Reviews

This book did not work for me. I usually don’t mind animal main characters but the writing and anthropromorphism of the dolphins and fish in this book just felt goofy, and yet at the same time the book was pretty gross at times, including a truly needless amount of rape. I also thought there were too many pov characters, I didn’t really care about any of them, and the book overall was quite boring.

Content Warnings

readingwithavengeance's review against another edition

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4.0

This book is so beautifully written. The main characters are dolphins, fish and whales, but their stories are just as engaging as if you were reading about humans. It is somewhat dense at times with very little dialogue, but ultimately I appreciated learning about different species and marine biology. I cared about and connected with Ea, a spinner dolphin who is coming of age in an ever changing environment. Her struggle is everyone's struggle. She's seeking a sense of belonging among different groups who hate each other for reasons that have been twisted over time. She is also trying to survive in a world that is being destroyed due to greed and apathy. The ending had me sobbing and inspired at the same time.

joeydub's review against another edition

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5.0

Amazing and vaguely traumatizing. I cried. Sorry to the ocean :(

flynnypup's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

mchyczij's review against another edition

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2.0

I was quite intrigued by the premise of “Pod” as an AVID ocean lover who could dive every day if she could. Perhaps this is why I was so disappointed by this book. The cruelty of every character was so confusing to me? Was I supposed to like anyone in this book? The humanization of the dolphins infuriated me, because they’re not human, they’re animals. They were described in a way where their evil acts of rape, abuse, slavery were a dark dark thing (as they are in human life) as opposed to the different dynamics of the animal kingdom. This made me hate each character, and I was never relieved of that feeling in this dark dark novel. I’m not against dark themes, but these did not work for me. I found myself tuning out half way through the book.

My BIGGEST complaint was the amount of characters however. Yes, their storylines converged as I expected them to, but it was NOT worth it. I was confused, annoyed, and bored throughout.

Disappointing!

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