What is The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin about?

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin is a middle grade novel about 12-year-old Suzy Swanson, who struggles to accept that her former best friend Franny Jackson died in a drowning accident. After learning about the deadly Irukandji jellyfish on a school aquarium trip, Suzy becomes convinced that Franny was killed by a jellyfish sting rather than drowning. The story explores Suzy's journey through grief, guilt, and her scientific quest to prove her theory while processing the painful dissolution of their friendship.

Who should read The Thing About Jellyfish?

The Thing About Jellyfish is ideal for middle grade readers aged 10-14, though it resonates with all ages dealing with loss and grief. This book appeals to science-minded kids who appreciate factual information woven into fiction, as well as readers navigating the complexities of middle school friendships and social dynamics. Parents, educators, and anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one will find the hopeful, moving narrative meaningful and relatable.

Is The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin worth reading?

The Thing About Jellyfish is worth reading for its authentic portrayal of grief, friendship, and the middle school experience. Ali Benjamin's debut novel received widespread critical acclaim and became an instant New York Times bestseller. Readers praise its lyrical writing style, realistic character development, and unique approach to processing loss through scientific inquiry. While some find the present-day plot overly dramatic, the emotional depth and hopeful message about coping with tragedy make it a powerful, memorable read.

Who is Ali Benjamin and why did she write The Thing About Jellyfish?

Ali Benjamin is an author whose 2015 debut novel The Thing About Jellyfish launched her fiction writing career. According to Benjamin's acknowledgments, the book originated from a failed essay submission about jellyfish. She transformed her rejected nonfiction piece into a powerful middle grade novel that explores grief, scientific curiosity, and the complexities of childhood friendship through the lens of jellyfish research. Her ability to blend scientific facts with emotional storytelling established her as a distinctive voice in children's literature.

What is the main theme of The Thing About Jellyfish?

The central theme of The Thing About Jellyfish is processing grief through scientific logic and accepting life's unanswerable questions. Suzy Swanson applies the scientific method to her emotional pain, seeking rational explanations for an inexplicable tragedy. The novel explores how children cope with loss, the evolving nature of friendship, bullying, guilt, and the search for meaning when faced with senseless events. It also examines identity formation during middle school and the importance of family support during difficult times.

Why does Suzy stop talking in The Thing About Jellyfish?

Suzy stops talking in The Thing About Jellyfish as a way to de-clutter the world of unimportant noise and process her overwhelming grief after Franny's death. Her selective mutism reflects her belief that silence helps people hear their own lives better and makes words more meaningful when spoken. This communication shutdown concerns her divorced parents enough that they arrange therapy sessions. Suzy's silence represents her attempt to control chaos and create space for understanding in a world that suddenly feels incomprehensible.

What is the Irukandji jellyfish theory in The Thing About Jellyfish?

The Irukandji jellyfish theory is Suzy's hypothesis that Franny Jackson died from the sting of an Irukandji jellyfish rather than drowning. After visiting an aquarium exhibit, Suzy learns that the Irukandji possesses potentially the deadliest venom in the world and has begun migrating from its native Australia. Despite Franny drowning in Maryland, Suzy becomes convinced this rare jellyfish caused her death and embarks on extensive research to prove it. She even plans to fly to Australia to meet jellyfish expert Dr. Jamie Seymour to validate her theory.

How does The Thing About Jellyfish portray grief and guilt?

The Thing About Jellyfish portrays grief through Suzy's scientific approach to processing her friend's death and her overwhelming guilt about their fractured friendship. Suzy cannot accept random tragedy, so she seeks logical explanations through jellyfish research. Her guilt stems from a cruel prank she played on Franny before her death—freezing sheets of urine and placing them in Franny's locker as a "wake-up call" about her changing behavior. The novel shows how children cope with complicated emotions when loss occurs before reconciliation is possible.

The thing about jellyfish

Ali Benjamin

4.1(45861 Reviews)

Overview of The thing about jellyfish

When a friend drowns, 12-year-old Suzy blames a jellyfish sting. This National Book Award finalist, championed by Reese Witherspoon for film adaptation, masterfully weaves science with grief, showing how even the youngest minds seek meaning in loss.

