Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

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

44 reviews

bibliomich's review

informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Okay, I generally don't add star reviews for memoirs, but since this book is only part-memoir (and deserves all the hype), I'm giving it five stars.

How Far the Light Reaches is not only a favorite of this year, but possibly one of my favorites *ever*. At the end of each chapter, I'd think to myself, "Oh, okay, that was the best one. That was my favorite chapter so far." And then I'd listen to the next and be blown away once again.

In each chapter, Sabrina Imbler (they/them) juxtaposes autobiographical anecdotes with scientific facts about different marine species. For example, in "Beware the Sand Striker," Imbler alternates between discussing their experiences with sexual autonomy and assault, and then draws parallels with the sand striker's predatory behaviors. They discuss a range of topics (some quite heavy), including race and racism, body image and disordered eating, mother-child relationships, identity, sexuality, and bigotry (to name a few), and they write with so much honesty and vulnerability. I also learned A LOT about marine life, and even though I often shy away from nonfiction, these were some of my favorite sections of the book.

Imbler also narrates the audiobook, and their narration is exceptional. While I highly recommend listening to the audiobook, I would also love to own a physical copy (and will likely purchase one) just to return to it over and over again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault

Moderate: Transphobia, Alcohol, Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Racism, Fatphobia, and Homophobia

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

lettuce_read's review

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Racism and Homophobia

mobooks_mojoy's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence and Sexual assault

Moderate: Fatphobia, Violence, Grief, Homophobia, and Body shaming

lue_moon's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Sexual assault

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Fatphobia, and Transphobia

kaydee_reads's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Homophobia, Fatphobia, War, Lesbophobia, and Toxic relationship

amarreth's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Racism, and Homophobia

mld12's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia

Moderate: Sexual assault and Homophobia

tiffanyjeannine's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Fatphobia, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Classism, Transphobia, Xenophobia, and Homophobia

crisscrossedshelves's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Eating disorder, Body shaming, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Rape