I sat on this review a long while before typing this out. I'm not sure whatever I say about it here will do it justice. I guess, in short form, if the idea of discovering why we feel the need to categorize things (plants, fish, people) can be harmful appeals to you and you don't mind taking a long journey of discovery to get there, this book is for you.

The description here on Goodreads doesn't really do this book justice; yes, David Starr Jordan's taxonomic quest to label all fish is the reason for the book existing, but it's far from the point of the book. The author's quest to rebuild her life through this obsession with David Starr Jordan is a main point of the story, but even that is just the framework for the larger theme of labelling being harmful and accepting fundamental changes without falling to pieces. Either you accept that fish don't exist and reorder your life around this fundamental change, or you categorically reject it and find yourself lost without a compass.

The buildup this book provides is important, and you can't skip parts to go on to the "better ones", because you need the buildup for the payoff to matter and have meaning. Your perceptions and beliefs about what you've read are constantly being flipped on their heads as you go on this wild ride from David Starr Jordan being this quirky biologist to being a racist eugenicist who maybe killed his wife. I had a lot of whiplash moments when things abruptly changed on me, and I really enjoyed the feeling of "well I guess this book can go anywhere now".

After a lot of thought, this ended up making my favorites shelf for this year. I had no idea I was in for the ride I went on.