100 Animals That Can F*cking End You

Environmental science field technician Ndiaye has gained over 14 million followers on TikTok by sharing his knowledge of obscure animals. His new book provides humorous descriptions of deadly animals, along with a rating of how likely they are to kill based on multiple factors. Ndiaye calls this the merk rating, on a scale of one to 10. Some of the animals are expected: the Bengal tiger scores a 10 with a bite force twice as intense as the lion’s and an ability to imitate the mating calls of other animals. Others are more unexpected. The cone snail, a tiny creature with a beautiful shell, earned a merk rating of 7.5 as its venom induces muscle paralysis and difficulty breathing. This alphabetical listing of animals “likely to put an R.I.P. in front of your name” is periodically broken up with factoids like “Four Bugs You Should Social Distance From,” “Six Animals You Didn’t Know Were Cannibals,” and “Animals That Look Deadly but Aren’t.” Ndiaye’s dark wit prevents the book from becoming monotonous. This is a perfect mixture of coffee-table book and laugh-out-loud ghoulish trivia.