Reviews

Some willfull reinterpretation of certain things to fit the author thesis (ie kosher dietary laws’ purposes) make me hesitate to treat anything in this book I didn’t already know as ‘factual’, but the memoir sections are interesting and the overall mood is enjoyable. Again though, I wish this was more about eels and less about people.

Good taken with a grain of salt.

madameroyale's review against another edition

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4.25

I picked up this book on a whim, and found it to be such a fascinating read—mostly because I had no idea we knew so very little about eels! We don’t know where they breed or how or when they choose to, we don’t know how long they live, and we don’t know how they orient themselves geographically to travel across the seas, among many other unknowns. And yet this book magically manages to chronicle the history of humans’ study of eels despite so many open questions. The touches of memoir that are woven throughout are very sweet, and complemented the scientific side of the book nicely. A quick but thought-provoking read.

irmah's review against another edition

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3.0

The topic itself was very cool-fun-creative, but the execution made me feel like the book was more of a fishing-heavy autobiography with inappropriate, exaggerated eel analogies, which, in retrospect, may not be the most fun thing to spend a couple of hours on

dibiz116's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

Content Warnings

jamiezaccaria's review against another edition

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4.0

A blend of personal memoir and natural history this book tells you everything you wanted to know about the eel while maintaining a beautiful narrative.

ellbe's review against another edition

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adventurous informative mysterious medium-paced

4.75

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