As editor, I requested this book as background reading for a review we were running. Sadly, I did not get the time to read it, but our reviewer thought very highly of it, rating it 5-stars.

Really impressed with the maturity and introspection of this young author. She has a real way with words and weaves a beautiful story that manages to be both a memoir and an ode to the sea. I was fascinated by her personal life and the ups and downs that she has gone through but I was equally as invested in her descriptions of the various marine life that she has chosen to spotlight.

I think this book is for anyone who loves the ocean, conservation, art, and a well-written memoir.

Move Like Water is an exquisitely written memoir about Hannah Stowe’s lifelong love of, and work for, the sea. This book resonated with me because I’m a “daughter of the sea” myself, although not nearly as brave as Hannah is….I love the sea from the water’s edge and have never swam in the cold waters. This book also hit home as she describes how chronic pain affects your life: body, soul and mind and how you can still achieve your dreams by giving in to the pain when needed and doing what you want inspire of the pain when you can. Do not skip the very last chapter. In this chapter you learn how, with choices that you make, YOU can help the sea regardless of where you live.
This poem by my favorite poet Pablo Neruda came to to mind often while reading this book and I want to add it to my review and dedicate it to the author, Hannah Stowe.

Sonnet XXXIV (You are the daughter of the sea) by Pablo Neruda

You are the daughter of the sea, oregano's first cousin.
Swimmer, your body is pure as the water;
cook, your blood is quick as the soil.
Everything you do is full of flowers, rich with the earth.

Your eyes go out toward the water, and the waves rise;
your hands go out to the earth and the seeds swell;
you know the deep essence of water and the earth,
conjoined in you like a formula for clay.

Naiad: cut your body into turquoise pieces,
they will bloom resurrected in the kitchen.
This is how you become everything that lives.

And so at last, you sleep, in the circle of my arms
that push back the shadows so that you can rest--
vegetables, seaweed, herbs: the foam of your dreams

#MoveLikeWater. #netgalley #HannahStowe

Move Like Water is a book that blends the Stowe's life experiences with marine biology in a captivating way. There are so many elements that stood out to me that I think a bullet point list would work well.

-the author is a female working in a male dominated field - marine biology and sailing
-descriptive and lyrical writing about the ocean and marine ecosystems
-scientific facts that are easy to understand by non-science people 😅
-shares her inspiration by other female scientists in marine biology
-her non-traditional path of earning a degree
-having a major spinal injury as an active young person, rehabilitation, pain management
-I loved learning so much about the ocean animals that she writes about
-the author's advocacy for ocean conservation and reducing our human impact on marine life

The vast ocean kind of scares me but, Move Like Water has changed my perspective quite a bit. Stowe's writing has encouraged me to see the beauty and wonder of the sea. If she ever writes more books, I would definitely read them.

A luminous debut that's part memoir, part paean to the sea, and part treatise on marine life and humanity's impact on it.
As a child growing up on the Pembrokeshire Coast in Wales, Hannah Stowe always loved the sea, learning to swim at the same time she learned to walk and falling asleep to the rhythm of a nearby lighthouse's beacon as it swept across her bedroom. In her teens and twenties, she sailed aboard research vessels studying whales while earning her marine biology degree from Plymouth University. Her debut book, Move Like Water, chronicles her remarkable life journey and her unwavering passion for the ocean and the creatures that rely on it.

I find it hard to classify this extraordinary book. Much of it falls squarely into memoir, as the author narrates her life's story. Her experiences on the open ocean are absorbing, and her ability to conquer the hurdles in her way is inspiring, making this one of the more interesting memoirs I've encountered. Much of it, though, reads like an essay on marine life and ecology, and the author's ability to seamlessly interweave stories about the creatures she's encountered is impressive. At a low point in her life, for example, she dreams about an albatross. Throughout the ensuing chapter, which concerns the purchase of her first sailboat, she returns repeatedly to the lifecycle of this fascinating bird, at times comparing her own experiences to that of her subject ("I myself was once again preparing to leave my maternal nest"). She knowledgeably and lovingly describes each animal's unique features as well as the challenges humans pose to their ongoing survival.