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Chapter 1

When the Ocean Whispers Your Name

In the stillness of water, a jellyfish pulses like a ghost heart - transparent, rhythmic, alive. This haunting image forms the emotional core of Ali Benjamin's award-winning novel "The Thing About Jellyfish," a book that captured the hearts of millions when it debuted as a National Book Award finalist in 2015. The novel's raw exploration of grief, friendship, and scientific curiosity struck such a profound chord that it's now being adapted into a major motion picture starring Millie Bobby Brown. What makes this middle-grade novel resonate so deeply with readers of all ages is its unflinching honesty about the messiness of growing up. Through the eyes of scientifically-minded seventh-grader Suzy Swanson, we experience the disorienting aftermath of losing a childhood friend - not just to death, but to the equally painful process of growing apart. Barack Obama named it one of his favorite books of 2015, praising its "remarkable exploration of the debilitating effects of grief." The novel's perfect blend of scientific wonder and emotional truth creates a story that feels both timeless and urgently contemporary in our increasingly disconnected world.

Chapter 2

The Invisible Girl and the Ghost Heart

When seventh-grader Suzy Swanson stops speaking, she discovers something unexpected: you can become invisible simply by staying quiet. Three weeks into the school year, during a class trip to the aquarium, Suzy has already mastered this disappearing act. While her classmates crowd around a touch tank, eager to feel tiny sharks and rays against their palms, Suzy stands apart, observing rather than participating. It's been exactly one month since "the Worst Thing" happened - the drowning death of her former best friend, Franny Jackson. Since then, Suzy has embraced silence, not refusing to talk but simply deciding not to fill the world with unnecessary words. Her concerned parents have arranged for her to see "the kind of doctor you can talk to," believing their daughter has developed mental problems, cracks and flaws that need professional attention. As her classmates splash and giggle around the touch tank, Suzy notices an arrow pointing to the JELLIES exhibit downstairs. She follows it, drawn by some invisible pull. Even in her neon tie-dye school shirt, designed to make students easy to spot, no one notices her slip away. In the quiet basement gallery, surrounded by tanks of pulsing jellyfish that look like "graceful, silent alien ballerinas dancing without music," Suzy discovers something that will change everything - information about the deadly Irukandji jellyfish, whose venom can kill even the strongest swimmers. For Suzy, this discovery isn't just fascinating - it's revelatory. When her mother told her that Franny had drowned, Suzy couldn't accept it. Franny was an excellent swimmer, better than Suzy from the moment they met. Her mother's explanation - "Sometimes things just happen" - felt wholly inadequate, scientifically unsound. But here, in this darkened room illuminated by jellyfish tanks, Suzy finds what feels like the truth: perhaps Franny was stung by an Irukandji jellyfish, an "invisible enigma" so small yet so deadly that it could explain the inexplicable.

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Chapter 3

The Science of Loss and the Loss of Friendship

Suzy approaches her grief like a scientific problem to be solved, transforming her emotional turmoil into a structured investigation. Under the guidance of her science teacher Mrs. Turton - a mentor who recognizes Suzy's need to make sense of the senseless - she learns that good research begins with a clear purpose: "What do we hope to find out? How does it relate to human concerns?" With meticulous precision characteristic of her analytical mind, Suzy formulates her hypothesis: "That the Worst Thing was caused by a sting from an Irukandji jellyfish." She approaches this theory with the same dedication she once applied to memorizing animal facts to share with Franny. But beneath Suzy's scientific investigation lies a more complex loss that preceded Franny's death - the gradual dissolution of their friendship. Through carefully crafted flashbacks, we witness how these two seemingly different girls found each other at age five during a swimming class. Both stood trembling at the pool's edge, hesitant to enter the water until Franny took the brave first step, establishing early on her role as the more adventurous of the pair. Their friendship blossomed naturally, built on unconditional acceptance and shared imagination. Suzy, with her encyclopedic knowledge and tendency toward what she calls "constant-talking," found in Franny someone who not only tolerated but genuinely delighted in her random facts about sea creatures and weather patterns. And Franny, who wrote her Ns backward and flushed pink when reading aloud in class, found in Suzy someone who saw past these perceived flaws to the creative, kind person beneath. Their bond seemed unbreakable until middle school arrived, bringing with it an invisible but insurmountable tide of social pressures and changing priorities. Suzy recalls the painful transition with scientific precision: "Everything changes after you tell me you like Dylan Parker. You become obsessed with your appearance - constantly tugging at your dress hem, checking yourself in mirrors, interrupting our conversations to criticize your hair." As Franny gravitated toward the popular crowd, experimenting with lip gloss and giggling at lunch table gossip, Suzy remained unchanged, still more fascinated by scientific facts than makeup tutorials and boy band posters. The girls had once made a pact during a late-night sleepover, sealed with pinky promises and chocolate chip cookies - if Franny ever became "like that," Suzy should send her a signal, "a secret message" to bring her back to herself. But when the moment came, when Suzy watched Franny changing before her eyes like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis into something beautiful but unrecognizable, the message she eventually sent came too late and in a form too hurtful to repair what was already broken. The incident with the fish tank at Justin's party became their point of no return - a moment when science and spite collided, leaving both girls adrift in separate social oceans.

