Scan barcode
Reviews tagging 'Confinement'
Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey Into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton
14 reviews
modernhobbitvibes's review against another edition
4.0
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.defenders_iris's review
5.0
It really sheds light on the sort of people who set out on these expeditions and what drives them to these feats, as well as how that drive can be their undoing. Frankly, it's the first nonfiction book that made me cry with empathy for their struggles, even knowing the explorers were deeply flawed men with colonist dreams - and being able to balance both of those realities, while also illustrating the progress in the expedition itself, is a feat. Note if you're sensitive to death, especially animal death, I'd avoid this.
I might even purchase a physical copy because it's a phenomenal reference and story.
Graphic: Death and Animal death
Moderate: Confinement
allisonstockslager's review
4.0
Graphic: Mental illness, Animal death, and Confinement
katieimre's review
3.5
Graphic: Death and Confinement
singlier's review
4.0
Julian Sancton 4/5 🏔️s
This nonfiction text tells the story of the Belgica, one of the first expeditions to chart the South Pole led, by Belgian commandment Adrien der Gerlach. Although based on diary entries from the crew (of the 18 man crew, 10 kept diaries of the expedition), the book reads in most cases like a novel: it's not sensationalized, but it approaches it's subject matter with unflinching detail. Centering on the first four officers of the ship, de Gerlach, Roald Amundsen, Frederick Cook, and Georges Lecointe, the book paints a vivid picture of each man, laying out their personalities, drives, goals, and ambitious as they impacted the decisions made throughout the expedition.
See, the Belgica is famous not only for being one of the first ships to map the coast of Antarctica, but for being the first ship to survive a winter in the Antarctic. The extensive record keeping kept by the crew and the ships doctor has made this exploration a case study in human behavior within isolated environments, and has impacted the way humans prepare for space travel, deep sea travel, as well as other forms of extreme isolation. Cook's theories of maintaining mental stability, born out of his experience on the ship, represent some of the first documents indicating a relationship between light and human health (think of seasonal affective disorder). His knowledge of first nations practices of hunting and food preparation are also the main reason his crew survived, and helped legitimize indigenous techniques of health and wellness in the eyes of white scholars during this period.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it. The amount of research the author put into it really shows in the descriptions of the landscape and the characterization of the men onboard, helping to humanize this story of nearly one hundred years ago.
Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Mental illness, Violence, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, and Death
mondovertigo's review
5.0
Graphic: Medical content, Death, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Confinement, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Animal cruelty
Minor: Child death and Death of parent
spooderman's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Colonisation, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, and Death
Moderate: Child death, Sexism, Drug use, Excrement, Racial slurs, and Racism
Minor: Addiction, Infidelity, Cancer, Cannibalism, Child death, and Suicidal thoughts
johnawickline's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Confinement and Animal death
Moderate: Mental illness and Death
arciz's review
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, and Mental illness
Moderate: Death
cassroberts89's review against another edition
4.0
I actually did not realize this was non-fiction when I picked it up after just a brief glance at the back. I started reading the day before the Endurance was found, which made this story all the more exciting. It took a chapter or two, but after that I was hooked. Sancton did an absolutely phenomenal job turning a collection of scientific findings, sailor’s and officer’s journal entries, specimens, and artifacts into a fully fleshed out adventure/survival tale. I can’t even imagine having to endure the hardships this crew suffered during the long polar night, not to mention being almost completely at the mercy of Mother Nature during their entire entrapment in the ice pack.
Graphic: Animal death and Confinement
Moderate: Mental illness and Death