I feel incredibly stupid for this. In my defence, everything leading up to the last quarter is written in a way very similar to any memoir I've ever read, with realistic dates, details, and characters.

I was very excited while reading it, thinking "I can't believe nobody talks about this!", telling my friends how cool it is. It makes me cringe just thinking about it.

SPOILERS FOR THE LIFE OF PI BELOW:
When it got to the algae island near the end, I was thinking, "how have I never heard of this phenomena?" Then I googled it and realized that the whole thing was a made up story. Ironically, the same way Pi feels betrayed by the island for being poisonous and murderous yet seeming so inviting, I felt betrayed by the book because I thought it was real until I googled it.

SPOILER SECTION OVER

TLDR; I made myself look like an idiot for believing in the events of the book Life of Pi, which is, of course, a work of fiction.