Book Review: Kingdom of Insects by Aglaia Bouma

  Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Insectenrijk.

I do love bugs, so here's another bug-book review. 

In this book, Bouma delves into the realm of insects and gives us many facts about them and their biology, such as how they live, grow, hunt, etc. 

A rather good book, though I do have some issues with it. I did like Bouma's writing style and I was also very interested in her own personal touch to the book: the tale about her overcoming her phobia of bugs and growing to love them.

But the book felt a bit unfocused at times. Sometimes I'd switch rather abruptly between Bouma's personal story and just being a general non-fiction about bugs with information about them. I think both can absolutely be done within the same book, but it could've been handled a bit less jarringly and had a little bit more focus. Maybe move Bouma's personal story to unique sections or chapters within the book and not having them interspersed in between.

I do also have to admit like other reviewers have that especially in the first half or so of the book a lot of information about insects is thrown at the reader. Which is not bad, obviously, since it's a non-fiction about bugs, but the rapid-pace speed at which facts and species are highlighted is probably just a bit jarring, especially if the reader (like me) still isn't super familiar with insects yet. For people with a lot of bug knowledge it might not be as jarring, but as someone who is still new to learning about them getting a bunch of different facts, species, etc. thrown at you in a short time span can be a bit hard to keep up with. The book does eventually "calm down" a little in the later half, but I feel that this could've been spread more evenly. It probably would've been less hard to keep up with, then.

Overall I did like this book, though. I learned a bunch of new things about various bug species and Bouma's story of overcoming her phobia was interesting to read. I myself have an uncommon phobia which I have semi-overcome (though it's not bug-related) so it's always inspiring to read a story like that, even if we do have very different experiences.

Rating: 3.5/5