Chapter 4

Ancient Survivors in a Changing World

As Suzy delves deeper into her jellyfish research, she discovers fascinating parallels between these ancient creatures and her own emotional state. Jellyfish have survived on Earth for at least 600 million years, outlasting dinosaurs and enduring five mass extinctions - including the devastating Permian-Triassic extinction event, known as the "Great Dying," which wiped out 90% of Earth's species. While countless species have vanished into evolutionary history, from mighty prehistoric predators to countless smaller organisms, jellyfish have remained essentially unchanged, pulsing through the oceans across epochs with the same basic form they possessed before the first dinosaurs walked the Earth. This remarkable resilience particularly fascinates Suzy as she learns about Turritopsis dohrnii, the "immortal jellyfish" that can actually reverse its life cycle when threatened. Through a process called transdifferentiation, these tiny medusas can transform their existing cells into different cell types, reverting from their adult form back to an earlier polyp stage - effectively escaping death and beginning their life cycle anew. "Imagine if we could do that," Suzy muses, "just say 'Oops, this is too hard' and shrink back to being kids again, safely tethered forever." This biological curiosity becomes a powerful metaphor for Suzy's deepest wish - to return to a time before friendship became complicated, before Franny died, before everything changed. The immortal jellyfish's ability to escape mortality strikes a particularly poignant chord with her grief. Equally alarming to Suzy is her discovery that jellyfish populations are exploding worldwide, creating massive "blooms" that threaten marine ecosystems. These proliferations can contain millions of individuals, clogging fishing nets, shutting down power plants, and decimating local fish populations. Human activities - including overfishing that removes jellyfish predators and competitors, pollution that creates oxygen-depleted dead zones where jellyfish thrive, and climate change that warms waters to their preferred temperature - have created perfect conditions for jellyfish to dominate while other species suffer. In the Mediterranean, Black Sea, and parts of Asia, jellyfish blooms have become so severe they've disrupted tourism and fishing industries. These silent, pulsing creatures are literally taking over the oceans, yet few people notice or care. For Suzy, this ecological crisis mirrors her own feelings of invisibility and helplessness in a world that seems increasingly indifferent to what matters most. The jellyfish become both Suzy's scientific obsession and her emotional touchstone - creatures that are simultaneously fragile and powerful, visible yet often overlooked, ancient yet increasingly problematic in our modern world. Their paradoxical nature reflects Suzy's own contradictions as she navigates the turbulent waters of grief and early adolescence. Like the jellyfish, she feels both vulnerable and resilient, transparent yet misunderstood, drifting between childhood and maturity in an increasingly complex world that seems to have little room for either her or her pain.

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Chapter 5

The Silent Treatment and Unspoken Truths

Suzy's decision to stop speaking wasn't planned - it emerged organically during a Saturday dinner with her father at Ming Palace restaurant. Reflecting on the moment, she recalls: "I could have told him about Mrs. Turton, my science teacher who wore an Einstein wig and shared fascinating facts about blood vessels, atoms, and Shakespeare. Instead, I listened to the restaurant sounds - ice rumbling, cash registers dinging, voices murmuring." When her father joked, "Aren't you speaking to me tonight?" something clicked for Suzy: "What if I never made small talk again? Either say something important or nothing at all." This resolution - maintained for four weeks and counting - becomes both Suzy's shield against the world and her private protest against the inadequacy of words to express what she's feeling. Her silence extends to therapy sessions with Dr. Legler (whom Suzy privately nicknames "Dr. Legs" for her lacy black tights). During these appointments, Suzy sits wordlessly while her parents explain their concerns. Her mother cries describing how unhappy Suzy seems, while her father admits feeling like he has "nothing at all" during their Saturday dinners now that Suzy won't talk. Yet Suzy's internal monologue remains rich and eloquent. She compares her silence to a musical composition by John Cage called 4'33", which contains no notes - just silence for exactly four minutes and thirty-three seconds: "During performances, the audience initially gets nervous, but eventually they begin hearing themselves - rustling programs, fabric against seats, polite coughing. If people were silent, they could hear their own lives better, making what they eventually say more important." This contrast between Suzy's external silence and her vibrant inner life creates a powerful tension throughout the novel. We understand that Suzy isn't refusing to communicate - she's seeking a deeper, more meaningful form of connection than the "small talk" that seems to satisfy everyone else.

