Book Review: Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses by Jackie Higgins

It’s bizarre how differently we all (humans and animals) evolved to manage the information we gather from the world to survive. All animals stress different senses to hunting and navigating in their environment, like spiders and their eyes, which can recognize space and time, and octopuses, whose tentacles keep sucking shrimps even when they have been severed, but only when they can see them. Yet, even more bizarre is that we actually share so much with the animals, and the question about sentience shouldn’t be shrugged off with our “superiority.”

The book is divided into twelve sections, handling an animal and some sense and comparing it to humans. The comparison drew a significant shared similarity between humans and animals and how we process information. Still, it also made it easier to understand why some animals, like Peacock Mantis Shrimp, have a magnificent sense of color or why bloodhounds can smell more than we can. I appreciated the comparisons, especially with the octopus and a man who lost his sense of body. He had to learn how to navigate his movements through eyes rather than proprioception, as the rest of us do as the octopuses do.

I loved the book to bits. However, I was a bit cautious with the comparison at first. Comparisons can so easily anthropomorphize the animal and make the situation human-centric, but the book didn’t do that. It gave respect to the animal, not hinting that the animal was what it was because it shared something with humans. It actually was the other way around. We share so much with the animals.

I found the book to be a perfect summer read. Light, fun, and easy to read.

Thank you for reading! Have a wonderful day ❤