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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
The graphically detailed animal death in this book was quite literally the nail in the coffin for me. While I understand this is a book about survival and also taken from the diaries of the men who experienced it, I did not need to hear about bashing sea lions brains in, sea lion blood and guts, killing the female and baby sea lions, and crushing birds to death in such graphic detail. This genuinely made me so nauseous and I hate to DNF a book club book, but this is unfortunately one of my trigger warnings that I can’t get past.
I don’t know what happened to these men seeing as I didn’t finish the book, but I hope they all died a slow and painful death ❤️
Outside of those issues with the story, I found this to be incredibly dry when it really could have been dramatized up a bit seeing as it really is a fascinating tale.
I don’t know what happened to these men seeing as I didn’t finish the book, but I hope they all died a slow and painful death ❤️
Outside of those issues with the story, I found this to be incredibly dry when it really could have been dramatized up a bit seeing as it really is a fascinating tale.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death
challenging
emotional
informative
fast-paced
Fascinating account of two sets of shipwreck survivors, hard to put down. I really enjoyed the ingenuity and teamwork displayed by one shipwrecked group, in such contrast to the other group. I’ll be reading more by this author.
fast-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
I was never bored with this book. But, as I imagine the shipwrecked sailors would have also said, the story does drag at points. There's a lot of the "day-in-the-life" that could have been summarized as "they killed a few more seals and it rained". Obviously, writing about the drudgery of their lives is part of the story and helps emphasize how miserable it would be to be shipwrecked on the Auckland Islands, so what do I know?
It also drags a bit at the end when the adventure is all over and Druett pads out the last parts of the books with the later history of the islands. None of this is a deal-breaker and might actually hold other reader's interests more than mine.
All in all, it's a good read about a bad time, with lots of human ingenuity throughout.
It also drags a bit at the end when the adventure is all over and Druett pads out the last parts of the books with the later history of the islands. None of this is a deal-breaker and might actually hold other reader's interests more than mine.
All in all, it's a good read about a bad time, with lots of human ingenuity throughout.
A true story of survival and endurance. The story was riveting.
This was a gripping and harrowing account! I could not put it down!!!