The Jellyfish Problem by Tessa Yang (book review).
Dr. Jo Ness has buried herself in her work at a tiny aquarium with her beloved jellyfish. This is fine, as she has always liked jellyfish more than people. Except Aldo and Nadia, but she hasn’t spoken to Nadia in a decade, and Aldo died seven months ago, lost in a scuba-diving accident that Jo is convinced was her fault.
When Nadia calls out of the blue, inviting her to visit the tiny island of Shattering Point, it feels like a sign to move on. Especially when Nadia sends her a photograph of a giant jellyfish. It might be fake, but what if it were real? When Jo gets to the remote island, Nadia is nowhere to be found, and no one seems all that concerned, not even the husband Nadia failed to mention. The islanders might not want to talk about Nadia, but they do have stories about Clementine, the giant jellyfish they swear is real.
I expected this book to be a horror novel. In my defence, it has all the trappings: an isolated island with an insular population, a sea monster and a lingering ghost. Clearly, this is a horror novel. Except it isn’t. Instead, this is a beautifully written ode to what Jo Ness loves, and she loves jellyfish, Aldo and Nadia. I was immediately drawn into Jo’s story. Yes, this book is written in the first person, so you can’t read it without knowing what’s on Jo’s mind, but her voice resonated with me.
Rather than being scary, The Jellyfish Problem is mythic in its portrayal of giant monsters and ghosts, aided by Jo’s recollections of the Japanese stories her mother told her growing up. Stories of yokai and death and those left behind. Aldo, despite being dead, is a character in this novel. Each chapter begins with a snippet of Jo and Aldo’s jellyfish book, complete with notes that bring their relationship into every step of Jo’s story, as well as teaching me about jellyfish, a creature I had never really given much thought to before. Aldo’s loss is always within reach, colouring Jo’s reactions and motivations. More intensely than most people remain with us after they die, perhaps, but in a recognisable way. We think we glimpse them. We want to tell them something that has just come up. Jo just gets that experience a bit more viscerally.
If you are looking for a book of sea monsters and the human struggle against our fears of the deep, Tessa Yang’s debut novel is not for you. If you are looking for a heart-warming story about friendship and scientific curiosity, please give this a go. I read it in a weekend and barely noticed as the story slid by. The science fiction leans towards the science, and the horror leans towards the human relationship with death, so much so that I hesitate to call this a science fiction book. As with Syou Ishida’s We’ll Prescribe You A Cat, it is the human story that takes focus.
LK Richardson
May 2026
(pub: Berkley/Penguin Random House, 2026. 384-page hardback. Price: $30.00 (US), £26.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-59395-582-6)
Check out the website: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/788256/the-jellyfish-problem-by-tessa-yang/
