"This second installment in the Chelsea Trilogy takes its 13-year-old heroine on a journey from urban blight through deep-sea magic. Sophie''s adventure begins where her previous tale had ended, with her bones crushed to jelly beneath the violent, watery fist of her grandmother, the malevolent sea witch Kishka. Kept alive only by her own magic--for Sophie has inherited her grandmother''s Odmience powers--Sophie is dragged into the healing depths of the ocean by her mermaid friend, Syrena. Far from the festering squalor of her home in Chelsea, Massachusetts, far from the noisy party boats kicking up a racket in Boston Harbor, Sophie begins coming into her magic at last. Together, Sophie and Syrena begin the long journey to Poland, where Sophie will have to save the world ("When I''m done with saving humanity, I am going to make my mom go on a booze cruise," Sophie promises herself). For this in-between trilogy adventure, Sophie primarily explores the richly described (if scientifically dubiously) undersea world as a warm-up for what will presumably be her epic final battle. She eats plankton and salt, wears a baby octopus in her hair and learns to control the currents. Primarily, Sophie reacts rather than acts; much of her role is to gain emotional revelations about friendship.
Certainly the deep affection between Sophie and the foulmouthed, insult-flinging mermaid is apparent, if snark-filled. Much less grim than the series opener, with plenty of mermaid appeal for readers happy with lyrical but overlong musings." -- Kirkus Praise for Mermaid in Chelsea Creek : Read Michelle's playlist for Girl at the Bottom of the Sea , the next installment of her "dark and fascinating YA series." -- Largehearted Boy "I couldn''t keep still when I was reading Mermaid In Chelsea Creek . I kept standing up to pace around because I was so excited by the book and then I''d hurry back to my chair so I hadn''t missed anything. The novel has everything terrific about Michelle Tea, with the grit and the wit and the girls in trouble loving each other fierce and true, and then it has all the juice of a terrific fantasy novel, with the magic and the creatures and the otherworldly sense of something lurking underneath each artifact of our ordinary lives. I can''t keep still to write a blurb about it. Just read the thing, read it now.
" --Daniel Handler "A radiant hybrid of piercing realism, creeping horror, and heartbreaking fantasy--but fantasy with dirt in its hair and scabs on its knees. Tea is an uncommon talent doing uncommon things and her voice tickles you, slaps you, whatever it takes to wake your ass up." --Daniel Kraus, author of Rotters "Delicious." -- San Francisco Bay Guardian "Tea''s novel is a refreshing breath of air in the world of YA, equal parts eerie, heartbreaking, and fantastical."-- ZYZZYVA "Each line carries substantive heft, emblematic of extensive research on Polish mythology, grounded by the gritty, immigrant haven that is Chelsea, Massachusetts."-- SF Weekly " The story itself braids threads of ancient myths and lore with today''s world full of mixed emotions and environmental neglect. It blurs the line between fact and fiction gracefully, thereby making the impossible seem possible."-- Insatiable Readers " Mermaid in Chelsea Creek is a triumph in its own right, a stand-alone treat.
"-- San Francisco Bay Guardian ".the queerest young adult book I've ever read."-- Buzzfeed "I started reading Michelle Tea''s Mermaid in Chelsea Creek on the subway this morning and was instantly hooked. can''t wait to get back to it."--Emily Temple, Flavorwire Literary Editor "If you want to read a really original book with gutsy characters, I strongly, sweary recommend you find this book."-- Sparknotes "There's a lot of heavy wisdom in this book, alongside the beauty and the grunge.And there's a lot of humor too--it wouldn't be Michelle Tea if you didn't laugh out loud at her spot-on cultural observations, her astute sarcasm at the banalities that infiltrate our gorgeous world."-- Lambda Literary Daily Candy names Mermaid in Chelsea Creek in their "14 New Books that Save Brain Cells this Summer" "A fun read.
a classic fairy tale." -- Sacramento/San Francisco Book Review "It's as if Chelsea is Narnia, with talking animals, mind readers, and a heroine who, instead of finding a wardrobe, makes herself pass out with her best friend, Ella."-- The Boston Globe "Lonesomely populating a chasm in books for young readers where the magic comes from the blessed gutter." -- The Globe and Mail Praise for Valencia : "Tea, a modern-day Beat, is also a kind of pop ambassador to the world of the tattooed, pierced, politicized and sex-radical queer-grrls of San Francisco."-- Publishers Weekly Praise for The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America : "At 27, Michelle Tea is an ex-prostitute, ex-Goth, ex-drummer for Dirt Bike Gang, ex-straight girl, ex-lesbian separatist vegan, ex-Catholic schoolgirl, and ex-resident of Chelsea, Boston''s working class slum. She is poised, with this breakthrough debut volume, to become the spokesperson for America''s young queer girl mutant horde."-- New Books Weekly "The legacy of thirty years of feminism. Rollicking and blistering, pained and hilarious, wired and wild-eyed and smashingly good.
The narrator, diving into fourteen, trying to be an INXS groupie, feeling grossed out by the role but wanting experience that doesn''t have a name."--Laurie Stone, Village Voice ". a gem of endangered narration from a loud and highly marginalized subculture, in particular the third wave of feminism. Tea''s work resists categorization, and like all surprising vanguard literature, it''s the news--a hunk of lyric information that coolly, then frantically, describes the car wreck of her generation and everything that surrounds it."--Eileen Myles, The Nation.