Spineless

I was really hoping to enjoy this, but it's not really about jellyfish at all! Happy to see I'm not the only one who was rather bored with this one.

A little repetitive, and I didn't enjoy the memoir parts very much because they were unrelatable for me and because they felt shallow. The jellyfish information was interesting, and I would have loved more on the question this book set out to answer regarding jellyfish.

However, the issue of climate change and its relationship to jellyfish is not portrayed firmly in the book???s narrative. The author does seem to aim for it throughout the course of the book, and does seem to reach the conclusion that jellyfish are vital to our understanding of the changing oceans as a result of climate change, but the journey to that conclusion is tenuous. The scientists themselves are still not in agreement as to whether or not exploding jellyfish numbers are indeed a sign of a climate change-driven oceanic apocalypse, and I appreciate the author???s honesty on that particular point, but this tidbit of information ought to be the beating heart of this book. The author should shine a spotlight on that uncertainty, because driving curiosity towards the subject could help inspire readers to pay more attention to jellyfish scientists and thus forward their cause. Jellyfish are important to the ocean???s ecosystems, and any changes that involve the ocean will involve them, too.Instead of the above, however, the author puts more focus on her journey back to science. This book is not so much a scientific treatise in the same manner as Kolbert???s book, but a personal memoir of the author???s return to the discipline she left behind in favour of caring for her husband and family. Jellyfish and climate change were the topics that interested her and led her back to science, so to speak, but they are not what this book is about.

Full review here: https://wp.me/p21txV-EY