Chapter 6

The Quest for Answers and the Perfect Expert

Convinced that an Irukandji jellyfish sting caused Franny's death, Suzy embarks on a quest to find a jellyfish expert who can confirm her theory. She methodically researches potential "jellyologists," evaluating each candidate with scientific precision. She rejects a Rhode Island researcher studying jellyfish movement (no contact information), a grandmotherly woman studying populations near Seattle (too much like her mother), and Dhugal Lindsay from Japan (rejected "for reasons related to poetry"). Eventually, Suzy discovers Jamie Seymour, an Australian professor who works with some of the world's deadliest jellyfish. Jamie isn't conventionally heroic - he's "older, around fifty, with graying hair and lines around his eyes" - but his fearlessness captivates Suzy. In videos, she watches him handle jellyfish containing enough venom to kill fifteen humans, making reporters visibly nervous. What truly convinces Suzy that Jamie is the perfect expert is learning that he was once stung by an Irukandji jellyfish. Despite wearing a protective suit, Jamie was brushed on the lip by the tiny creature, resulting in two days of excruciating pain in a hospital bed. Yet the moment he recovered, he returned to studying jellyfish without hesitation. "That's why I admire him," Suzy explains. "He was stung but remained unchanged. He's fearless, forgiving, and has a sense of humor." Suzy becomes convinced that she must meet Jamie in person. With the methodical approach of a scientist, she begins planning an unauthorized trip to Australia. She copies her father's credit card information, saves money from her allowance, researches flight schedules and Australian phrases, and even memorizes the route from Cairns Airport to Jamie's laboratory. For Suzy, this isn't just a wild scheme - it's her only chance to prove that "sometimes things just happen" isn't actually a reason for anything, and to write a better ending to the story of her friendship with Franny.

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Chapter 7

The Terrible Message and Unforgivable Act

As Suzy's jellyfish research intensifies, we gradually learn more about the painful end of her friendship with Franny. During a sixth-grade campout, Suzy witnesses Dylan (Franny's crush) and another boy tormenting a frog, tossing it back and forth while Franny watches with admiration. When Dylan prepares to throw the frog against a tree, Suzy silently pleads with Franny to intervene. Their eyes meet briefly, but Franny turns away, choosing to laugh with the others at the terrible "thud-splat" sound. That night, someone - Franny - spits on Suzy's cheek as she pretends to sleep. This moment crystallizes for Suzy that their friendship is truly over. But the worst was yet to come. On the last day of sixth grade, Suzy decides to send Franny the "big signal" she once requested years earlier when she said, "Shoot me if I ever become like that." In a disturbing act of revenge disguised as keeping a promise, Suzy collects her urine in plastic containers, freezes them into disks, and slips them through the slats of Franny's locker. "This isn't about revenge," Suzy tells herself. "It's about making you listen." But when the inevitable commotion erupts - shouts of "Gross!" and "Piss!" and laughter - Suzy stands in the doorway watching. She waits for Franny to look at her, to understand the message, but Franny never does. She simply cries, shoulders shaking, as she fills plastic bags with her soaked belongings. "You round a corner and disappear without ever looking at me," Suzy recalls. "I realize this isn't a new beginning to you - it's some sort of ending." This cruel act becomes Suzy's unbearable burden, made worse when Franny drowns that summer before Suzy can apologize. The weight of this unresolved guilt helps explain why Suzy cannot accept the randomness of Franny's death - why she needs to believe in jellyfish stings rather than accidents. If Franny died from a jellyfish sting, then perhaps Suzy's last act toward her friend wasn't the final, defining moment of their relationship.

