I am terrified of what the ocean can bring, but this book was super super cool. It was not an easy read, but definitely learned a lot.

This book was so enchanting. I loved how approachable the author was in presenting the information here. I felt like I was at home and not talked down to, like some science books I’ve read

7.5 / 10 ✪

https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2023/01/11/below-the-edge-of-darkness-by-edith-widder-review/

Below the Edge of Darkness serves a dual purpose. Intended both as an introduction to the world of bioluminescence and the deep ocean depths, it also serves as a memoir of one Edith Widder—one of the pioneer marine biologists exploring the ocean deep, deep down below the sight of visible light.

I came into this one with no real expectations. Well… okay, I expected the science. I showed up for the science. I started with an expectation of science. What I got (at least initially) was not science. As anyone would in a memoir, Edith Widder spends a lot of time talking about herself. About her childhood, her schooling, the things that made her want to get into marine biology in the first place. I kinda figured that there would be an element of this as well, but maybe not to such an extent. What I did not expect—and what actually turned me off the book at first—was the hook.

Every story starts with a hook. Fiction, at least; thriller, mystery, fantasy, ya, some other variety of book people might read… Even some non-fiction like case-studies and biographies start with a hook. Something to draw the reader in, get them asking “and what happened next?”, something to keep them around. So yeah, I expected a hook. But what I expected was for it to be something on the nature of a dwindling resource, pollution, lack of funding—something about the science. I didn’t expect the hook to be about the author or her life.

No reason why, I guess. Not that I can think of now, at least. Sufficient to say, however, that back when I first started this book—in the late summer of 2021—I didn’t care. About the author, about the reason, about the hook. I wanted some science. To lose myself in the beauty of nature, the technical world, in an attempt to catalogue and understand the very nature of creation itself.

Come 2022, I was struggling to read anything, and found this in the backlog. I already had the audiobook—figured I might as well give it a shot. And, while I didn’t love it, I did enjoy Below the Edge of Darkness.

From what you can probably tell, I’m not a big memoir person. I don’t obsess over unknowable people and their lives to the point that I don’t care to read about some random person that I’ll likely never meet. (And yes, this includes Gandhi, Mother Theresa, or Alfred Noble—I’m never going to meet any of them, so their day to day workings kinda bore me. Read from this what you will, but hey—there’s a reason I mostly read fantasy books.)

Still, while I didn’t show up for the memoir part, I found it mostly interesting. And I’m… somewhat intolerant of this subject in general. I find Cosmos just pretentious and boring. I’m a hard sell.

At the time she was in school, the whole idea of women in science was laughable. After all, the world was still iffy on the idea of “women in the workplace”. But science—science is for men. Women had no capacity to understand or comprehend most of it and blah blah blah. Just… I’ll never understand this, but whatever. So much of Edith Widder’s life was spent just trying to convince some people that she belonged. That she was just as capable as her counterparts. What she overcame in her life to actually make it to the sea floor was quite impressive. What she ranted and raved about constantly was mostly interesting, but again, my brain craved science, and in the end that’s what kept me around.

There’s just enough about the nature of bioluminescence to make this work in a scientific journal. Not enough for a case-study; it reads more like an autobiography with bits of science thrown in to round out the reader’s perspective. I probably would’ve liked more, but it still served as a crash course into the world of bioluminescence, investigating the giant squid, and exploring the deep ocean. I know I ranted way more about the memoir part than I should’ve, but I’m not going to change it now.

Read it if you’re into that kinda thing: memoirs, bioluminescence, the ocean deep, the majesty of nature and the lives of folk you’ll likely never meet. Or if you’ve just grown upset at my blasé review of it. As I said before, it’s mostly pretty good. I’d recommend it.

Dr. Widder is an inspiration and a role model for women in STEM. Reading about her work in work in marine biology and specifically her specialization, the study of bioluminescence, is both engaging and enlightening.

This is great! I LOVE good natural history books and this was definitely one of them. I loved the detail and was really interested in it.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an advance copy.

If you are interested in science and more specifically the Deep sea then you will enjoy this book.
There are quite a few very science geared explanations but this book is full of innovation and invention involving the study of the sea and it's creatures. I found it to be very interesting and led me to want to know more about deep sea creatures and how they evolve and survive.

"Below the Edge of Darkness" is a wonderful book giving voices to marine scientists everywhere and the importance of the lesser known deep sea. I absolutely love bioluminescence and find it extremely fascinating. Dr. Widder has a wonderful story and her research/discoveries are incredible.

I was in awe of so many moments of this book it had me absolutely captivated. If you're into non-fiction and science I would highly recommend immersing yourself into Dr. Widder's world, but you're warned it DOES read like non-fiction and sometimes may be a bit hard to follow the technical language.

A solid marine biology read and I'm glad to have added it to my collection (Giant Squid say what?).

I am constantly on the hunt for nonfiction science books that don't read like a textbook, and this book fit the bill. Dr. Widder's passion for her work is made clear in this book as she weaves in a plethora of knowledge regarding the deep sea and bioluminescence into her memoir. Her adventures and her science drew me in and I particularly delighted over her giant squid research. Some of the science parts felt slightly above a non-academic reader's level, however, it remained a fascinating and inspiring read if one is willing to put in the time.

