Pod

Should a book about dolphins have trigger warnings? I was not prepared. The jacket copy would have you believe this is an ecological story of family, when really it's the story of a lone female out on her own that gets sex trafficked and meets a battle-scarred military veteran trying to shake his drug habit ...but with dolphins. There's clam bukkake, puffer three-ways, mystical mantas, trans fish, rampant drug use, random telepathy and rape. I'm not kidding. Even if you're ready to fully lean into this, I still found the whole thing disjointed and wildly uneven. There's a long section with a trans fish that feels like a completely different short story wedged into the text, and the overall narrative is hastily rushed off the stage like the author just realized she was late for dinner. Shortlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction it clearly resonates for many, it just was not for me. I'd give it less stars but I had way too much fun reviewing the book itself.