Chapter 8

Finding Connection in Unexpected Places

As Suzy withdraws into silence and jellyfish research, she unexpectedly forms new connections. Her science teacher, Mrs. Turton, offers her classroom as a lunchtime sanctuary away from the cafeteria's social pressures. There, Suzy begins spending time with Justin Maloney, the class troublemaker known for stunts like rubbing butter on his stomach and belly-flopping down hallways. Despite his reputation, Justin shows surprising depth and kindness. When they become lab partners, he promises not to mess things up for Suzy and shares personal details about his ADHD medication: "If I don't take it, my brain goes all wacko." During their earthworm dissection, Justin names their specimen "Thor" to give it dignity, revealing a sensitivity that contradicts his class clown persona. When Suzy asks about the difference between before and after taking his medication, Justin explains that before, everything comes in at once - sounds, colors, thoughts - all jumbled and loud. After, there's space between things, less confusion. Suzy compares it to "the difference between random noises and hearing an orchestra," a metaphor that surprises Justin with its insight. This friendship develops slowly but authentically, without the pressure or expectations that eventually complicated Suzy's relationship with Franny. Justin nicknames Suzy "Belle" - not after the Disney princess as she initially assumes, but after the jellyfish's bell, "the only part you can touch without getting stung." This thoughtful comparison reveals how well Justin understands Suzy's defensive barriers and respects them. Meanwhile, Suzy's relationship with her older brother Aaron provides another source of support. When Aaron tells her, "Middle school sucks... When I was in seventh grade, all I wanted was to get out of there. And I hadn't even lost my best fr-" before catching himself, Suzy feels understood in a way her parents' concerned hovering cannot achieve. Aaron's boyfriend Rocco also offers warmth and wisdom, quoting George Eliot about birds seeking successive autumns - a subtle reminder that life continues even after profound loss.

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Chapter 9

The Failed Journey and the Truth About Grief

After weeks of meticulous planning - checking flight schedules, memorizing airport layouts, and calculating exact timing - Suzy finally attempts her journey to Australia. She arrives at the airport carrying her carefully packed backpack, heart racing with determination, only to have reality crash down when she reaches the airline counter. The representative, a woman with kind eyes and a practiced smile, asks for her passport and visa. In a moment that crystallizes her innocence, Suzy slides her father's credit card information across the counter, saying "It's a Visa" - a misunderstanding that reveals how, despite her scientific mind and careful planning, she is still very much a child trying to navigate an adult world she doesn't fully comprehend. "Not for international travel," the woman explains gently, her voice tinged with concern as she asks where Suzy's parents are. The fluorescent lights suddenly seem too bright as reality sinks in. Tears blur Suzy's vision, and she collapses to the floor behind the counter, understanding she has failed in her quest to reach Jamie and prove her theory about Franny's death. The bustling airport continues around her - families dragging suitcases, business travelers rushing past, announcements echoing overhead - while her carefully constructed plan crumbles. This moment of failure becomes Suzy's turning point. Sitting on the cold airport floor, watching others heading confidently to their destinations, she finally acknowledges the truth that has been hovering at the edges of her consciousness: "Even if Jamie confirmed a jellyfish killed Franny, she would still be gone. Our friendship would still have ended how it ended." Silent apologies flow through her mind like waves - for not being who Franny wanted her to be, for whatever terror or pain Franny experienced in her final moments, for making her time on this "stupid little mote of dust" harder than it needed to be. When Suzy's mother arrives at the airport, tears streaming down her face and fear evident in her rushed movements, she's followed by Aaron who manages to diffuse the tension with his characteristic casualness, asking "What's going on, Zu?" It's then that Suzy finally breaks her silence: "I thought I could prove it," she says, though they know nothing about her extensive research, the jellyfish specimens, or how "something impossible had become the only possible thing" in her grief-stricken mind. This failed journey marks Suzy's first real step toward accepting that some questions don't have satisfying answers - that sometimes, despite our most rigorous scientific efforts and desperate need for explanation, we must learn to live with uncertainty and loss. The airport becomes not just a place of failure, but a threshold between her determined denial and the beginning of true grief, between childhood certainty and the more complex understanding that comes with growing up.

