Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book. I don’t have sufficient words to convey just how much I enjoyed it. It’s clever and engaging and portrays Dr. Nora Novak as a genuinely likable, though not always easy to understand, character. Early on, there were times I wondered whether her perceptions of Kyle and Milner were accurate or perceptions based more on her unique way of interacting with the world.

Nora may see the world differently, but she’s well-aware of the discrimination aimed at women, particularly in STEM careers. Although there may be different opportunities due to quotas that universities wish to fill, she also knows it’s a chance to pay her less than her “non-ovaried counterparts.” She views people in terms of the patterns they follow—each peson has their own unique patterns, and we fall into certain patterns with certain people. When she leaves her boyfriend of ten years, Cam, she feels herself changing her patterns, and this leads her to explore other options. She still remains able to fairly easily identify the patterns of others as she reimagines her own. I love how she describes Cam: “Cam bonds like an anglerfish, a sweet-natured parasite attached to your underside, gradually losing himself until he’s just a little bump of a sperm packet.’

There are countless references to sea life, especially cuttlefish, Nora’s main area of study. Each chapter begins with a cuttlefish factoid, which generally provides limited insight into what’s going to happen in the next chapter. There’s this one: “Cuttlefish have lifetime facial recognition. Once a cuttlefish sees you, it will never forget you.” In light of Nora’s admitted inability to interpret other peoples’ emotions based on facial expressions, this one is especially pithy. She has trouble looking people in the eye, so if she does, it means something. And I really liked this one: “When two male cuttlefish challenge each other over a female, they don’t like to cause a scene. So they just look at each other menacingly until one of them swims away.” Reading this at the beginning of Chapter 14, I knew something serious was coming up.

When nervous or overwhelmed, Nora mentally repeats lists of species within a particular genus of fish to distract herself from the stressor. Her commentary on human behavior is constantly related to the social interactions of the animals she knows best. It soon becomes clear that Nora is on the autism spectrum and doesn’t really know how to interpret others’ emotions, or her own. How do you write a love story about someone who doesn’t feel emotions, instead basing all of her decisions on logic? The author does an outstanding job of doing something I would have thought impossible.

Some of the interactions that most amused me include this one. Nora’s mother is always pushing Nora to meet a man and get married and tells her, “You're going to want in-laws who are alive.” In response, Nora thinks, “She says this like she’s never encouraged her mother-in-law to eat past-due chicken soup.”

I think this might be when I fully understood Nora. Her friends insist she come to a club with her; she wears earplugs to block out the extra-loud noises, then observes the venue: “I look from them to the corner of the dance floor, where twenty-somethings writhe and shimmy in a flamboyant mating dance. I’ve learned this contextually, but you wouldn’t be sure otherwise, just by looking at them. They could be shedding their skins or marking their territories with scent cues in their hairsprays, laying eggs or struggling to excrete feces.”

As Nora journeys through self-discovery, redefining herself, she encounters several men who seem to want to get to know her better. Dave works in the aquarium where her study subjects, cuttlefish, are transferred when the semester finishes. Jarod, who makes excellent hummus, is a handsome man she meets at a seminar. He seems to have the most in common with Nora and seems the logical choice for a mate. Then, there’s Wes, a random guy who messages her through Facebook and suggests they meet, claiming he’s seen her around. He seems to be her opposite in every way—didn’t enjoy studying, became an athlete, uses way too many abbreviations in his texts to her— except one. He also has trouble interacting with people. It’s interesting to see the two of them trying to navigate something as treacherous as dating.

It becomes clear that Nora favors Wes, even though he’s the most difficult to guage. She can’t figure out if he’s interested, how he feels, what he wants, and so on. Then again, she’s almost equally confused about herself. And her two best friends aren’t much help, striving to protect her above all else. Even when she tries to mirror (her word, not mine) his movements or facial expressions to show that she’s interested, she’s not entirely sure what they mean. And it’s even worse when he doesn’t communicate, because then she has nothing to go on.

In the end, love—even if you don’t use that word to define it—is not truly a logical decision to make. The heart wants what the heart wants. “Whether it’s the end of a maze or shrimp in a jar or a diver’s gloves, if a cuttlefish wants something enough, it will always find a way.” Nora is determined to get what she wants, and she does, but because she’s so uncertain, the reader is uncertain what it will be until almost the end.

