Reviews tagging 'Murder'

물고기는 존재하지 않는다 by Lulu Miller

49 reviews

killeenm's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

I LOVED this book. It’s pretty rare to find an author so talented that mixes biography, scientific journalism, and memoir so seamlessly. I didn’t know if I’d love it at the beginning; I thought the author was maybe coming from a perspective too different from mine. Turns out an atheist and a Catholic who doesn’t really believe that God has plans in their life might be coming from very similar places. Explored human relationships to the natural world, eugenics, psychology, taxonomy, disability, ableism, the purpose of life… I can’t recommend it enough. This book was absolutely masterful.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

del_phinium's review against another edition

inspiring fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Rape

mirto's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

If I could give this 6 stars, I would. Brilliant book. I would even say Lulu Miller created a whole new genre. Memoir, biography, essay, nature book, history book, sociology, psychology, murder mystery, whatever, you name it. Made me feel so many things, all at once. I learnt a lot, from science to giving myself the life I want. Why Fish Don't Exist will stay with me forever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Ableism, Gaslighting, Infertility, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, and Hate crime

Moderate: Grief, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Self harm, Sexual assault, War, Death, Emotional abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Murder, Infertility, Infidelity, and Rape

nquinlan's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

Minor: Rape

krillfilter's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Expertly told through the author's lived experiences and narratives of the life of eugenicist David Star Jordan, at times funny, but mostly somber look at how to avoid falling into the pitfalls of hero worship, over-classification, certainty, hubris, and despair. Miller shows how grief and fear of our chaotic world has lead many of science's "heroes" into fascism, eugenics or other violent follies. Miller challenges us to embrace chaos, embrace our differences, take care of each other, and respect nature's mystery, lest we miss out on snorkling, love, and other skeleton keys to life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Murder, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, and Forced institutionalization

asolis's review against another edition

2.5

A mix of memoir, biography, popular science, and a bit of self-help. From childhood, the author is unmoored by her father's nihilistic yet unshakably optimistic approach to life. Here she looks to the life story of David Starr Jordan for perspective. 
The content is primarily dedicated to Jordan's story, whom we come to find is a notably repellent human. The author does a good job of giving us a look under the hood at the story of someone who could be considered a scientific hero, and showing the ugliness of bigotry and white supremacist ideology underneath. But the framing presents this in the context of a memoir, even though Miller is stingy with her own story. That, despite its other strengths, makes the book feel unsatisfying. 

CW: self harm, substance abuse, sexual assault, state violence

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Racism, Self harm, and Murder

ambystoma's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder

caprivoyant's review against another edition

3.5

⚠️ Content Warning for ableism in the form of eugenics and forced sterilization. It's all historical... But horrible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Murder

thehutonfowlslegs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

things found in this book:
• fish
• actually, fish don’t exist, so no fish
• icthyology and taxonomy 
• existentialism 
• the life of david starr jordan 
• the life of lulu miller
• murder 
• love
• loss 
• darwinism 
• eugenics 
• attempts to bring order to an ever-chaotic world 
• the questioning of everything you think you know
• a single footnote 
• a sound clip of the author teaching her child how to say “fish” (provided your reading medium is the audiobook) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Ableism, and Child death

Moderate: Murder and Racism

books_are_magical's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Racism, Murder, and Misogyny

Moderate: Infertility and Emotional abuse