content warnings: war, violence, death, body horror


“For who needs devils when you have men?”


This was a really fucking weird book and I loved it.

And the Ocean Was Our Sky is a Moby Dick retelling where the whales have harpoons strapped to their backs and hunt men, and it's just as wild as it sounds. This is an extremely short book, clocking in at 160 pages, and it's almost entirely theme driven. Specifically, the theme of morality in war.

The book explores the idea of the other side (the 'bad' side) in a war seeming like one being, seeming as if there is no difference between them all because they all must just be awful. And the book explores this from both perspectives, making sure that you know both sides are ultimately wrong in their motivations to fight the other.

I also need to give a quick shout out to Rovina Cai whose illustrations are wonderful. They never overtake the story, only serving to enhance it, and honestly I want some of it framed and put up on my wall.

As someone who loves all of Patrick Ness' weirdness and complete disregard for the rules of storytelling, this completely worked for me, but if you're someone who is very hit-and-miss with Patrick Ness then I've got a feeling that this will be a miss for you.


“For there are devils in the deep,
but worst are the ones
we make.”