I enjoyed reading this book, it had a great story and a great main character in Nora. I liked the way the author wrote the book and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Thank you to the author, Bleau Press and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'll make this short - I loved this book. The cover art is splendid, and the premise, although the "nerd finds love" trope has been overdone, is so well-executed that I was captivated. The story is told in the first person by Nora, a 30-ish marine biologist who is noticeably on the spectrum, and must also contend with the subtle (and at times glaringly not subtle) sexism in academia. She is finishing her PhD and exploring the opportunities that might be open to her career-wise. Her adventures is dating are to some extent painful, but I loved the way she worked through them in her own time and way, with the support of her friends. Yes, they might be a bit much for me personally, but Nora's view is different from mine, and she navigates this with ease and grace - and so much self-aware humor! I look forward to reading more from this author.

In this book, we have a woman on the autism spectrum who looking and analyzing the world around her in her own unique way. She has been working in her lab for a while, and with her Cuttlefish finally being retired and her project wrapping up, she now has to look beyond the normal for her future. This is a lull period in her life, and it is (obviously) unsettling, as anyone who has had any sort of gap between stages of life can attest.
She decides to give normal life a short with the help of her roommates, who are also academically inclined but better equipped to deal with social life, indulging on more occasions than Nora has. Their conversations, therefore, do have an academic slant when it comes to ideas and suggestions as well as actual implementations of said plans.
It is a coming-of-age story of someone who has no concrete plans for herself, both professional and personal and faces chauvinistic behaviour from her superior in the lab. It takes the whole book for her to find a semblance of normalcy that was endearing to watch.
The writing and characterization were well done, but many repetitive imagery/descriptive sentences bothered me more than others. This happened enough time for me to focus unnecessarily on it and slowed my reading pace. I am sure others who pick it up will like it even more than I did.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley, the review is entirely based on my own reading experience of this book.

Here is another promising first novel by a young woman writing from a very specific perspective and doing it with humor but not "cuteness". Chelsea Britain has created a 30 something who is observably on the spectrum (and pretty high functioning I'd say). Nora uses well developed strategies that have propelled her to academic success to navigate the next steps in life. She has the benefit of two well drawn friends/roommates who are custom made to support her adventure into love and professional life. An enjoyable book that is not chick lit or romance, it is also not heavy handed with "issues".

I am writing this honest review after reading a digital ARC (advanced reader copy) which I received from Netgalley.

Cuttle by Chelsea Britain is a novel about Nora Novak, a female postdoc who is wrapping up her research on cuttlefish and recently broke up with her long term boyfriend. While she is in limbo, applying for new opportunities, she meets multiple men and their dates range from disastrous to lukewarm. At least, it seems lukewarm to the reader; the reader doesn't really get a good understanding of how she feels about them. The book kind of reminded me of Lab Girl by Hope Jahren.

Throughout the book we also see Nora hangout with her friends/housemates, visit her parents, and how she interacts with her research advisor and others in her lab. The book is first person, from the view of Nora so we see everything through her eyes. All of her actions and relationships are colored by her autism. I found it really insightful to see how the main character thought, approached day to day activities, and more irregular events. Britain writes first person very well and Nora's discomfort and confusion often felt palpable. I also thought the sea creature references were very cute but sometimes they were a little confusing. Overall, it was a very enjoyable book that shows Nora's experience with dating, family, friendship, academia, and autism.

I was hoping for chick lit with a twist, but found something a bit more unpredictable. Dr. Nora Novak is finishing her post-doc in science, trying to come to terms with re-homing her subjects - cuttlefish - and figure out what to do next. Her decade long romantic relationship ended 9 months ago with her climbing out the bathroom window...Nora is atypical, on the autistic spectrum, and her life plans and romantic future are cloudy for her. Supported by fantastic friends she can count on (mostly) Nora pushes herself to break her patterns. Whilst some of the characters could have been fleshed out more, after a jumpy start the book took hold of me and I zoomed to the end.

I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The views expressed within are my own and unbiased.

This was a fun read that I couldn't put down. I finished it in a day. As a woman on the autism spectrum I was happy to find a book written from the point of view of an autistic woman. It's rare to read something from the point of view of an autistic adult who doesn't live with their parents and functions one their own in the world, albeit with occasional struggles. There are lots of autistic people who date, have jobs, advanced degrees and so on, but these are not the ones who are usually depicted in fiction or showcased by the media.

