My Life in Sea Creatures: A young queer science writer’s reflections on identity and the ocean

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We Swarm: Riis Beach, New York: famous for queer culture, there was a time they were there during an inundation of blobby creatures, perhaps salps. Salps periodically swarm for food, unlike Pride in NYC, which is for a variety of reasons. This is a fun piece, a delightful break from the emotional challenge of 'Striker,' or the intellectual challenge of 'Hybrid.'

A beautiful lure that caught me; the lush colors of the cover, the temptation of sea creatures, explorations of identity. Overall, it was an interesting collection of pieces that interested and occasionally challenged me. I can be honest enough to say that Sy Montgomery and her attempts to do something similar drives me bonkers, perhaps because I've had my fill of straight, white, middle-class women. Intersectionality and grey areas are everything. Compelling, distinctive and enthralling, Sabrina Imbler has found a whole new way to help us think about and care about the deep and interweaving curiosities of human life and sea life HELEN SCALES, author of The Brilliant Abyss I also thought thematically the connections between the sea creatures and Imbler's life didn't quite resonate. Although I loved the idea of combining these two disparate genres, the execution didn't work for me. That said, I learned a lot of cool stuff about the ocean and its inhabitants that I won't forget and I appreciated getting this information from a queer feminist mixed race perspective. I would have liked a book that was just that better, I think.Perhaps any human would pale in comparison to the wonders of the sea creatures Imbler describes with vividness and insight. Watch out for the bit where humble pet goldfish are released into open water and all hell breaks loose or for the lovely, bold descriptions of sturgeon, whose “mountainous scutes and chin bristles jut out like stalactites” and who “glide aimlessly, with an ossified kind of grace”. A superb must-read... [a] collection of fascinating essays [which] explores the wonders of rivers and oceans in the light of the writer's own life Tablet I suspect this was harder for me because the memoir side of the book was often mostly vague, more tied up into general themes than specific experiences. And because the science side was the same, pulling out little stories here and there. I do not really like that kind of memoir or that kind of science writing. I like to go deep. I like to get into the details. I don't like memoirs or science books that only scratch the surface and there was just too much of that here for me as a reader. It's definitely a personal thing, and I suspect many readers will find a lot to love here.

I love memoirs in which the author includes some kind of technical writing or specialized history, but especially when they include science writing. I learned about sea creatures, and connected emotionally with them, almost as much as I did with Imbler herself. This is a powerful, moving collection for the unexpected, heartbreaking, and affirming stories Imbler shared from the parts of the world we don't always pay attention to. A young queer science writer on some of the ocean's strangest creatures and what they can teach us about human empathy and survival Imbler is [...] a gifted science and nature writer, capable of describing sea creatures with knowledge, originality and supple poeticism Bidisha Mamata, Observer Profound, surprising, and thrillingly strange. I love it SY MONTGOMERY, author of The Soul of an OctopusThis far-reaching, unique collection shatters our preconceptions about the sea and what it means to survive.