Review: 'What a Fish Looks Like' by Syr Hayati Beker

I have an unwavering belief in the power of stories. It is one of the reasons I do the work I do, because I think that it is in the stories that we tell, have told, and will tell that we can truly find ourselves. In What a Fish Looks Like I found the same kind of fervent belief, mixed with a deep love for both humanity and nature, all presented inventively. Also, that cover is simply gorgeous! Thanks to Stelliform Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 04/09/2025
Publisher: Stelliform Press

What are the stories we need to survive?

In ten days, the last spaceship is leaving for a new planet. Some of us will stay on Earth. How do we decide?

#TeamEarth. Once upon a time, the oceans were full of fish and the forests dark with brambles. Seb read about it in a book of fairy tales, and memory means hope.

#TeamShip. Adaptation means knowing when to walk away. Jay is ready. So their ex, Seb, shows up on the dance floor, T-minus-10. What’s the harm in one last dance?

What if the stories themselves are evolving?

Told in margin notes, posters, letters scrawled on napkins, and six retellings of classic fairy tales, What A Fish Looks Like gathers the stories of a queer community co-creating one another through the strange landscapes of climate change, wondering who is going to love us when there are not, in fact, plenty of fish in the sea.

And now this book belongs to you.

What kind of stories do you tell at the end of the world? What comfort can stories still offer when the ocean is gone, the air is poisonous, and you have been left by the one you love? I remember how, in early February 2020, I turned to Boccaccio's Decamerone while experiencing the first COVID lockdown in Shanghai. In that time of crisis, I wanted to read something that emerged from a similar kind of crisis, to see what Boccaccio thought might offer solace in a situation like that. What he suggested was storytelling and connection as the only real remedies to the fear and horror of something that appears world-ending. With What a Fish Looks Like, Syr Hayati Beker has also written a book which addresses an urgent crisis in our world, namely the climate crisis. Her characters are dealing with disappearing oceans, encroaching vines, and social collapse, and while this forms a crucial backdrop, it is their relationships with one another which are at the heart of the story being told. For some, this focus might feel off, in the sense that it should be more about the damage done to the climate, perhaps. But I think it is beautiful to show that what saves us in times of crisis is our love for one another and the stories we gift each other. It is not a quick fix, but only in truly seeing and appreciating what we have, in one another and in this world, can we, I think, try and save each other.

What a Fish Looks Like is both a straightforward story and a complex book. At its heart, I think, it is about stories and human connection amidst chaos. The stories told within the book's pages are interconnected by threads big and small, sometimes sharing characters but always sharing a world on the edge. It is also a novel-within-a-book, or a short story collection within a book, but also a seemingly random assembly of different forms of writing and drawing, scraped together in a way that reminds me of medieval manuscripts. The impending departure of a whole set of people from their community aboard a space ship forms the starting point of What a Fish Looks Like and a collection of fairy tales is passed around between a set of characters who all need to choose whether to stay or to go. As they consider, they add their own stories, their own scribbles, finding new ways to tell of themselves along familiar fairy tale lines. While I can't necessarily separate the stories from the whole, some of them hit me harder than others. 'Antigone, But With Spiders' was stunning in how it mixed tragedy and joy, while 'Root Systems' also really worked for me. 

I really liked the freedom with which Beker approaches their book. While the form is clearly inventive, yes, it is also the writing itself which I really enjoyed. (I do have to say that on my Kindle, the formatting of the book didn't work out super well, but I am sure that in a physical copy it is stunning.)  There are certain stories in What a Fish Looks Like where the writing is a little more experimental, but I mainly enjoyed how Beker showed her characters to us through their writing. Sometimes the writing was a little cringe, sometimes it was heartbreakingly open, sometimes it was closed off, but it was always very human and there was always love there. Beker's characters are almost all part of the queer community and there is a fervent kind of love for others here which I think is what makes the book's message about crisis and storytelling so powerful. I think especially in a time where LGBTQIA+ people are once again under more scrutiny and in more danger, a book like this will hopefully be a balm for members of that community. It also reminds us, however, that we have people to love and protect, even if we're not part of the community ourselves, and that it is only in truly caring for others that we can come close to averting the various crises we face. It might sound trite or cliche, but I truly believe that this is true.

I give this novel...

4 Universes!

I really liked What a Fish Looks Like for its inventiveness, both in form and content, and for its unwavering belief in storytelling. It is a book about the world falling apart, sure, but even more it is a book about the love we are capable of holding for one another, even at our darkest.