Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler

21 reviews

jazhandz's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

3.5

I picked up this book because the marketing and blurb makes it sound like science nonfiction. It is not. It is a collection of personal essays that use marine as a metaphor. They’re beautiful essays, they’re very striking, but I was just intensely frustrated the whole time because of the marketing failure. I wanted the sea creatures to be the point of the book, and it didn’t feel like they were. Maybe I would rate this higher if I’d gone in knowing that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Animal death, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Racism, Dysphoria, Body shaming, Sexual content, and War

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, and Racial slurs

throwback682's review

dark informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

I have no idea how to describe this book. In short, it's a memoir told through the lens of dense scientific info about sea creatures. But that’s…. nowhere near accurate or at least nowhere near adequate. 

Perhaps it’s a string of long strange similes that forces you to re-examine your assumptions about both marine life and humans. 

How does a book flow seamlessly from Lorena Bobbitt to Brock Turner to dead whales to immortal jellyfish? From strap-ons to gender dysphoria to biracial identities to crabs huddled together on the edge of a volcanic vent at the bottom of the ocean? From mother octopuses starving to death for their babies to alcoholism to rape? From the NYC dyke march and the queer history of a tuberculosis hospital to  cuttlefish camouflage? It shouldn’t all be able to fit in one book but it does and it’s spectacular. Example: at one point they perform a necropsy on an early queer relationship after a breakup. 

I had to take breaks during some of the heavier subject matter and you should definitely check the trigger warnings but for me it was well worth the pain. What a brilliant piece of art. The synergy of all the myriad pieces of this book is extremely powerful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, War, Xenophobia, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

TW: victim blaming, sexual assault

The author (they/them) describes incidents of a sexual nature and struggles to categorize them as consensual or assault due to their heavy drinking.

TW: gender dysphoria

They describe parts of their body that make them feel dysphoric, things that help the dysphoria (binding), and things that make them feel euphoric (masculine clothes, packing, the word “boyfriend”).

TW: harm to animals This book deals heavily with marine life in the wild as well as marine science.

There is discussion of human experimentation on marine life, including intentionally hurting or killing animals through various methods. Examples include killing a fish to study it further, and doing various things to traumatize a jellyfish to induce a certain reaction. There’s also discussion of animals eating each other etc.

skbat's review against another edition

adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, War, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Racism, Rape, Violence, Sexual harassment, Racial slurs, and Body horror

elliv's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Rape, and Sexual assault

jes312's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

A beautifully written book that you'll want to sit with and savor. Science stories interwoven (with creatures you've heard of and others you probably haven't) with personal narrative in an extremely successful format. Essays include: a mother octopus protecting her eggs alongside the author's experience with diet culture; the misinformation of the Bobbitt worm's common name and coming to terms with the author's experiences with sexual assault; analyzing a whale fall in conjunction with the end of one of their first queer relationships; and cuttlefish morphing abilities and bringing in multiple queer voices to explore their complex/changing relationships with their bodies.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Eating disorder, and Sexual assault

rarasreads's review

informative reflective fast-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism and Sexual assault

ariizolas's review against another edition

Not for me - I loved the early essays, but the metaphors got old for me very quickly. Might finish this one up when I don't have so much on my TBR. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, and Body shaming

phathaway's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

Man, this book. It's a series of essays on the author's life, correlated with a different sea creature. Author is NB, but socially raised as a woman who definitely experienced comphet and I understand so much of their story as a late-in-life lesbian. Just such a beautiful read and I would definitely recommend it to any late-in-life or questioning queer. 

I also love how she really put her struggles about her body out there.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Hate crime, Misogyny, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Grief, Dysphoria, Body shaming, Rape, Racism, Xenophobia, and Fatphobia

albernikolauras's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

A memoir that uses sea creatures as framing and metaphor. This is a lovely memoir that freely winds between life experiences and facts on the sea creatures the chapter references. Imbler's writing can lean a tad overly metaphorical, but the audiobook made this barely an issue. Imbler's chapters are more like essays exploring different aspects of themselves and their lives than a chronological memoir, which I felt worked perfectly for the format and the discussions they wanted to have.

Essays cross subjects like race, gender, queer romance, and complicated parents.

My favorite essays were "Starving Octopus" and "We Swarm."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism

Moderate: Fatphobia, Sexual content, and Rape

madelinegl's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Animal death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Lesbophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Sexual assault, and Homophobia