Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

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

35 reviews

joctrem's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

dominikag's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt

vlucet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

5.0

I hugged this book for a minute when I finished it. It's the most beautiful read I have had all year. It's the rawest piece of life altering, soul wrenching, eyes opening, litterature. This might my favorite BOOK of all times. 
You have to read this book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide

em_body's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

A great read with a lovely writing style! The tone really adds a lot to this piece of science writing interwoven with personal stories about loss and philosophic reflections on the nature of categorization. The author deftly develops a narrative thread running through all the informative lessons about the history of taxonomy and the psychology of getting through hard times and embracing hope.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

brookeslots's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Such a wonderful book. It is part memoir, part history, part philosophy. Will be thinking about it for years to come. Fish don’t exist!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide

majesticbirdy's review against another edition

adventurous informative medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide

cass_lit's review against another edition

3.0

There is a certain category of nonfiction that doesn’t work for me. This started off like that and I was worried. 

I had no idea where this was going for most of this book. It seemed in the beginning like a stream of consciousness about “chaos” as the author worked through some thoughts on dependency (her dad, her ~curly haired~ ex-boyfriend). (All of her thoughts there are totally valid, I just don’t get a lot of enjoyment out of reading them.) I did not understand her obsession with David Starr Jordan at first, but then she started telling us all of the shitty things he did and I REALLY did not understand why he deserved a book that wasn’t focused on setting his reputation straight. When someone uses his power to cover sexual assault with threats and potentially murders someone (and definitely gaslights the hell out of her after her death), I’m simply not interested in the psychology behind why he did it. He did it and he was wrong. In my opinion, the author’s desperation to find out why Jordan was like this felt like she was trying to find an excuse for him. 

The last ~1/4 or so of the book truly saved it for me. Miller felt like she was unequivocally calling Jordan a bad person, and she even got a little vindictive - deservedly. The threads of the story finally started to make some sense and I could find a point to why she wrote this. I am in awe of Anna and Mary’s strength for getting through what they did; they’re a great model of what women (and all humans!) can be, no matter what depraved narcissists have said. I also didn’t know that “fish” wasn’t considered a scientific classification any longer, so it was equally as interesting as it was satisfying.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism and Medical trauma

Minor: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Suicide attempt

avrowland96's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful informative medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Racism

Moderate: Self harm, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Biphobia

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

Minor: Rape and Abandonment

audieverde's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.5

Took awhile to get into and I never knew where it was going, which I realized was part of the chaos and the point of the book. Once I was in it, I could not stop , and it sent me down numerous research rabbit holes.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Suicide, and Religious bigotry