jazhandz's review against another edition

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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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lettuce_read's review against another edition

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4.0


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mobooks_mojoy's review against another edition

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5.0


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lue_moon's review against another edition

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5.0

Beautifully written prose. I love all of the ways in which the stories of sea creatures were woven into memoir and memoir into the stories of sea creatures. Hits home for the little me who wanted to be a marine biologist, and still often finds sea creatures fascinating, even if bodies of open water terrify me slightly.

Most resonant for me were "My Mother and the Starving Octopus," "Morphing Like a Cuttlefish" and "Us Everlasting."

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kaydee_reads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

5.0

This book is strange and lovely and best served slowly, reading a couple essays a day and then putting it back down to let them sink in. I loved the mix of science and memoir. Some essays are stronger than others - the cuttlefish one and the one about the sturgeon stood out as particular favourites in terms of matching the animals to the topic - but all make you think and feel and I loved the writing. 

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amarreth's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

3.75


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mld12's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective tense slow-paced

3.5

“I suppose anything can morph if you force it to.”
(If you read this via audiobook, the last chapter can be pretty confusing!)

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tiffanyjeannine's review against another edition

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4.0

Great collection of essays mixing personal experiences with a sea creature’s own experience. The way the stories parallel one another was masterful. The animal stories were fascinating. I feel like I need to go watch a nature documentary or two. I also need to check out the physical copy to see the illustrations I missed out on. Definitely check trigger warnings. Things get heavy.

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crisscrossedshelves's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0


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marstone's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective

5.0


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