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The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery
kellitrusedell's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
One of my top favorite reads last year was Remarkably Bright Creatures, a fiction novel that features a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus, and my favorite documentary of the year was My Octopus Teacher. Yep, it’s safe to say that in 2023, I fell in love with octopuses. 💗 This year, Sy Montgomery’s book The Soul Of An Octopus caught my attention, it being a non-fiction book about an animal I have recently come to love and appreciate, and that it was written by an author I had previously read and enjoyed (If you haven’t already, check out her book The Good Good Pig 🐷). Throughout this book I enjoyed reading about Montgomery’s experiences with octopuses; I learned so much about octopuses, sea life, and scuba diving; and I found it interesting how she weaved in deeper topics throughout, like karma, soul, and free will. The center of the book contains gorgeous, captioned, color photos of the octopuses she wrote about, which are wonderful. And my most favorite feature of the book: the black-and-white images of an octopus at the bottom right corner of each page which, when flipped correctly, act like a flip book, showing an octopus swimming along the ocean floor. So fun and unique, I flipped through and smiled at it often, and I had to share it with my husband and sons! Some parts dragged a little for me, but overall I love all the facts and experiences shared throughout this book, and it made me want to go check out the Giant Ocean Tank (GOT) in the New England Aquarium. I give this book four intelligent and stunning octopuses, like the lovelies mentioned in this book: Athena, Octavia, Kali, and Karma. 🐙🐙🐙🐙
jenmangler's review against another edition
3.0
The parts of this book focused on octopuses were quite interesting. There is so much I did not know, and they are fascinating creatures. But this book seems to be more memoir than a scientific exploration of octopuses. And that's fine, if that's what you're expecting, but the title and description of the book are a bit misleading.
dlt603's review against another edition
2.5
I thought I'd like this a lot more than I did. I really struggled that the issue of captivity is not at all addressed, in a book seemingly making an argument that octopuses have souls and are highly intelligent beings. The first half of the book is entirely interactions with captive octopuses, which the author mentions are taken from the wild for the single purpose of display, yet never digs further into the ethics around that. The final nail in the coffin for me was what happens to Kali and still not even a smidge of speculation on captivity. The author even discusses going through wanting a pet octopus, lists all the reasons she decides against it, none of which are not taking something from the wild for the purpose of her enjoyment. I just truly could not get past that. Additionally I found the title misleading as it was more of a memoir of hanging out and learning to dive with octopuses than an exploration of consciousness. The 2.5 stars are because octopuses are amazing beings and the bit of facts and science mixed in about them was interesting. Otherwise, I found this to be a tough and disappointing read.
kitkat962's review against another edition
2.0
I really want to enjoy this book, I do. But it fell short, both scientifically and writing. I was expecting extensive literature review into the neurology of octopus, but the author basically retold her stories of meeting different octopus with a sprinkle of science and lots of "I love octopus, they are just like human"
ellipsiscool's review against another edition
4.0
A emotional and fascinating look into the mind of an octopus, which the author freely admits we really don't know much about.
What is consciousness and is the human mind really superior or just different? If we thought of all creatures as merely advanced in different ways, what would society look like? Do octopuses (I learned that octopi is not correct) think, feel, love, recognize?
A worthwhile book.
What is consciousness and is the human mind really superior or just different? If we thought of all creatures as merely advanced in different ways, what would society look like? Do octopuses (I learned that octopi is not correct) think, feel, love, recognize?
A worthwhile book.
lauracooleyjohnson's review against another edition
2.0
Meh. I expected to be marveled by stories of wonderful Octopus antics, and perhaps also experience a heartwarming character arc as our narrator grew and learned from these creatures. Instead I felt this read a bit like someone’s vacation journal on her trip to the New England Aquarium and a few entries for that time she learned to scuba dive. I’m not a great audience for non-fiction, so it could be that I’m the problem in this relationship. I still find octopuses to be incredibly cool, but I won’t be recommending this book.
mdevlin923's review against another edition
2.0
While it was an fascinating story about Sy Montgomery's personal journey meeting and learning about octopuses...I was disappointed. I was expecting it to be a more in-depth look at animal psychology and consciousness. Again, it was still a good book, but I feel that the title led me to believe it was something that I would be more interested in reading.