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louisebray 's review for:
Overall, this was a very interesting read. However, a number of things grated on me throughout this book.
Firstly, it was incredibly biased. While it did offer Sea World's or pro captivity activists' points of view, I feel like they were often portrayed in a very condescending light and then immediately dismissed as idiotic. For example, the argument against releasing orcas into the ocean was repeatedly referred to as "the big bad ocean argument". It's a shame because the book made a lot of good points, and I feel they would have been even stronger points if the writer were to have actually argued against the opposing arguments first. (The final section was a bit better).
Secondly, this is ridiculously long for the amount of relevant information it contains. I picked this book up expecting to learn about orcas and SeaWorld, but the first 100 pages or so were just the backstory of various anti-captivity activists, which then continued intermittently throughout the book. Dr Naomi Rose was the activist mentioned most frequently and honestly by the end of this book I was sick of hearing about every single thought she had pertaining to orcas/captivity/SeaWorld/etc., the hair colour of all the people she met in her life, the music she was playing at significant events... I'm all for providing a little backstory in these types of book, but honestly I think this took it a bit too far.
Ranting aside, this was a very well-researched and informative book which raises many good points about the issue of orcas in captivity. I'm glad I read it, simply because I didn't know much about the issue before. I think it's an important issue that deserves attention, but maybe just watch the documentary and save yourself trawling through hundreds of pages of (in my opinion) boring and irrelevant information.
Firstly, it was incredibly biased. While it did offer Sea World's or pro captivity activists' points of view, I feel like they were often portrayed in a very condescending light and then immediately dismissed as idiotic. For example, the argument against releasing orcas into the ocean was repeatedly referred to as "the big bad ocean argument". It's a shame because the book made a lot of good points, and I feel they would have been even stronger points if the writer were to have actually argued against the opposing arguments first. (The final section was a bit better).
Secondly, this is ridiculously long for the amount of relevant information it contains. I picked this book up expecting to learn about orcas and SeaWorld, but the first 100 pages or so were just the backstory of various anti-captivity activists, which then continued intermittently throughout the book. Dr Naomi Rose was the activist mentioned most frequently and honestly by the end of this book I was sick of hearing about every single thought she had pertaining to orcas/captivity/SeaWorld/etc., the hair colour of all the people she met in her life, the music she was playing at significant events... I'm all for providing a little backstory in these types of book, but honestly I think this took it a bit too far.
Ranting aside, this was a very well-researched and informative book which raises many good points about the issue of orcas in captivity. I'm glad I read it, simply because I didn't know much about the issue before. I think it's an important issue that deserves attention, but maybe just watch the documentary and save yourself trawling through hundreds of pages of (in my opinion) boring and irrelevant information.