, the next second she does. She stays so disengaged from everything that when she does engage, it doesn't feel right and she still doesn't seem truly in the moment.
The fish were ironically what hooked me (pun intended). Despite having no interest in them whatsoever and believing them to be utterly unnecessary to the plot in the long run, once I started thinking and suspecting about what they might actually be, I started being more intrigued. Unfortunately, that was after at least a third of the book.
In conclusion: the summary states that Magda needs to find a stable place in the world. However, it should have said that Magda needs to find a stable place in her mind.
August 16, 2016
While this book started out really strong, it petered out pretty quickly. There are far too many epiphanies that come to the characters far too easily. Not only that, there are some serious issues that these characters are dealing with that are resolved far too easily. The problems that Magdalena, Hannah, and Andrew are dealing with are problems that last a life time. They're problems that can't be won over by meaningless phrases about "trying" and "moving on." Not only are these revelations cliched, they add absolutely no character to the people who are espousing them. Whereas Hannah started out as an interesting character, once she started out on the bumper-sticker train, she became a cardboard cut-out. The same is true of Magda's father.
That being said, I think that Magdalena is interesting for the very fact that she's one of the few human young adult female protagonists I've encountered. There's something very honest about her reactions, especially that of a good student who has never given anyone problems - she doesn't intend to start causing problems for her father, but it's impossible with the death of her mother. I feel as though I would have really connected with Magdalena in junior high.
There is excessive use of water metaphors, but that begins to burn off about mid-way through the book. And the writing, at times, is quite beautiful. The Shape of Water was okay, and while that may sound like a very mediocre response, "okay" is better than most of the modern young adult novels I've read.
That being said, I think that Magdalena is interesting for the very fact that she's one of the few human young adult female protagonists I've encountered. There's something very honest about her reactions, especially that of a good student who has never given anyone problems - she doesn't intend to start causing problems for her father, but it's impossible with the death of her mother. I feel as though I would have really connected with Magdalena in junior high.
There is excessive use of water metaphors, but that begins to burn off about mid-way through the book. And the writing, at times, is quite beautiful. The Shape of Water was okay, and while that may sound like a very mediocre response, "okay" is better than most of the modern young adult novels I've read.
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