Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey Into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton

3 reviews

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.

spooderman's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

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

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.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Mental illness, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness