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thanks to NetGalley and Timber Press for an eARC copy of this book to read and review,

Ok, I liked the title and the cover and I liked the idea of reading about an adventurous woman in STEM, I got that she was SUPER enthusiastic about what she did, but none of that enthusiasm seemed to reach me on the level she was feeling it.
Honestly, of thepages of this book that I read, there were only two parts that got my attention, The first was when she explained the dating of the rocks that she was working on and how that testing worked cosmic radiation bombardment, along those lines.
and when she had a medical emergency in the literal back of beyond in the middle of an active volcano flow area,

However, despite the interest, the explanation of the dating didn't stick and there was no conclusive diagnosis or reason for her medical issue, so no resolution, it just kind of was like, extreme pain, peed blood, doctors at the hospital didn't seem to care enough to find a reason for it.
Which makes me not want to go to that area and need that hospital anytime soon,

I appreciate that she is trying to raise awareness of the sciences for the next generation and to enable those who are less welltodo the ability to access the sciences, but the book just fell flat for me.
It committed one of the worst sins during the Pandemic that anything can be, It was boring.

To me. I see from many positive reviews that I am in the minority here and that is ok, I want mostly every book to be read and loved by many people, I don't have to love all the books and neither does anyone else, The great beauty, and difficulty, of this wonderful world of ours is that we are all different with different tastes, likes and dislikes, I didn't hate the book and I know others will enjoy reading of her adventures, I will not hesitate to recommend this book to customers who will enjoy it,

, it wasn't for me but I'm not that adventurous,, An enjoyable look into the science of volcanoes and geology, The author had me in the beginning, with her description of her invitation to the Explorer's Club in New York City, What a dream that would be! Phoenix continues with her experiences in Hawaii, Mexico, and many other places, She definitely seems to lead an exciting life, And I got the feeling that she is a very personable and interesting person to know, I wish her luck in the continuation of her career, I enjoyed this book about a woman volcanologist, Jess Phoenix, The book is formatted in her adventures as a scientist on different trips, Informative, easy to understand scientific explanations about volcanoes, So important to have women in science, Would recommend for those that enjoy reading memoirs with science, Entertaining but also nothing AMAZING, I enjoyed her stories but wish there had been more specifics in science and volcanology, Very entertaining. I love to read about adventures in exotic places and there are no better adventures than the scientific ones! Volcanoes are a fascinating topic so getting a glimpse of the research on them was very interesting.
And Jess Phoenix is a perfect guide: instantly likable, unpretentious, funny, with contagious enthusiasm,

I just wished that the book would be longer, as I was curious about other stories from her work and life,

Thanks to the publisher, Timber Press, and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book, The enthusiasm about geology amp volcanoes:stars
The personality on show:star

Okay, let me clarify because I know this is a hard statement to make.

I started this book months ago and had to put it down at aboutbecause I got

so angry every time I read it, Then the eruption in La Palma happened and I craved a book about volcanoes and decided to pick it back up again, I read the remainingin two days and enjoyed myself for the most part,

So, what happened
Jess Phoenix is an absolute badass, She is intelligent, adventurous, courageous and has been achieving things most of us don't even dare to dream of, She is unafraid and takes up space in a field that has been dominated by white old men, According to her Twitter bio she is nonbinary pronouns she/they and there is a rainbow flag there too notsure if that is just for the NB or something else but she is def.
a part of the queer community, She went to a very formal event in a suit and with a massive mohawk, AWESOME. And she tried to get into politics to protect the climate, Amaaaaziiiing!

So, why do I criticize her personality when she is clearly an allaround incredible person

Because we do not get to see much of that in the book.

She spent the firsttrying to make herself seem important, She goes on and on about her achievements and how she got invited to the "Explorers Club" a big deal she can be proud of but if I don't know anything else about you first, I do not care and repeats multiple times how her parents are both FBI agents and list names and more names of famous people she knows or met and.
damn, it was just EXHAUSTING and boring, She came across as super cocky, which is really sad because she is such a badass, But not because of her parents or some white dude that signed some paper for her, She is dancing with volcanoes, ffs, Why does she need all these people to validate herself And why the heck should I, as the reader, care about this She did not give any information about herself and her personality, she just threw her achievements at the reader.
It made her seem equally arrogant and insecure,

There were also a bunch of statements that made me cringe, For example:
"My parents were FBI agents, and my sheltered mind firmly held that people with PhDs never, ever did drugs, and certainly would never condone drug use in any way.
"
That is such a problematic statement to make, Drugs are not only used by the "poor and uneducated", Especially because she just leaves that sentence like that, No reflection, nothing. Like damn.

Her privilege showed in so many ways throughout the book, Like when she casually mentions at some point that she has a horse while doing a PhD, after YEARS of studying and unpaid expedition jobs, There is no problem with someone being financially well of, but I would like to see that addressed at some point,
There were also multiple instances where she showed ignorance to native people and local issues, She only uses those things to make her own story more interesting without reflecting on the bigger picture,
Towards the end of the book, she is involved in a documentary and complains that the producers did not include the local researchers from Ecuador, But she does not mention them either, Beyond that complaint there was no example, no names, no praise,
As she is a queer femme person I would also have liked to see more support of women and queer folks in science, Besides herself, the only people she mentions in detail are men, This book could have been a great opportunity to talk about this topic, but it is not even mentioned, If I did not check out her Twitter, I would not even know that she identifies as queer herself, because it is mentioned NOWHERE, To be fair: Maybe she only came out after publishing, But if not
When she got into politics a few years ago she did so in the name of climate change yay!, But that topic is also completely ignored throughout the entire book except for a very brief mention on the lastpages the opposite of yay!,
The book also drops off abruptly, like she got tired of writing and decided it was done,

Okay, but what about the volcanoes

If you are like me you are probably asking yourself: Okay, but did she deliver on the volcano/geology part I am happy to announce: yes! After the firstshe finally gets into the science expeditions and dives deep.
Her enthusiasm for volcanoes, lava, rocks and science is radiating through every sentence, Her writing style is also very different in these chapters, you get glued to the page and want to know more, You are there with the crew, on the edge of volcanoes, Her passion for her work is incredible and makes you happy inside,

If you do not know the slightest thing about volcanoes, however, you might not be too happy as she uses a few terms that are not explained.
And if you are deep into geology it is probably to shallow and her sidetrackings about her personal issues might bore you, But if you are like me, someone who is interested in the topic and almost went for a geology degree herself, you will enjoy this a lot.


Was it educational In part, yes, I learned how scientists actually work and that many science documentaries are far off from reality, I did not learn a lot of new things about the mechanisms of volcanoes, etc, It is not very scienceheavy unfortunately, it talks more about the "experience as a scientist" which is interesting, but I would have appreciated a balance between the two sides of it.


Summary
I really want to boost Jess Phoenix as she is a badass and is doing an incredible job, But I simply did not enjoy the book as much as I hoped I would,
I think Jess has a lot of potential, Parts of the book were really well written, but others were so boring and shallow that I wanted to DNF it immediately, She needs to address her privilege and dive deeper into the bigger issues surrounding her,
If she was to write another memoir I probably would not pick it up, But if she was to write a nonfiction book focussed on volcanoes/geology, hell yes, I would buy it in an instant, .