Stowe's prose is dazzling throughout, beautifully poetic while simultaneously creating an atmosphere one can practically feel:

There was never a time when I did not know the sea. As I lay in my cradle at my mother's feet, day after day, the salt wind blew around our home. It mingled with the honeysuckle that curled around her garden studio, sweet-scented and dappling light as she coaxed gentle worlds to paper with paint…A hushed roar, water on sand and stone as the tides ebbed and flowed, both rhythm and rhyme.

The overall tone of the book is elegiac, the author often expressing a wistful longing to be back on the water during the times in her life when she is separated from the environment that is so central to her being. Even as she highlights the marine life she so admires, a note of sadness creeps in when she comments on the fragility of its existence.

There are a few passages where the author steps away from her beautifully poetic prose to discuss the minutiae of sailing or biology, and these sections do come across as overly technical for the layperson ("[The sailboats] are all Bermudan rigged, with a triangular mainsail running up the mast from tack to head, the clew out on the end of the boom. Both Song and Balaena had a staysail up forwards, and all three a genoa on a furler."). Fortunately, these paragraphs don't appear often, and can easily be skipped or googled for those disinterested in or unfamiliar with the subject.

The book also feels a little unfinished; Stowe's ultimate goal is to undertake a transatlantic journey by sailboat, but she is sidelined by injury and this aspiration remains unmet. In addition, her narrative contains gaps, making her story seem episodic and adding to the reader's impression that the memoir is incomplete (for example, she mentions buying a boat with her partner Henry, but we're not informed when he came into the picture – he's just suddenly there).

Those minor complaints aside, Move Like Water is a gem of a book – a must-read for anyone interested in the sea or marine life, and highly recommended for those who enjoy top-notch memoirs. Stowe's exquisite prose makes this a book to be savored.

Thank you to Tin House and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Hannah Stowes’ Move Like Water: My Story of the Sea is a love letter to the ocean. Her prose is highly descriptive, nautical, and reflective. Stowes uses imagery of marine animals to provide a context for her life events and highlights the important work of marine researchers who dedicate themselves to preserving and saving the ocean. This work is a poignant look at the ocean as a source of reassurance for one’s personal journey and wonder.

A mix of memoir and wildlife study, this is both the story of a young woman finding her place in the world and a tribute to the sea and its creatures. Hannah Stowe has always been fascinated by the sea, since growing up on the Pembrokeshire coast. In Move Like Water, she shares her journey towards becoming a scientist and sailor while highlighting some of the wildlife she's encountered along the way. Stowe is an excellent writer and paints a vivid picture of life on the sea. Her personal narrative blends well with the stories of the creatures that have drawn her to the ocean and inspired her to take action to save their habitat. I came for the nature writing, but ended up equally fascinated by the stories of sailing, navigation, and the work of amazing women like Sylvia Earle. (And the illustrations are beautiful, too!)

Thank you to NetGalley and Tin House for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Move Like Water: My Story of the Sea by Hannah Stowe is a beautifully written memoir and journal full of nature, the open waters, and all of the unknown.

This book is a wonderful combination of personal memoir, nature journal, nonfiction, and brings to light not only the author’s own story and path, but the fundamental questions we all reflect upon while we are surrounded by nature and the ever vast seas.

The author does a wonderful job portraying her personal experiences and observations, but also the world and our relationship with it, when looking at several creatures that she has encountered and learned from in her travels and studies.

The images she creates on paper became very emotional and vivid for me, and I found myself more than once almost feeling as if I was experiencing what she has and finding myself reflecting on my life, my purpose, my path, and how my faith guides me in these issues.

Very lovely and though-provoking.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Tin House for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 9/19/23.