Who are these demons that the whales sing about across the waves? Paull explores the sea creature's relationship with humans in an interesting way. There is an otherworldly sense to proceedings that make it a book you need to concentrate on when reading. Paull plays up the use of sound and sonar in the water to display how creatures such as dolphins see the world very differently to us.Īs a reader it took me a few pages to ease into the style, but once you are there you get the sense of being underwater, in a vast nothingness, that also teems with life if you discover the right places. The tensions between them are not unlike a Game of Thrones. The various sea creatures form into clans with their own ways and ambitions.

So, what is it? It is a literary tale, fiction for fiction lovers, but it also spoke to me of fantasy and magical realism. It certainly has no pigeons, but to my knowledge, there are no dolphin holes to fill in fiction. It is hard to pigeonhole Pod as it is such a different type of book. Ea will have to deal with the cruelty of her new captors, but also the mysterious demons that are trawling the seas killing all the creatures they can find. Stumbling across a new Pod should be ideal, but not when they have a separate way of life than she is used to. When Ea is separated from her peers, she finds herself alone in the great beyond. Rather than making her an outcast, her Pod still embraces her. Laline Paull captures both aspects as the reader enters the underwater world of sea life in Pod.Įa is unlike the other Spiral Dolphins in her Pod as she is unable to hear the oceans. Nature can be cruel, but it can also be magnificent. Watership Down and The Animals of Farthing Wood have managed to traumatise many a youth and even the jolly Redwall books I used to read left me sad at times. Therefore, fiction that tells a story from the animal perspective can be full on. It is a world of the strong surviving the weak dying.

The bees laline paull summary