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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Did I enjoy this? I can't decide.
It kept me interested, for sure. But at the same time, the story was so full of brutal, uncaring men that I hurried to reach the end just so I wouldn't have to read about the main character's misery anymore.
The captain's character was written very well. Every time he was on the page, I felt this sense of dread that kept building. Because of that tension, I expected far more conflict in the climax than I received.
All in all, I guess I'm glad I read The Sea Wolf. But I have no desire to read it again.
It kept me interested, for sure. But at the same time, the story was so full of brutal, uncaring men that I hurried to reach the end just so I wouldn't have to read about the main character's misery anymore.
The captain's character was written very well. Every time he was on the page, I felt this sense of dread that kept building. Because of that tension, I expected far more conflict in the climax than I received.
All in all, I guess I'm glad I read The Sea Wolf. But I have no desire to read it again.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was interesting. Wolf Larsen is one of my favorite characters I've read to date. I really liked Hump as character until Maude was introduced. I think the introduction of Maude was symbolic of his life on shore and the kind of man that his life on shore made him, which I agree with Larsen wasn't a very good one, and she brought out a lot of the bad in him that Larsen helped to remedy. I didn't like the portrayal of a woman as that weak and helpless either. Her lack of constitution was bafling and the constant praise of her bravery felt unwarranted. All of this said, I still really enjoyed the book. The first 75% was pretty close to a five star read for me. After the sailing ship with Maude was reduced everything kind of went down hill and I kind of had to slog through the rest. It was worth it for the conclusion of the story though. London is a fantastic writer and I will definetley be reading more by him.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
First half is incredible; second half is disappointing.
This book is a wild ride. A little hard to get into at first but it really started to pull me in.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Look at me. Forget Hannigram and Sasuke/Naruto or whatever the hell you think is the prototype for toxic homoeroticism. I am going to tell you this once, and I want you to engrave this into your memory: Wolf Larsen and Humphrey Van Weyden are the ancestor of all gay and violent erotic tension.
Wolf Larsen is perhaps one of the best male characters ever conceived of, and were this novel published in the 21st century, I am convinced that young men everywhere would have modeled his behavior after him. His name is WOLF. He’s self-educated. He regularly shanghaies people into working for him. He beats the shit out of like five men at once. He beats the shit out of a shark. He engages in philosophical debates, and is described by our narrator as handsome and good-looking, and his physique has our narrator literally speechless. His eyes are beautiful. He makes his own navigational tools. At some point in the book I was expecting Hump to describe the perfect shape of his dick, such was the insanity of the descriptions that Humphrey kept laying down on him.
Humphrey is fine. He’s very much an ideological vessel, going up against Larsen’s individualistic and violent beliefs, but the great joy in Humphrey’s character lays in how utterly besotted he seems with Wolf Larsen, and how utterly he loathes him in equal measure. Larsen favors Van Weyden in a weird sadistic way, and Van Weyden hates him for it, but also takes great pride in his new duties. It’s bonkers. The first half of 60% of the book is just them being violent and tense around each other, in between discussions about mortality underpinned by intellectual sexual tension so thick you could cut a knife with it. If the entire book was just this I would’ve loved it, but unfortunately Maud Brewster arrives, and Humphrey remembers that he’s a heterosexual and that women are important, and the rest of the book is spent as Humphrey whines and tries to act masculine for Maud and Wolf Larsen is relegated to the sidelines as a boring and bland romance just…occurs in between Maud and Humphrey.
Now. Do you think this book had women in the early 1900s acting like fujoshis and saying shit like “UGH why did Maud even arrive things were sooo good between Wolf and Hump
Wolf Larsen is perhaps one of the best male characters ever conceived of, and were this novel published in the 21st century, I am convinced that young men everywhere would have modeled his behavior after him. His name is WOLF. He’s self-educated. He regularly shanghaies people into working for him. He beats the shit out of like five men at once. He beats the shit out of a shark. He engages in philosophical debates, and is described by our narrator as handsome and good-looking, and his physique has our narrator literally speechless. His eyes are beautiful. He makes his own navigational tools. At some point in the book I was expecting Hump to describe the perfect shape of his dick, such was the insanity of the descriptions that Humphrey kept laying down on him.
Humphrey is fine. He’s very much an ideological vessel, going up against Larsen’s individualistic and violent beliefs, but the great joy in Humphrey’s character lays in how utterly besotted he seems with Wolf Larsen, and how utterly he loathes him in equal measure. Larsen favors Van Weyden in a weird sadistic way, and Van Weyden hates him for it, but also takes great pride in his new duties. It’s bonkers. The first half of 60% of the book is just them being violent and tense around each other, in between discussions about mortality underpinned by intellectual sexual tension so thick you could cut a knife with it. If the entire book was just this I would’ve loved it, but unfortunately Maud Brewster arrives, and Humphrey remembers that he’s a heterosexual and that women are important, and the rest of the book is spent as Humphrey whines and tries to act masculine for Maud and Wolf Larsen is relegated to the sidelines as a boring and bland romance just…occurs in between Maud and Humphrey.
Now. Do you think this book had women in the early 1900s acting like fujoshis and saying shit like “UGH why did Maud even arrive things were sooo good between Wolf and Hump
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
made me appreciate the whale infodumping in Moby Dick more. at least that was interesting