This book offered a very interesting premise. I was intrigued by the author's background, experiences, and passion for her area of expertise.

However, I found that the writing was extremely difficult to get through due to the heavy focus on the technicalities of science/mathematics. I wish this book were written in a more accessible style.

I had high hopes for this one, but ultimately it fell far short of my expectations.

This is a memoir by marine biologist Edith Widder. When she was in college, she had a terrifying experience; She was temporarily blinded after a risky surgery that nearly killed her. She uses this anecdote at the beginning of "Below the Edge of Darkness" to talk about eyes, eyesight, and the relationship both share with light, something that would become critically important later in her career as she began to focus on studying bioluminescence - or "living light" - in the deep sea.

We landlubbers can see bioluminescence on summer evenings in the flicker of fireflies, but it's much more common in the ocean. It's not the kind of light that generates heat, it's a chemical light that creatures have developed for a variety of reasons, many of which we're still uncovering. It's been a part of Widder's work to discover why these creatures make light - a <i>very</i> energy-intense adaptation - and what certain flashes mean.

In this memoir, Widder talks about her work and the trajectory of her career after her brief brush with blindness, including capturing a giant squid on camera in its natural habitat. It's all incredibly interesting information. The problem is that it's extremely heavy on the science and hops back and forth between academic writing and overly casual writing about her experiences. As such, I don't think this is a book for general audiences.

I think it also has weaknesses as a completed product since that anecdote about her temporary blindness is one of the only things about her personal life included in the book - making it stick out in a sea of stories about her career - but it's also not really commented upon after it's discussed at the start of the book, which ultimately became the thing that disappointed me the most.

I came into this book looking for some fascinating science - which I got, albeit in language above what I expected in a non-academic book - but I also figured the experience of losing her sight would inspire Widder to make some connections to her work. It seemed like fertile ground for her to dig deep into what the blindness meant to her and how it inspired her to seek light in the deep sea, but instead, she kept everything very surface-level. I'm heartbroken to think of what a gorgeous work this could have been had she used her background, her career, and her clearly amazing perspective and presented it with more emotion and more elegant prose.

I thought this was going to be a new favorite, but I remain on the hunt for the next science/nature memoir that will strike the same chord as Lab Girl.

What a fantastic book about bioluminescent ocean animals and a woman scientist breaking barriers in a mostly male world. Part autobiography, part science the main focus is on the research and exploration of the ocean’s waters and bioluminescent animals in particular.

This is an exciting read with amazing discoveries (yes, the Kraken is real!), disparaging tv documentary teams (slanted science for ratings), and submersible mishaps (although most dives do go well). Widder’s research and how she goes about trying to capture the bioluminescent animals on film and study them in the wild are fascinating tales. The few mishaps that go awry lead to moments of intense reading. And don’t skip the footnotes! They are extra nuggets that usually contain a bit of a joke. I’m not sure when the last science book made me laugh this much.

The book did have message: we have barely explored the ocean waters, which do cover more surface of the earth than land, and we need to do more, much more. Widder juxtaposes ocean explorations and research to space exploration, which gets funding and attention on an extreme scale comparatively. We need to learn more about the animals and environment in the oceans before it’s too late. There’s some really neat stuff down there, we just need to find it!

I had high hopes for this book, but they didn't pan out. I think that may be largely due to my own preconceived notions about what the book would contain. I's wanted to read about interesting deep sea life, but wasn't really looking for a memoir—but, of course, this book is a memoir. For readers wanting to see life through this scient's eyes, I think this book will be quite successful.

A wonderful look into the life of a marine biologist. Dr. Widder writes about her inspirations, her work, her tribulations, and her successes in a way that is not only readable, but enjoyable.
It is such a good read that my daughter, who has mentioned a desire to be a marine biologist, will be treated to reading it when she is ready. Thank you Dr. Widder for such a good book. Were I still teaching, it would certainly find its way into the curriculum.

Also, thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

Part memoir, part marine bio nonfiction collection, part environmental call to action, I loved this book. From the publisher, “

Edith Widder’s childhood dream of becoming a marine biologist was almost derailed in college, when complications from a surgery gone wrong caused temporary blindness. A new reality of shifting shadows drew her fascination to the power of light—as well as the importance of optimism.

As her vision cleared, Widder found the intersection of her two passions in oceanic bioluminescence, a little-explored scientific field within Earth’s last great unknown frontier: the deep ocean. With little promise of funding or employment, she leaped at the first opportunity to train as a submersible pilot and dove into the darkness.

Widder’s first journey into the deep ocean, in a diving suit that resembled a suit of armor, took her to a depth of eight hundred feet. She turned off the lights and witnessed breathtaking underwater fireworks: explosions of bioluminescent activity. Concerns about her future career vanished. She only wanted to know one thing: Why was there so much light down there?“

First. Peep that cover. I love it so much. Widder has studied the deepest depths of our ocean and shares a lot of cool info about bioluminescence as well as calling out for the conservation of our oceans. As you know, I’m fascinated with our oceans’ depths, and I love when we discover new creatures and make new discoveries, because so much of our Earth remains unexplored and unknown. This book takes the reader on an adventure to the depths and will teach you so much about the life found down there.

