Will I love How Far the Light Reaches?

Is it a memoir? Is it a book about marine biology? It's both! Sabrina Imbler ropes you in with their writing and then you realise you learned some cool animal facts along the way.

This memoir is unlike anything I have ever read before, and I've read many! The writing is sublime and deeply personal. I gobbled it up in one sitting.

Imbler plumbs the depths of their life experience like a deep-sea diver, pausing at each uncomfortable interval allowing the reader to observe, acclimate, and absorb inner truths about the human condition. From pelagic anecdotes and testimonies, to benthic inner-demons and dark nights of the soul, Imbler explores the breadth and range of human psychological, biological, gender, and sexual identity. With sea creatures.

Yes, you heard me right. Sea creatures. Intrigued? You should… show more.

And I enjoyed learning about the life of this young self-identified “queer mixed race” author, navigating their racial and sexual identity in America today, as much as I enjoyed learning about the animals that they were writing about.

Imbler twines the two in an acknowledgment that we humans are, in fact, twined with the natural world. Her metaphors that link human communities with marine communities, or the predatory “Bobbit” worm with the story of Lorena Bobbit, are engaging and revealing. 

This book is just truly stunning. I feel a sense of awe and honor to peer into the brilliant mind of this author.

The lines hurt my tender and receptive heart. I love all the creatures mentioned in this book, many of which I study or work for myself, but honestly, this writer could be talking about dentistry, recycling, or even taxes, and the particular and profound use of language and spirit that come through would still be enough for me stop everything and just take a breath and close my eyes in gratitude.

This is a beautiful composition of… show more.