Reviews

Montgomery has written a touching story interweaving science, philosophy, and cross species relationships. I particularly enjoyed how she wove in quotes and ideas from ancient philosophers and naturalists. As a wildlife biologist, I struggled with how Montgomery would jump straight from how she thought the octopus might be feeling to then stating that her idea must be true. We don't know octopuses and we can't know them. That's part of the wonder. In this book, Montgomery seems to want to make them as human-like as possible, so we can come away with some true knowing. I would have preferred to have been left in a state of unknowing awe, but overall I greatly appreciated the story. I will be thinking about this for a long time.

Questions I have for other readers are
1. How do you define consciousness?
2. Did this book change how you define it?
3. Do you think non-humans can have souls?
4. Is having a soul and consciousness the same, related, or not connected? Why?

funteamjen's review against another edition

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2.0

At the beginning, I found this book engaging and fascinating. There were so many surprising facts and interesting stories about octopuses. But even before the midway point, it began to feel extremely repetitive, and by the end I was struggling to finish. I agree with another reviewer who said this could have been an article instead of a book. We only needed to hear so many times how much this lady loves when an octopus sucks on her arms. Seriously, simmer down. Overall, it just didn't flow well and seemed to lack a true point.

mcrowell's review against another edition

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Good book, but somewhat lost interest

emmymgb's review against another edition

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I loved the beginning and the parts where I was really learning about octopuses. However, I was a little disconcerted by all of these marine biologists going out for sushi. This ended up being a pre-cursor to further, deeper discomfort with

pulling an adult octopus out of the ocean who was traumatized, scared and never acclimated and then died with no reflection on how sad that was, or that there was human cruelty and wrong doing.

The “love” for the octopus began to feel selfish and disingenuous. I tried to push through because it’s such a popular and well regarded book, but the negative feelings won for me.

tedbaldwin's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

5.0

I loved this book.

cmchristensen's review against another edition

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4.0

Incredibly insightful, constantly surprising, and so compassionate. I never though that cephalopods would be a being with which I compare my humanity.

kellitrusedell's review against another edition

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adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

One of my top favorite reads last year was Remarkably Bright Creatures, a fiction novel that features a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus, and my favorite documentary of the year was My Octopus Teacher. Yep, it’s safe to say that in 2023, I fell in love with octopuses. 💗 This year, Sy Montgomery’s book The Soul Of An Octopus caught my attention, it being a non-fiction book about an animal I have recently come to love and appreciate, and that it was written by an author I had previously read and enjoyed (If you haven’t already, check out her book The Good Good Pig 🐷). Throughout this book I enjoyed reading about Montgomery’s experiences with octopuses; I learned so much about octopuses, sea life, and scuba diving; and I found it interesting how she weaved in deeper topics throughout, like karma, soul, and free will. The center of the book contains gorgeous, captioned, color photos of the octopuses she wrote about, which are wonderful. And my most favorite feature of the book: the black-and-white images of an octopus at the bottom right corner of each page which, when flipped correctly, act like a flip book, showing an octopus swimming along the ocean floor. So fun and unique, I flipped through and smiled at it often, and I had to share it with my husband and sons! Some parts dragged a little for me, but overall I love all the facts and experiences shared throughout this book, and it made me want to go check out the Giant Ocean Tank (GOT) in the New England Aquarium. I give this book four intelligent and stunning octopuses, like the lovelies mentioned in this book: Athena, Octavia, Kali, and Karma. 🐙🐙🐙🐙

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