And The Ocean Was Our Sky - Patrick Ness

⭐ 9.0/10

(Originally written by Rebecca)

After this book sat on my to-read shelf for nearly an entire year, I impulsively looked it up on audiobook and listened to it in a single day. It's a fascinating concept--from the point of view of whales, who hunt humans because humans hunt them. In this book whales are highly intelligent and even quite developed, with tools and cities and language. The story revolves around a hunting party of whales coming across a shipwreck, finding a human, and going on a journey to face the "devil," Toby Wick. It's a short book, illustrated, which makes it feel like a children's book, but it's also quite bloody and dark. I found it really interesting--a look at the demons we create, the way we rationalize killing and war, and the utter vastness of the ocean. Especially considering we do know that whales are highly intelligent animals, and yet we don't factor that into our killing of them at all (though granted the whale killing trade is nothing compared to what it once was, etc). I really enjoyed this, and it was a quick read. Would recommend!