Chapter 10

Dancing with Heroes and Villains

In the novel's final movement, Suzy begins to emerge from her cocoon of silence and isolation. When Justin calls to invite her to the school's Heroes and Villains dance, Suzy hesitates before telling her mother, "He's... a friend, I guess." The word feels strange in her mouth, but she recognizes its truth. Despite her initial reluctance, Suzy decides to attend the dance, quickly assembling a costume from her brother's paint-splattered Red Sox cap and a gray T-shirt long enough to be a dress over leggings. Before leaving, she takes the photo of teenage Aaron that she'd stolen from his apartment and places it in her pocket - a talisman connecting her to family love. At the dance, surrounded by Harry Potters, Voldemorts, Katniss Everdeens, and various superheroes, Suzy makes two significant connections. First, she calls her father for the first time in five months, suggesting they visit the dinosaur tracks he'd mentioned - a small but meaningful olive branch. Then, Sarah Johnston, dressed as a ninja, asks if they can enter the dance together, admitting she doesn't really have friends. Inside, Suzy watches the dancing kids form circles that remind her of pulsing jellyfish, and decides to join them. This simple act - stepping into the circle rather than observing from the outside - symbolizes Suzy's tentative return to the world of the living, to connection and possibility. The novel leaves us with a powerful image from Suzy's memory: she and Franny under the big tree in her backyard, building fairy houses from moss and sticks. It's late afternoon, golden light all around them. They're playing a hand-slapping game, laughing as their shadows grow longer and their knees touch. "We begin again," Suzy tells us - a phrase that applies not just to their childhood game but to Suzy herself as she learns to live with loss while remaining open to new connections. Through her scientific exploration of jellyfish - creatures that have survived five mass extinctions - Suzy discovers her own resilience. Unlike jellyfish, who "just drift along unaware," humans may be "fragile newcomers to this planet, but we're the only ones who can decide to change." In this realization lies Suzy's hard-won wisdom and her path forward through grief toward healing.

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Key Themes in The thing about jellyfish

childhood grief
scientific inquiry
selective mutism
fading friendships
marine biology

Quotes from The thing about jellyfish

Sometimes things just happen.
Everything changes after you tell me you like Dylan Parker.
What do we hope to find out? How does it relate to human concerns?
Imagine if we could do that.

Characters in The thing about jellyfish

Suzy SwansonThe scientifically-minded seventh-grade protagonist
Franny JacksonSuzy's former best friend who passed away
Mrs. TurtonSuzy's supportive science teacher and mentor

About the Author

Ali Benjamin is the bestselling author of The Thing About Jellyfish, a National Book Award finalist and middle-grade novel exploring grief, friendship, and scientific wonder. Born Alison Wade in the New York City area, Benjamin now lives in Massachusetts.

Her debut drew inspiration from her fascination with jellyfish at the New England Aquarium, seamlessly weaving STEM concepts into emotionally resonant storytelling that encourages young readers, especially girls, to explore science.

Before fiction, Benjamin co-authored the New York Times bestselling sports memoir The Keeper with Tim Howard and Positive with Paige Rawl, the first-ever nonfiction selection for The Today Show book club. She has since published The Next Great Paulie Fink and her first adult novel, The Smash-Up.

The Thing About Jellyfish has been published in more than 25 languages across 30 countries and was optioned for film by Reese Witherspoon's production company.

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From Columbia University alumni built in San Francisco

LOVED BY

1,000,000+ curious minds.

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avg rating

1M+ learners

"Instead of endless scrolling, I just hit play on BeFreed. It saves me so much time."

@Moemenn

"I never knew where to start with nonfiction—BeFreed’s book lists turned into podcasts gave me a clear path."

@Chloe, Solo founder, LA

117

"Perfect balance between learning and entertainment. Finished ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ on my commute this week."

@Raaaaaachelw

"Crazy how much I learned while walking the dog. BeFreed = small habits → big gains."

@Matt, YC alum

108

"Reading used to feel like a chore. Now it’s just part of my lifestyle."

@Erin, Investment Banking Associate , NYC

254

"Feels effortless compared to reading. I’ve finished 6 books this month already."

@djmikemoore

"BeFreed turned my guilty doomscrolling into something that feels productive and inspiring."

@Pitiful

4.5K

"BeFreed turned my commute into learning time. 20-min podcasts are perfect for finishing books I never had time for."

