Reviews with content warning for Racism - How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

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

81 reviews

jkpiowa's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad

Imbler (they/them) has a beautiful writing style and seamlessly blends their memoir with relevant and riveting information about sea creatures. Many CWs, but there are certain things here almost anyone can identify with.

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bibliomich's review

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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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fayemomodu's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

This book took me by surprise. I had no idea what it was about initially and actually just thought it was going to be about sea creatures. Its about a lot more than that! Absolutely loved the writing and the authors story.

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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

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4.0

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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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