By the end I really connected with the characters and also felt like I learned a lot, which is something I always like in a book. While I found this book slow at first, and difficult to follow at times, I definitely appreciated the beautiful writing and the extensive research, and it became more compelling once I got into the main story. As she undergoes terrible challenges during this book, she grows as an individual and as a leader. When he’s badly hurt and forced into the wild, he sees everything with new eyes and has to learn to connect with other sea life.Įa is a bit difficult to like at first she lives a good life in her pod as a young dolphin but struggles to fit in because she doesn’t hear the sounds of the ocean the way the other dolphins do. Yet he prides himself on the “work” he does in the lab. Google was my favorite character because his life in captivity feels so tragic, and he’s forced to undergo so much change. A military lab is the only life he’s ever known, and his only attachment is to his human handler and his daily dose of drugs. And there’s a remora, a parasite who attaches itself to Ea. There’s a wrasse who loses his entire community in a storm. There’s Google, a dolphin who has only lived in a marine laboratory, drugged on fentanyl, until his tank breaks apart and he’s forced into the wild.

There’s Devi, the head wife in the Tursiops pod. There’s a Rorqual whale who sings a sad, troubling song. It’s slow to get into, and the one thing that detracted from this book was that the narrative perspective switched frequently. Paull explores not only the dynamics between many different types of sea creatures, she also emphasizes the powerful impact of man on nature, as the characters experience toxic substances in the water and noises that are physically painful to their sensors. Pod is written beautifully (and that cover!), and those who care about ocean creatures and reading about nature will love this book.

As a warning, there is rape in this book. As with The Bees, Paull makes you think about the perspective of both animals and humans, as of course we don’t perceive animal sexual behavior in the same way as humans. When she becomes separated from her pod, she’s kidnapped and forced into the harem of wives in the Tursiops megapod. Another thing that made this a tough read is that it gets pretty dark at times. Ea is a spinner dolphin from the Longi tribe.

The bees laline paull review