Thank you to SFWA and Syr Hayati Beker for the arc copy for this review.

What a Fish Looks Like is a culmination of interconnected stories following the same group of people, told through many different POVs. It is far into the future and climate change has drastically changed the planet. Some sci-fi and fantasy elements are sprinkled in. I requested this ARC because the description mentioned that queerness and climate change are simultaneously explored, and I was not disappointed.

I usually like to summarize books at the beginning of their reviews, but What a Fish Looks Like is not something I think I can summarize effectively. I’m honestly not sure that I even fully absorbed the story. This is literary fiction, so it focuses more on diving into complex themes and less on plot. That isn’t to say that there isn’t substance to this book, because there definitely is substance. I loved how hard my brain had to work at some points to understand what was going on.

The writing and formatting absolutely takes some time getting used to. I personally enjoy when authors experiment with the formatting in their books, and the formatting in this was intriguing. It kept me engaged and had me asking questions. I got confused about whose perspective we were reading from at times, but I was already confused and mind boggled so I didn’t mind.

Being a bisexual trans masc that has a Bachelors in conservation biology, What a Fish Looks Like was an amazing read! The different queer themes and experiences explored, the effects of climate change on a future planet, and the looming grief of the situation all came together to give me a mind bending time reading. I resonated with many queer struggles and metaphors and was fascinated at how they were intertwined or paralleled with climate issues.

I will also be posting reviews on TikTok and Fable (@fantasylobster). They will be posted 7/27/2025 and remain up indefinitely.

I love an unconventional narrative and structure and this novella is that: experimental and alluring in its design and language. That said, there is still a constant theme of love and loss throughout that I felt was beautifully captured through the ephemeral writing, which is told in an epistolary format of varying POVs, letters, notes, and other bits of remembrances.

At once lyrical and mournful… This haunting and poignant tale tells the individual stories of a group of friends who come together, separate and fracture while the world crumbles and violently morphs around them through climate change as some prepare to leave this world while others commit to stay. There is a deep sense of loss and longing in the individual tales, both for friends and lovers and for the earth itself, with flashes of hope for renewal and rebirth. I found this book to be quite beautiful and moving, and has managed to achieve its rightful place as a modern-day fable.

At the end of the world, love persists. Two exes, Seb and Jay, find themselves on opposite sides of a split community: a final ship is leaving earth. Jay has a ticket; Seb has no intention to leave earth behind. The rest of their queer community struggles in their own ways with the end of the world and the question of leaving. All of this is told through two things: a series of letters and messages passed between people, and a heavily edited book of fairy tales that Seb is trying to give Jay.
This is such a weird and beautiful book. It is often hard to follow, but it is so worth it. The writing is fantastic. The experimentation that was done stylistically was very cool. All of it was great.

This is a dreamy, experimental novella that has the queer community coming together in a world ravaged by climate change to decide whether or not to leave Earth or to stay.

At some point in the near-ish future in a coastal community, the Earth is ravaged by a warming climate, with sea levels rising, rogue waves that destroy towns, and fecund vines that are taking over the city. Species extinction is common. There are few fish left, replaced by oceans of plastic. The spaceship Galactic Exodus 3 is leaving in 10 days, and there are those who want to go, and those who choose to stay on Earth.

Beker is a nonbinary, queer Turkish-American writer, and their website notes they’re “in search of the queer love language of climate change.” Honestly, that’s a great descriptor for the overall feel of this book. The novella is told in a series of six fairytale retellings in different styles, along with letters, graffiti, notes and art, that weave a story of a group of friends who meet at the local club, The Paradise. Though the storytelling seems fractured at times, it’s not: the narrative is roughly chronological and comes together nicely as a story that addresses climate change, love, loss and transformation.

And if you have fairytales as a centrepiece to a novella, you can bet that transformation will be a central theme. In “What a Fish Looks Like,” a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, humans can choose to transform into extinct animals. My favourite of the retellings was “Playlist 4Merx in Times of Sea Levels Rising,” which was a take on The Little Mermaid. It plays with transformation in different ways, with main character Max exploring her life as a transgender woman, while the sea and Merpeople transform, and plastics transform fish and oceans.

For a short book, Beker has introduced a fair amount of complexity; this is a book that you could read once, and then again and likely find new concepts to ponder. I enjoyed the poetics of the book, and the sense of exploration I got as I read. The picture of climate change that emerged was unsettling, to the point that it hit kind of close to home, as our fire season rages here in Canada. And the last page? It got me wondering about the plot once again.

I’d recommend this interesting, evocative, queer sci-fi, climate fiction novella that will make you think.

Thanks to Stelliform Press and NetGalley for a gifted copy for review.