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Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery
12 reviews
emory's review against another edition
Moderate: Terminal illness and Suicide
laneyreadz's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Animal death and Death
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness
kk_gotit_goinon's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Terminal illness, Grief, Self harm, and Dementia
Minor: Self harm
wad3mil3sgarru2's review against another edition
4.0
Minor: Terminal illness, Animal death, Misogyny, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
bonsai_delores's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Grief and Animal death
Moderate: Suicide, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, and Dementia
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
sapphic_in_the_stacks's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book after it was recommended to me by my tattoo artist. She said that it was a narrative nonfiction that read like a fiction book, and I think it lived up to that description! The narrative was well paced, and I never felt bored or like I was just waiting for the next thing to happen. The factual information was written in a way that felt like you were learning alongside the author, rather than being dictated to, which made for a much smoother read in my opinion. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this read.
*Disclaimer: There were a few instances of insensitive, outdated, or challenged language. I will include censored versions of the words I picked up below tagged as "spoilers" for anyone who would like to know or potentially avoid this word usage. Topics included language used to refer to Autistic individuals, and words derived from language used to refer to Romani people.
Graphic: Grief and Animal death
Moderate: Chronic illness, Suicide, and Terminal illness
Minor: Vomit and Drug use
feebles640's review against another edition
3.25
Moderate: Terminal illness
Minor: Suicide
purplepenning's review against another edition
3.0
The author is a talented memoirist and travel/nature writer and is clearly having a love affair of sorts with octopuses. However, although much of the book personalizes and attempts to empathize with these incredibly intelligent octopuses (which the author literally calls "inmates" when in aquariums — definitely a tone), there seems to be a sharp limit to the implications considered. For example, they get bored and enjoy interacting with puzzles and humans, but it's okay to leave a young octopus in a plain, dark, boring, solitary barrel for weeks (months?) — and then wonder about her behavioral issues? Similarly, is the end of life "dementia" they experience really inevitable or is a life in captivity and on display contributing to it (and what a flippantly brutal comment about how we "take humans with dementia 'off display'" and hide them away so it's probably okay to do that with octopuses too!)? Octopus lives are short, so grief is probably inevitable while studying them and becoming attached, but the tragic outcomes for the octopus inmates here don't seem inevitable. And while there is genuine grief in those moments, the overall tone is blithely upbeat.
The author struggled, due to an ear condition, to deep dive on her forays to see octopuses in the wild. She seems to have similarly struggled to deep dive in her examinations of their lives in captivity. Overall, it's an interesting, informative, touching observation of the lives of captive octopuses but it's not a satisfyingly full exploration of those lives or their potentials.
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: Animal death, Grief, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Cultural appropriation, Dementia, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Sexual content and Sexism
kathleencoughlin's review against another edition
3.0
Moderate: Grief and Animal death
Minor: Ableism, Blood, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, and Suicide
frankensteinsmonster's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Terminal illness
Minor: Suicide