saifighter's Reviews (253)

Half memoir, half science essay collection, Gathering Moss meets us at the cross roads of the scientific mind and the human heart. And its kind of a mess.

Unlike some of the one star reviewers of this book, I went in already knowing this was short of kind of too personal to be considered just a non-fiction science book. The spiritual/emotional connection we feel with nature doesn't really blend well with cold scientific facts but Kimmer is REALLY trying to make them mix but for me its just not working.

For me, the personal/memoir parts of this book were super enjoyable. Some of these passages were just really poetic and really touched on the human connection with nature without going tooo spiritual (it did get very spiritual at times but it wasn't so much that I hated it). I just wish the chapters/essays were a little more connected, more like a regular memoir.

As for the science part, I learned things. Did my eyes glaze over a few times and I had to remember to pay attention? Yes. When the book is info dumbing facts, I found it super hard to engage. I almost wish I was taking notes in a physical book instead of listening to an audiobook.

I think your enjoyment of this book is really gonna matter on what you are looking for. If you are looking for a personal memoir set in nature, this isn't it. If you are looking for a strictly technical break down of the impact of moss, this is also not it. But if you don't mind a little bit of both, you might have a nice time with Gathering Moss.

Someone didn’t follow the Chekhov's gun rule.

If you are gonna give the dragon 2 hot rods, why didn’t the main character get to ride them both at the same time? Like why even give them 2 eggplants if there isn’t gonna be double penetration. Disappointing.

Also, the dragon was WAY too humanoid. It just wasn’t monster enough for me.

She didn’t cook. I didn’t eat. No substance was had.

I didn’t totally hate it so 2 stars but trust me. I wanted dead dove and I got a roasted chicken. You can do better else where.

This was great. I loved it. It was grotesque and beautiful. The writing is like poetry. I loved all the gross details. The only flaw is that there isn’t more. I could read 10 more stories about these two.

This is the audience I think this book is for: the religiously traumatized and LGBT youths. In other words, its for the angry The people that haven't made peace with their anger, who doesn't find comfort in rituals and labels but disgust. I think this book would have been perfect for me when I was freshly out or a new apostate. Its Neon Genesis Evangelion themed revenge porn on a religion and society that rejects us. This book is wildly angry. Justifiably angry. Its out here raw dogging it on teenage angst along. And its GOOD. Its stunningly written with likeable, interesting characters. The gore is great and actually pretty detailed (though I could go my whole life without having to read another description of puking human body parts). The only thing really holding me back from recommending it to everyone I know is that its just not for me. I'm just not this angry anymore. But I know that the 16-19 age me, was. And she would have loved this book. So 4.5 stars but lets call it 5. I am definitely looking forward to the author's adult fiction debut and will definitely be following their work from now on.

This is my first Sarah Gailey book. I instantly fell in love with their writing.

This book is just a guilty pleasure. I know its not as elaborate or strongly written as it could be. But I really just don’t care. I found this book after looking for some LGBT western fantasy that wasn’t a Red Dead Redemption fan fiction. A friend recommended this book to me and I was instantly in love with the idea. Then the characters ended up being a total delight if not a little silly.

Its a western, its queer, its got hippos. What more could you want.