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Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'
Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey Into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton
6 reviews
jrwarburton96's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
An epic and fascinating story of human survival. Would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys non-fiction stories, and particularly anyone who has an interest in the Golden Age of Polar Exploration.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, and Gore
Minor: Suicide and Alcohol
modernhobbitvibes's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
tense
medium-paced
4.0
I CANNOT find the bookstagrammer who recommended this in a video, but shout out to them, this was kind of a banger.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Terminal illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Confinement, Mental illness, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Violence and Gore
Minor: Racism, Colonisation, and Suicide
Entire book is about survival situations in extreme conditions, including the risk of death by starvation/freezing and explicit death by drowning. There is also discussion of the effects of global warming in the author's notes.not_another_ana's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
tense
slow-paced
4.75
Only two things were certain: it would get colder, and it would get darker.
An account of a little known Antarctic expedition, the triumphs they achieved and all the calamities and horrors they had to endure during the long polar night. It's the end of the 19th century and there's still a couple of wild places unconquered by men, one of them being the Antarctic. While the Arctic had seen its fair share of famous (and tragic) expeditions, until then the southernmost continent had remained practically untouched. Enter Adrien de Gerlache, a young Belgian navy officer with a dream and an unquenchable thirst for adventure. Putting together an expedition for scientific purposes, and the glory of the then new nation of Belgium, he embarked on a voyage that would prove fruitful yet dangerous and disturbing.
Incredibly engaging and well narrated story. I was hooked from the very beginning and desperate to know more. As a modern person it is hard to imagine what the crew of this ship went through for almost two years, completely trapped and separated from the rest of the world, but the author does an upstanding job at creating the ambience and putting the situation in perspective. You can tell this was a well researched labor of love, that Julian Sancton was fascinated with all the little details that make up this story. Not only was the situation captivating and terrorific, but the actual people who lived through this were engaging, intelligent, flawed and deeply human. The use of the diaries in this book was masterfully done and really connected me with the men trapped in the ice.
While I think it all flows quite nicely and it is easy enough to get into, some of the heavy sailing and ship terminology did fly over my head quite a bit. I never felt like it dragged, but it certainly required concentration and imagination to be able to wrap my head around the scale of the situation. I also read this while on a cruise ship and I very much recommend it, it gave the book an extra atmosphere and added to the horror of it all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Medical content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
sarah984's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
4.0
This was a really interesting story of Antarctic adventure and bad decisions. Several people on board the ship kept detailed diaries (and later wrote memoirs of varying accuracy) so many events are illustrated in the participants' own words. This really gives you a feel of the group dynamics on board, which is important in an isolation story about a small group.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Chronic illness, Medical content, and Mental illness
Moderate: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Colonisation, Death, Excrement, Racism, and Vomit
Minor: Addiction, Cannibalism, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, and Infidelity
srm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.75
I love cold weather disaster stories. This one in an interesting addition to that genre, particular the look at an early Roald Amundsen. But in so many ways, this is an expedition full of folks who had no business leaving home that it's less enjoyable than account of more competent explorers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Confinement, Death, and Medical content
Minor: Chronic illness
outsmartyourshelf's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
3.5
When commandant Adrien de Gerlache sets sail with a ragtag crew, including Roald Amundsen, and assorted scientists onboard the Belgica, he hopes to claim the South Pole for his homeland of Belgium. They eventually make it to the area but the ship becomes trapped in thick ice which freezes them within a large ice floe. A month of endless darkness draws in and the men start to suffer with physical and mental health issues, even the ship's cat becomes melancholy and dies of an unnamed illness. Although they have plenty of food onboard, it is not fresh and so the men begin to feel the effects of scurvy. Can they survive long enough for the ice to release the ship and sail home?
I read a book based on the true events of The Terror a couple of years ago, so I was very interested in reading this one about the Belgica. After a slow start, things pick up when they arrive in Antarctica, and there is a lot of information about the main individuals involved and the horrors they endured. I thought it was very well researched and written in an accessible way for people who don't know the history of the expedition - there are also several maps to help. It did drag a little in places though. Overall I rated this one 3.5 stars (rounded up to 4).
Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Random House UK/Ebury Publishing/W H Allen, for the opportunity to read an ARC. I am voluntarily giving an honest review.
I read a book based on the true events of The Terror a couple of years ago, so I was very interested in reading this one about the Belgica. After a slow start, things pick up when they arrive in Antarctica, and there is a lot of information about the main individuals involved and the horrors they endured. I thought it was very well researched and written in an accessible way for people who don't know the history of the expedition - there are also several maps to help. It did drag a little in places though. Overall I rated this one 3.5 stars (rounded up to 4).
Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Random House UK/Ebury Publishing/W H Allen, for the opportunity to read an ARC. I am voluntarily giving an honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Mental illness, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness
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