Book Review: Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey

Dian Fossey captures the essence of what makes the Mountain Gorillas a truly great species.

Dian was leading a relatively normal life in USA, when she made a short trip to Africa. She brought back some pictures and written descriptions of her experience with Mountain Gorillas. This eventually led to her being designated as one of “Leakey’s Angels”. She was chosen to study Mountain Gorillas, just as Jane Goodall and Birute M. Galdikas were chosen to study Chimpanzees and Orangutans respectively.

Dian studied Mountain Gorillas for more than a decade and she describes her experience in great detail in this book. She had great love and respect for these magnificent animals and this shines through in each page. Some of her favorite Gorillas include Digit, Rafiki, Uncle Bert and Macho. In addition to the Gorillas, she also had a pet dog, who she loved very much.

Dian with her favorite gorilla, Digit

Digit’s massacre by poachers led to Dian starting the “Digit Fund”, which is now known as “The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International”. Dian advocated “Active Conservation” efforts to save the Gorillas.

She also found “Karisoke Research Center”, which continues Fossey’s work in studying Mountain Gorillas.

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Dian was murdered in her cabin in 1985. Her murder still remains unsolved to this day.

Dian was not perfect. She was reported to be a heavy drinker as well as a different person to get along with. She was also not the first person to study Mountain Gorillas. Still, she will always be remembered for dedicating her life to studying Mountain Gorillas and ensuring that people all over the world know about the plight of these magnificent apes. Dian’s book is a rare insight into her awe-inspiring work.

Highly recommended to people who love Mountain Gorillas or are interested to know more about Dian Fossey.

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Image Source: Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, Inc 

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Book Review: Seed by Ania Ahlborn

This is a review of the Kindle version.

The author has a pretty good grasp on the story, dialogues and the settings, resulting in one of the best horror books out there.

One possible loophole could be that the family dog does not deduct the change in the personality of one of the characters. When the dog does so, it happens quite late in the book. I thought this to be significant, as the author makes quite a number of references to horror movies, X-Files and Stephen King's Stand.

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Another thing that stuck me is that towards the end of the story, police arrive at the family's house and question couple of the family members. One of the family members must have been in the police records for couple of killings that took place in the past. But the police never mention that and the author makes no indication of the fact that they know about that either. I won’t reveal anymore, but suffice to say that it struck me as odd...

Other than these minor gripes, I was quite enthralled by the book from start to end, with some parts being particularly gripping.

Definitely recommended for fans of Horror/Supernatural genre.

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Image Source: Amazon

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