There was a variety of formatting issues, even for an eARC. The who, where, and name section are rendered nonsensical and unreadable. The text switches from regular to bold randomly. Footnotes sit in weird, disruptive places. It was problematic but mostly readable.

I was impressed at the undertaking of Göth and her partner Ivo. Tonga is remote and removed now. Without the tech of the last 30 years? I’m impressed with their bravery, fortitude and adventurous spirit. They have incredible patience and tough constitutions for the intensity of that fieldwork.

I wanted some humor and personal color while dealing with the various culture clashes. You can tell Göth has a science background because even when telling her own story, it was very dry. I wanted to see her personality on the page.

At one point, Göth has to hold a Malau chick close to keep it warm. What was the sensory experience of holding this freshly hatched, endangered baby bird? What emotions was Göth feeling? it was all facts, no feelings.

Despite the conservation of this bird being the reason for this adventure, details about them are sporadic. Did the birds have personality? Did Göth give them fun nicknames? The limited sections devoted to this information had more zest. I wish there’d been more if it.

This book needed more. More emotion, more detail, more personality. The potential was there but wasn’t fully realized. It was interesting but I couldn’t like it as much as I wanted to. 3/5

Narrated with charismatic delight and enthusiasm brimming over, this nonfiction account relates the author's experiences beginning at the age of 21, of she and her boyfriend planning, securing funding, and participating in a conservation project on one of the Volcanic Islands of Tonga. Studying a rare species of superprecicocial terrestrial bird (a megapode species), Ann Goth and her boyfriend underwent incredible experiences, bonding with some of the native population, observing the birds which at that time only existed on one particular South Pacific Island [an island containing a dormant but certainly not extinct volcano], and planning to translocate some of the birds to another island (as this species is Endangered). The narrative is a joyous delight to read; the author's enthusiasm and devotion to Conservation and Biology is rare in today's cynical and jaded culture!