3 out of 4 stars
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There's An Earwig in My Fish Tank by Helen Collins is a non-fiction book of tales in the adventures of pet ownership.
Helen Collins tells her own story of the trials and tribulations about owning different types of animals, from dogs and cats, to birds and fish. She starts out by explaining her early love of animals and how it is a privilege to be responsible for the animals she has taken care of throughout the years. In fact, she wrote her book as a tribute to rescued animals everywhere.
After explaining her love for animals, she introduces us to a list of her most current pets that she is writing about in this book. Each chapter has a whimsical title and typically focuses on a particular tale about a specific pet. One chapter, as you might guess, is appropriately named after the book. While the author spends a great deal writing about all her pets, it soon becomes clear that the book mainly focuses on one, beloved dog, they call Monty. She explains how Monty joins their family and how she talks her husband into keeping the stray dog. Monty, however, ends up being so much more than they ever could have imagined.
As a pet lover myself, I enjoyed reading about the many tales that happened to this family and their pets. It became very clear that she loves all the animals that she has been entrusted with. The author’s quirky writing style made the stories fun and relatable; while telling a different story in each chapter, she kept them short and to the point. Helen Collins keeps most of the stories light-hearted and full of fun, but she does manage to tell a couple of heartbreaking stories that just might have you in tears. That is the nature of pet ownership, unfortunately, but she gracefully keeps the book all about her love for each animal in any situation.
While I appreciated each story the author brought to the book, I wish she would have written them in chronological order. The stories jumped back and forth in time with no real order in particular, which made the book feel choppy and the story didn't flow as well as it could have if told in sequence. Also, the book is written in British English, which had me confused at times. I did not always understand some of the phrases or words the author used. I found a few spots where commas or words were missing, along with several run-on sentences. While this distracted me when reviewing the book, I don’t believe it would be a major distraction to the reader who is just picking up the book for a fun read.
I am rating this book 3 out of 4 stars. The grammatical issues keep me from giving 4 stars, and if I could give a half rating I would give it 2.5 stars. The flow of the book kept me from wanting to keep reading. It was easy to set this book down after reading a chapter or two, and sometimes I found myself not caring to pick up the book, as I didn’t really feel like I had to know what happened next. I do believe that any animal lover would enjoy this book, but if British English words and spelling trip you up, it may not be for you.
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There's an earwig in my fish tank
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