My Mother, the Mermaid Chaser

 

Rating: 5 for generational trauma and healing, prose in two voices, complexity

My Thoughts:

I am actually taking the time to read this again. In my quest to finish it, I read it quickly, but I am re reading it to take my time and enjoy this haunting story. This is a companion piece to Hoang's earler book, My Father, the Panda Killer. I always meant to read that one first. The title is compelling and the title is just as stunning. The timing of that one, though was not ideal personally. It had nothing to do with when the publisher released it. Just that I was in the midst of submitting for a promotion at the university and I needed to focus on writing rather than reading.  Long story short, I read this one first. The absence, the seeming gaps in understanding and motive seemed to be a result of my not reading the first book. I still have not read the first book. However, on my rereading, I realize that this feeling of missing, of absence, that I viscerally felt as a reader may be part of the intended tone of this piece. 

This book is in two voices, and whenever I read books in two alternating voices, the story is meant to be jarring. The reader is along for the ride, but from the backseat. I equate it to feeling like I have been kidnapped with my blindfold on. I am trying to figure out who these people are based on just the story being unveiled by the two people in the front (they are not having a dialogue, they are just having alternate monologues). 

Paul is the heart of this story. He sits in contrast to his sister Jane who is more central in My Father, the Panda Killer. Paul is the open, soft one and Jane is his hard, sharp edged counter. At least that is what I get from this one. It is perhaps why I am waiting to put a little more reading distance between this book and Jane's book. 

One thing that Hoang does that is very crucial for YA is that her prose balances the very heavy trauma with tenderness, humor and empathy. The anticipatory questions I had early on were "When is it better for a mother to abandon her children to an abusive father?" "What might be the implications of this abandonment on the children as they grow up?" Hoang does not shy away from showing the trauma, but she also opens up a door for empathy to seep in.  

As I was rushing through on the first read, there are some slow parts that I skipped over to get to the end, however, I picked it up again because some stories, like this one, deserve a little more patience to blossom. 

From the Publisher:

San Jose, 2008: Paul yearns to know more about the mother who abandoned his family, but she is the only topic no one discusses. Now’s he’s in Vietnam, feeling displaced and considered an outsider. Plus, a ghost is haunting him even though he doesn’t believe in ghosts. His cousin and the grandmother he’s never met before now keep telling him that he’ll get answers only if he’s willing to open his ears.

Vũng Tâu, 1975: Ngọc Lan is eleven when her family breaks apart: her brother is drafted into the army; her father leaves on the last helicopter to the US. She and her sister are sent from Vietnam on a harrowing journey by boat. Only Ngọc Lan will survive. But what is the American dream when you are haunted by the death of your sister, missing your homeland; seeing ghostly mermaid sightings; lost in an abusive marriage; struggling as a parent?

Told in the alternating perspectives of Paul and Ngọc Lan, My Mother, the Mermaid Chaser is a haunting story about the intergenerational effects of war, estranged family bonds, and how a teenager discovers a new connection to a lost part of himself.

Publication Information:

Author: Jamie Jo Hoang

Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers (September 23, 2025)

Print length: 384 pages

Grade level: 7-9