How Far the Light Reaches

Bookseller recommendation

“How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler is badass. I never thought I'd walk away from a collection of essays about weird sea creatures with a more crystal-clear understanding of my own gender identity than I have had in years—but curious readers live to be surprised! In winding personal essay with science writing, Imbler gifts the reader with a complex analysis of intersecting identities of race, queerness, and more. And in doing so, Imbler holds our hands through the turbulence as they bend the imaginary binaries of sex and gender and the line between truth and metaphor, all while queering the form of the personal essay. In one of the most powerful entries of the collection, Imbler invites queer and POC youth and adults to submit their own essays, and weaves them into a dazzling spectrum boasting the forms of existence and possibilities open to us. By the end of this collection, I was sobbing, but in a very a good way.”

— Wulfe • Raven Book Store

Bookseller recommendation

“Imbler’s full-length debut is as much about their personal evolution as a queer, mixed race writer as it is an exploration of the deep sea creatures whose eccentricities inspire them. Imbler's tender approach and tactile prose toggles between expansive aquatic research and personal experiences, expanding the portrait of our world as we know it and providing hope, an ember of light in the expansive miles of darkness below the ocean's surface.”

— Ri • House of Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Part memoir, part nature/science writing, this is an amazing book. The author's ability to weave together the wonders of marine biology with stories exploring their own existence and coming of age lets us experience the world in a different light. Original and thought-provoking. Looking for a good audio book to listen to? This is a great choice, read by the author!”

— Anne • Newtonville Books

Bookseller recommendation

“This utterly absorbing collection of essays merges marine biology and memoir, diving into such subjects as disordered eating via a starving mother octopus, the power of queer spaces through the science and survival of deep sea wildlife, gendered violence and the Sandstriker (formerly named after Lorena Bobbit), being mixed-race and rainbow fish hybridity, and more. A book about sea creatures has never been more beautifully, joyfully, achingly human. ”

— Megan • Underground Books