@SofiaP

"BeFreed replaced my podcast queue. Imagine Spotify for books — that’s it. 🙌"

@Jaded_Falcon

201

"It is great for me to learn something from the book without reading it."

@OojasSalunke

"The themed book list podcasts help me connect ideas across authors—like a guided audio journey."

@Leo, Law Student, UPenn

483

"Makes me feel smarter every time before going to work"

@Cashflowbubu

"Instead of endless scrolling, I just hit play on BeFreed. It saves me so much time."

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@Raaaaaachelw

"Crazy how much I learned while walking the dog. BeFreed = small habits → big gains."

@Matt, YC alum

108

"Reading used to feel like a chore. Now it’s just part of my lifestyle."

@Erin, Investment Banking Associate , NYC

254

"Feels effortless compared to reading. I’ve finished 6 books this month already."

@djmikemoore

"BeFreed turned my guilty doomscrolling into something that feels productive and inspiring."

@Pitiful

4.5K

"BeFreed turned my commute into learning time. 20-min podcasts are perfect for finishing books I never had time for."

@SofiaP

"BeFreed replaced my podcast queue. Imagine Spotify for books — that’s it. 🙌"

@Jaded_Falcon

201

"It is great for me to learn something from the book without reading it."

@OojasSalunke

"The themed book list podcasts help me connect ideas across authors—like a guided audio journey."

@Leo, Law Student, UPenn

483

"Makes me feel smarter every time before going to work"

@Cashflowbubu

"Instead of endless scrolling, I just hit play on BeFreed. It saves me so much time."

@Moemenn

"I never knew where to start with nonfiction—BeFreed’s book lists turned into podcasts gave me a clear path."

@Chloe, Solo founder, LA

117

"Perfect balance between learning and entertainment. Finished ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ on my commute this week."

@Raaaaaachelw

"Crazy how much I learned while walking the dog. BeFreed = small habits → big gains."

@Matt, YC alum

108

"Reading used to feel like a chore. Now it’s just part of my lifestyle."

@Erin, Investment Banking Associate , NYC

254

"Feels effortless compared to reading. I’ve finished 6 books this month already."

@djmikemoore

"BeFreed turned my guilty doomscrolling into something that feels productive and inspiring."

@Pitiful

4.5K

"BeFreed turned my commute into learning time. 20-min podcasts are perfect for finishing books I never had time for."

@SofiaP

"BeFreed replaced my podcast queue. Imagine Spotify for books — that’s it. 🙌"

@Jaded_Falcon

201

"It is great for me to learn something from the book without reading it."

@OojasSalunke

"The themed book list podcasts help me connect ideas across authors—like a guided audio journey."

@Leo, Law Student, UPenn

483

"Makes me feel smarter every time before going to work"

@Cashflowbubu

See more on how BeFreed is discussed

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Chapter 4

The thing about jellyfish

OverviewOverview of The thing about jellyfish

One book. Many ways to hear it.

When the Ocean Whispers Your Name

The Invisible Girl and the Ghost Heart

See every word as you hear it

The Science of Loss and the Loss of Friendship

Ancient Survivors in a Changing World

Get more out of The thing about jellyfish

The Silent Treatment and Unspoken Truths

The Quest for Answers and the Perfect Expert

See every word as you hear it

The Terrible Message and Unforgivable Act

Finding Connection in Unexpected Places

Get more out of The thing about jellyfish

The Failed Journey and the Truth About Grief

Dancing with Heroes and Villains

You made it to the end of The thing about jellyfish

Key Themes in The thing about jellyfish

Quotes from The thing about jellyfish

Characters in The thing about jellyfish

About the Author

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1,000,000+ curious minds.

1,000,000+ curious minds.

One book. Many ways to hear it.

When the Ocean Whispers Your Name

The Invisible Girl and the Ghost Heart

See every word as you hear it

The Science of Loss and the Loss of Friendship

Ancient Survivors in a Changing World

Get more out of The thing about jellyfish

The Silent Treatment and Unspoken Truths

The Quest for Answers and the Perfect Expert

See every word as you hear it

The Terrible Message and Unforgivable Act

Finding Connection in Unexpected Places

Get more out of The thing about jellyfish

The Failed Journey and the Truth About Grief

Dancing with Heroes and Villains

You made it to the end of The thing about jellyfish

Users also liked

Discover more

Overview of The thing about jellyfish