Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller

28 reviews

librarymouse's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

About a third of the way through this book, having googled David Starr Jordan, I was ready to finish this, as a hate reader if need be. Jordan was, without question, a horrible man. The atrocities he inflicted upon the world with his promotion of eugenics outweigh any good he may have done as a scientist by multiple orders of magnitude. Seeing Lulu Miller's hero worship of the man was off-putting, the more I learned of him. However, I ended up really enjoying this book as I read on, as Miller explores her own life alongside Jordan's, she brings along the reader. We learn of the atrocities he's committedin the same order she did while conducting the research for this book. It's still hard to have the hero worship of the young Jordan, with his love of stars and rescy jokes, when faced with the knowledge of his role in the American Eugenics movement.

Jordan's hands-on malicious acts, like his touring endorsement of eugenics and the possible murder by poison of his benefactor are completely bonkers. I am constantly amazed that people Revere him, while simultaneously understanding, as I, too have been in awe of the young man he once was.

This book breaks down every facet of Jordan, from his political, religious, and social beliefs; to his family life, addressing each idiosyncrasy with data driven research.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Grief, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Racism, Child death, and Homophobia

cornfusedsnow's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Murder, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Infertility, Rape, Self harm, and Sexual assault

maddiearthur's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, Infertility, and Ableism

Moderate: Child death and Biphobia

Minor: Self harm

mirto's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

If I could give this 6 stars, I would. Brilliant book. I would even say Lulu Miller created a whole new genre. Memoir, biography, essay, nature book, history book, sociology, psychology, murder mystery, whatever, you name it. Made me feel so many things, all at once. I learnt a lot, from science to giving myself the life I want. Why Fish Don't Exist will stay with me forever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Ableism, Gaslighting, Infertility, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, and Hate crime

Moderate: Grief, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Self harm, Sexual assault, War, Death, Emotional abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Murder, Infertility, Infidelity, and Rape

kirtreads's review against another edition

dark informative reflective fast-paced

4.25

This book was good, but the sudden topic switch into eugenics with no warning was a little much. I thought this would be a light hearted memoir/science book like Spineless and instead it is a reflective novel on eugenics, forced sterilisation and the damage of labels. While it’s good it is a lot heavier than advertised. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Violence, and Hate crime

kayeofswords's review against another edition

dark emotional informative fast-paced

I don't know whether to give it 4 stars because it was well-written or 3 stars to reflect my subjective impression of it, so I'm not rating it. I had to take some time to journal about the author's view that chaos is the ultimate force of the universe (in an atheistic, not Discordian, way) and the toxic things her father said to her when she was young about not mattering (aren't we actually all seeking a place in a community? isn't that what the question is really about? how could something or someone matter if not indexed against a reference point or, perhaps, a <em>telos</em>? maybe that's a bit too philosophical ...). I was also bullied badly in school, and I empathize with the trauma ... that stuff is hard to work through. It's interesting that she fixated on David Starr Jordan as a way to do research therapy to help herself. I added some content warning info in case anyone is curious about what comes up.

That said, I enjoyed learning more about how taxonomy got started and the ways in which it fed into ideological currents, positive and negative, that have persisted to this day. A lot of DSJ's behavior sounds a bit narcissistic ... easy to fly under the radar earlier in his life, explosive and dangerous the more authority he had. I didn't know anything about him before starting to read this book and wasn't expecting that he would veer from taxonomy into eugenics. That was sobering. Really great structural organization to all of this.

The last 45 seconds of the audiobook epilogue was <em>adorable</em> and five-star.

Also, I'm so happy that fish don't exist. I use it as a generic term for aquatic life in some of my non-Earth specfic and now feel like I can do that with impunity.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, and Ableism

Moderate: Medical trauma

The author describes some heavy stuff, both in history (the eugenics movement, primarily, with all that entails) and in her own life (mental health/suicide).

intpkatharine's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, and Suicide attempt

I keep this book on my person at all times and reread it because it feels like a safe space. It’s just so personal.

apestforwrens's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Mental illness, Ableism, Child death, and Murder

Eugenics

adeliab's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Mental illness

Moderate: Murder, Medical trauma, and Ableism

Minor: Car accident, Genocide, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Death of parent, Rape, and Self harm

katyaw's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

3.0

There are so many content warnings, I lost count. Suicide attempts, infidelity, drinking to excess, racism, depression, nihilism, murder, eugenics, forced sterilization, etc.

The author writes well, but the book really centers on nihilism and human destructiveness in the name of desperately searching for order and comfort in this world. 

I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone sensitive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Grief, Infidelity, Murder, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Abandonment and Rape