A simile involves a figurative comparison and there are many examples in Project Hail Mary, especially using “like”.

Note that some of these might be borderline because literal vs figurative is a spectrum.

The similes we found with “like” include:

like peeing a golf ball 01.093
widens like a funnel 01.119
I feel like my whole body is made of lead 01.154
settle me in like a mother putting her child to sleep 01.156
flail like an angry cat 01.225
scrawling on the wall like a madman 02.082
cry like a child 02.085
like being in a video game 02.173
A chilling terror that hits like a lead weight 03.263
like shooting a .50-caliber round at a sheet of paper and having it bounce off 04.070
like flicking a switch 04.077
bounced from one foot to the other like a little kid 04.092
unfolds like a Chinese takeout box 04.126
my body shined like a beacon 05.073
clicked in my mind like puzzle pieces finally fitting together 05.098
took off like a bat out of hell 05.140
like an insect molting in reverse 07.084
like someone added a crayon drawing into the corner of a Da Vinci 08.180
clutched my little sample container like Scrooge with a bag of coins 09.054
feel like Sherlock Holmes 10.063
pushed around like a leaf in the wind 11.020
To Rocky, that metal plate is like a glass window 11.070
curls up like a dead bug 12.111
came out smelling like roses 13.216
insulate Earth like a parka 14.044
like a man being led to the gallows 14.127
like pushing a motorcycle in neutral 15.024
like a dog tilting its head to get more information about a sound 15.035
like having giant hamster Habitrails running everywhere 16.141
squished like a grape 16.151
like a human with scuba gear diving into an ocean of black paint 17.052
thrown around like a rag doll 19.217
spinning us like a top 19.222
like having a cement block on my back 19.226
like putting my hands on a burner 19.246
rattled around like popcorn 20.023
crushed like a grape 20.037
My lungs feel like a hundred knives are having a dance-off 20.042
My lungs feel like they’re coated in tar 20.057
I sleep like a baby 21.090
I’ve been working like a dog 22.152
I must look like a monster right now 22.264
It would be like asking the world’s best structural engineer to do brain surgery 23.040
avoid risk like the plague 23.118
like a sixteenth-century nautical ship, but we’re using beetles for sails 24.034
like a paddlewheel boat with a broken rudder 24.034
a human body is more like a borderless police state 24.100
like fire in my mouth 25.211
like turning on a flashlight in the fog 29.112

The similes we found with “as” include:

dead as a doornail 01.235
smart as a whip 03.014
She waved off my statement as if it were an annoying insect 08.021
approximately as critical as toilet paper 18.158

In a future beanbag, we’ll look at the distribution of these similes.