Though Nora is a research fellow with advanced degrees, she still struggles with sensory issues, hating disruptions of her routine, interpreting social cues and other issues that autistic people cope with constantly. I thought the author did a wonderful job capturing what it is like to live with sensory issues, such as how overwhelming scents and bright lights can be.

Nora sees the world through the filter of her special interest, marine biology. The author peppers the novel with images of sea life. Most of these worked for me, but a few seemed a bit strained or repetitive.

The plot itself kept me interested. I'm not usually one to go for plots that have a large focus on dating, but Nora's encounters were funny and sometimes painfully realistic. Besides handling the challenge of Dating with Autism, the novel also touched on the issues women deal with in STEM and academia. There's so much to love about this novel that its few awkward fish metaphors can be overlooked. I highly recommend it.

While I can't resist a cuttlefish (in person or on a book cover) and I love a strong female (marine) scientist, this book just didn't quite do it for me.

I appreciate that this book gave its voice to a lead character that was on the Autism spectrum (though I didn't realize it until the authors note at the end) including giving her so many potential suitors (she's quite the catch).

I also loved the marine biology references throughout, the highlighting of academia labs (& how women are treated a little differently than the men). For a while I had high-highs loving certain points & low-low hating it.

For one - I am tired of the nerdy scientist narrative - like we can have cool, fun, unawkward scientists too. The relationships/dates were also SO UNCOMFY - I'm thinking that was the point but it was really just uncomfortable to read, I'm surprised they all kept getting dates. Also, I felt like her friends were too hands-on, if my friends interfered with my life that much I would cut them out, just a lot of weird dynamics there.

While there was many marine animal references/facts I loved, some of them just didn't make sense.... like telling yourself to be a "sexy stingray" to attract a mate... it does NOT make any sense (& this one was repeated approximately a million times in the text) - it would've made more sense if they chose an animal that ungulates when it swims or even the star cuttlefish that can be kind of "flirty" with their tentacles but stingrays?! They're chill, they glide, you rarely see them try to mate ... they're not being sexy.

Anyways, super cute cover. I am not going to pretend that I'm not the target audience: I am a female marine scientist who happened to date during graduate school - so I can definitely relate, however maybe someone that can relate a little less would enjoy it more.

* I received an arc in exchange for an honest review*

What a wonderfully unusual book. Nora knows all about cuttlefish, but people? Not so much. When she finds herself in a transitional time in her life, a challenge for a creature who lives and loves routines, will she rise to the occasion?

Will her friends rise to the occasion too? Because she’s not the only one in a time of transition.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be sensitive to sound, or what your friends or family members experience when they’re over-stimulated, please read “Cuttle.”

This debut novel is unique and compelling. The friendship dynamics were especially interesting and I loved the full-circle moment with one of Nora’s friends toward the end of the book.

These kinds of books make my soul sing. The kind of books that show how nature and people are connected, and then how people and other people are connected too. It's a brilliant novel.

I'm really enjoying this book so far... was worried that it'd be a bit nerdy after the first page, but I was sooo wrong. Gonna keep reading with interest and hope it doesn't get nerdier, but it seems good so far!

Chapter 2 was almost entirely nerdy, so maybe I wasn't wrong after all?

Chapter 3 saved me knocking off a star... I loved reading this chapter, but it's time for my pills and chapter 4 now - BBS.

Yep, chapter 4 guarantees the fifth star... for the moment at least! I'm gonna read one more chapter then head to bed for the night, then re-start reading it when I come back down here at 5am while I'm waiting for the hubby to wake up lol

Had a late start this morning, but I'm back now and getting confused betweeen all of the characters... at least I know why the main character avoids fish now though!

Oooooh! Now we're getting somewhere! It's like the author has finally found their muse and they're enjoying writing the novel now.

I didn't see the end of chapter 16 coming at all!

So proud of you, Nora! I'm wondering what'll happen in the last ten pages though lol

What a great way to end the book... not sure why the 'Discussion' part is there right at the end though - is it used as some kind of educational thing or something? That would certainly explain the heavy use of fish throughout the book and especially in the early chapters! All in all (other than that early chapter) a very very good read that richly deserves all five stars!