Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Ålevangeliet : berättelsen om världens mest gåtfulla fisk

This is not a book about eels. Well, it is, but it's also a book about the scientific process and our relationship with nature and the author's relationship with his father. It made me cry several times (this is an endorsement.)

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saphirabloom's review against another edition

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informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

5.0

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hanarama's review against another edition

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informative reflective slow-paced

3.25

Cw: animal death, discussion of extinction and climate change

The Good:
• Interesting overview

The Bad:
• Too much memoir

You Might Like This if You Like:
• Single topic scientific nonfiction
• Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

This book is filled with interesting information about eels. It feels almost like the more you learn, the less you really know about these weird creatures. By taking us from the beginnings of humans studying eels to the present day, Svensson illustrates how mysterious these slimy fish really are.

Sprinkled throughout the scientific information are memoir-esque stories that reveal the author's personal relationship to eels and how eels played an important role in his and his father's relationship. I found these moments interesting to start, as it underlined the continuing importance of eels to humans. However, as the book went on, I felt these stories didn't add much. As a memoir, they're fine, but I picked up this book to learn about eels, not read fishing stories

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megj23's review against another edition

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emotional informative medium-paced

4.25

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blackrabbitrun's review against another edition

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informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

It's a fine enough read, but I have no idea why it became such a spectacle (two years after publication and the library queue was six months!). The book is roughly half about eels and the history of Europeans trying to figure out eels, mostly fruitlessly, and half about this guy's relationship with his father. The eel parts are fascinating and the family relationship parts sympathetic, but where the two intersect (increasingly towards the end when he's trying to pull it into a grand thesis) it slightly turns into white man navelgazing.

Also Sigmund Freud was an incel but that isn't news.

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mar's review against another edition

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informative

3.5

huh.

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sokkaspoon's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

The book was well written, but the author took too much time to talk about his relationship with his dad. I did not care and only wanted to learn about eels. It felt like he was trying to find meaning in life through eels and I didn't like having to read about his life. There were some interesting facts about eels, but not enough for a book titled The Book of Eels

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