Match BookDarwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution
Rebecca Stott
2012 · 396 pages · Narrative nonfiction
How it reads
Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution is narrative nonfiction (history of evolutionary thought, specifically), and its dominant mood is adventurous. It's driven by momentum, discovery and getting into trouble. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in an international setting, in the historical past, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are nature, identity and power and politics. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 396 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something adventurous
- you want something to chew on
- you want a complete story in one book
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy or melancholy
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- narrative nonfiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- international
- Setting: time
- historical
- Mood / feeling
- adventurous
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- third person, several viewpoints
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- moderately known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- nature, identity, power and politics
- Ending style
- resolved and happy
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really AreSeth Stephens-DavidowitzShares: narrative nonfiction, adventurous mood, moderate pace, resolved and happy ending
- Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to SuperintelligenceSusan SchneiderShares: narrative nonfiction, adventurous mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex LifeNick LaneShares: narrative nonfiction, adventurous mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- Pegasus: How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and DemocracyLaurent RichardShares: narrative nonfiction, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace, set in international
- The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His EmpireJack WeatherfordShares: narrative nonfiction, adventurous mood, moderate pace, resolved and happy ending
- Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in CyberspaceJanet H. MurrayShares: narrative nonfiction, adventurous mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
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