This book by oceanographer and marine biologist Edith Widder, is part personal memoir, and part scientific exploration of bioluminescence. Although the main focus is on the amazing bioluminescent creatures of the deep, Widder also covers a variety of other interesting topics along the way; including neurology, anatomy, the physics of light and photons, and more.

The book goes back and forth between personal experiences and scientific discussion, allowing the reader to get a better understanding of why Widder chose her field of study, and how her events in her life shaped her scientific career. The Introduction starts with a tense life-or-death experience in a leaking sub, before jumping into some history of the discovery of bioluminescent life. Widder then covers her harrowing near death experiences as a college student, and the terrible months of surgeries and slow recovery from multiple medical crises. These issues left her temporarily blind, and here Widder goes into the mechanics of human vision, how the eye works, and even the physics of light.

Widder goes on to detail other challenges she faced, including discrimination and funding issues; all on her quest to learn more about bioluminescence. She decribes the experience of being in the atmospheric diving suit “Wasp”, and later piloting the Deep Rover sub. Widder details an expedition to Cuba, where Castro even asked her some questions about deep sea life. As a marine biologist, Widder is acutely aware of how human activity can threaten the delicate ecosystems of the ocean, and she even started her own non-profit environmental organization to help protect the health of the ocean.

This was an interesting an informative book, written in an unusual but engaging format. I enjoyed the combination of memoir and scientific information. Widder also has a good sense of humor, and I would recommend reading the footnotes! There are also a ton of amazing pictures at the end of the book.

This was a wonderful book that combined person narrative and science. If people are interested in the topic they should check it out. If they are parents, they should skip the entire detailed description of the author's injury, treatment, further complications, and recovery. While it was necessary to frame thinking from a new angle about vision and ultimately light, I can't get that out of my head and don't need any reason to be frightened of my kids doing kid things like climbing trees. If I was the editor I would have suggested that the depth and coverage of the experience was not necessary for the story.

I was so excited to read this book when I saw it on NetGalley! Below the Edge of Darkness is a really amazing memoir into bioluminescence and finding light and life in the ocean. This book is really mesmerizing and thrilling with just enough scientific to really keep you interested.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Random House Publishing Group- Random House for an advanced copy of this science memoir.

One of the great thrills is reading a book about smart people doing smart things and making a difference in the world either scientifically or physically and having a fun time while doing it. A new publisher trend I am enjoying is the popular science/memoirs that seem to be appearing. Especially the books where you can tell the writer is having as much fun writing as they did researching and doing the science, and love to explain to laypeople what and how they do. Edith Widder in Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea does that and more.

Dr. Widder starts the book on a tension filled moment, goes into some science, then into ther childhood, and more science. I enjoyed this as it made the science less daunting, too many facts sometimes get in the way of a good narrative. In addition the scenes of her growing up and learning about the world, her sharing of her medical problems in college, plus the chauvinism she had to deal with later and her sheer persistence at becoming the person she became is interesting in itself. And inspiring. You learn a lot about the creatures under the seas, and the fact that they might not have much time left, if we continue to treat the world the way we do. However Dr. Widder has some hope and that comes across too.

For fans of Lab Girl, or for fans of a different kind of memoir, more science based than look at what I've done. Without a doubt a great read for those that love the sea and all the creatures that glow and shine underneath it. Oh and read the footnotes, there is a lot of interesting material in them.

What is a recipe for a great popular science book? A lot of adventures, thrill of discovery and hair raising experiences seasoned with a healthy dose of mind-blowing scientific facts and mixed with a moving memoir. All this and more you can find in this brilliant volume.

I have to admit that I chose it because of my interest in science rather than familiarity with the author, so I was pleasantly surprised not only by her accomplishments but also beautiful, witty, tongue-in-cheek style (remember to read the footnotes, it’s pure gold!). Edith Widder spent her life in the lab and on the ocean, fully dedicated to marine biology, never losing her curiosity and spirit, despite leaking submarines (with Hitchcockian touch, she starts the book with such a scene), lack of funding nor fights with TV producers.

In some ways this book reminded me of my favorite ‘Lab Girl’ by Hope Jahren, as both are inspiring stories of female scientists, though here the balance between describing the research and memoir is reversed. And that’s a good thing because bioluminescence and deep sea ecology are little known but fascinating topics, especially with such an exceptional guide as Edith Widder.

Many thanks to the publisher, Random House, and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book.

Incredible. If I wasn't a full time mom to littles I might have been convinced to become a Marine Biologist. Widder explains the beautiful light under the ocean in such a beautiful and mysterious way. I was so entranced. I loved learning about her accident and how that influenced her discovery of the importance of light and vision. Definitely recommend this book. Fair warning, it's difficult to read when you are tired or with distractions around. I had to reread paragraphs several times. This was a higher level read than I am used to reading. It definitely stretched me and gave me more knowledge.

I received a free ebook copy from Netgally in exchange for an honest review.