Book Review: The Unexpected Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke

 

A book I initially wanted to grab at the bookstore, but ultimately just borrowed from the library. Let's have a look, shall we?

In this book, Cooke takes a look at various misconceptions surrounding animals throughout history, from pandas to vultures to sloths to bats, and gives us some details about them while also explaining the actual truth behind the misconceptions.

A fun read, if not a bit interesting and repetitive in the subjects discussed sometimes. I do love this book, though. It was very educational and I also liked the author's sometimes rather dry and direct tone. I also liked exploring not just the misconceptions about each animal, but also where they (possibly) came from. Because there's some wild stuff in here. Beavers that supposedly chew off and throw their reproductive organs to ward off predators. Panda's being very bad at reproducing. Swallows hiding underwater during winter. Eels that just spawn out of nowhere. It really does get ridiculous in the misconceptions here and it was fun to explore those. Heck, some even still remain a bit of a mystery to this day, such as how and where eels exactly reproduce and their young spawn.

So this book was fun look into these animals while also being educational. One thing I will say, however, is that this book isn't exactly for those who are prudes. There's a lot of intimate stuff discussed, including the very colorful sex lives of a certain penguin subspecies. And a lot of sections actually are (at least partially) dedicated to animal reproduction. I myself am not a prude and don't mind reading about these subjects too much, but I will say that it started to feel a bit same-y after a while when a lot of the animal misconceptions discussed revolve around animal reproduction. There's a whole wide world of millions of animal species that exist, and no doubt a lot of myths/misconceptions that come with each species that aren't reproduction-related, so why a lot of them had to get sexual just felt a bit repetitive for me. So, yeah, not a book for those who don't feel comfortable reading about these subjects. Or like me, who wanted to see a little more variety discussed. It's nature and all that but I don't need that much about the same subject, especially when the animal kingdom has so much more animals (and other misconceptions) to offer.

But overall this was a fun read and the author's writing voice was one I could really get into as well, not being ashamed to be a bit direct or poke a little fun at a situation once every while. I just genuinely wish more non-sexual misconceptions were discussed here because it got old fast.

Rating: 3.5/5