Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale by Herman Melville

79 reviews

ran_sophia's review against another edition

1.0

challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

The author has put some nice ideas in the book, but he buried them under a pile of descriptive text, which did not have to be there in such quantities. The only positive thing was the great quality and elaboration of the audiobook I was listening to. I had to put that physical book away and it was unreadable. I finished a book, thanks of that audiobook. Overall, the book did not read me well and was sometimes lifeless and tedious to me.

Content Warnings

novelyon's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

i can't believe the novel started with the "there is only one bed" trope and ended with ahab trying to attack and dethrone God

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benjiaprout's review

4.0

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

yrlaevelyn's review against another edition

1.5

adventurous challenging informative reflective

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

abomine's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

seanml's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging informative mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

In some circles this has been referred to as the greatest of American novels. I wanted to know the basis for this, because surely there must be some merit if it is still brought up today. What did I find? I found that Moby Dick is, in a way, two separate books. First, there is a book of whale anatomy. Our narrator Ishmael, being a member of the crew, has many things to say about the process and subject of the whaling industry. Dozens of chapters will go by that are more educational than narrative, and that is why the book is so vilified: This educational content is like 80% of the book. Or at least it feels that way. The second part of this book is the story of our ship, the Pequod, and Captain Ahab’s relentless search for the malicious white whale. And this, surprisingly, was everything it was said to be. The sea is described like the primordial all-encompassing force that it is, and Melville through Ishmael taps into the innate fear of such an alien place, making this book scarier than many books in the horror genre. And within this void is Moby Dick himself, who comes and goes like a cosmic horror of the great deep, presaged by strange omens and otherworldly harbingers. So I recommend the narrative portion of the book, despite it being the minority of the page count. So why might this be called the greatest American novel? There are two possibilities. One, it is, but this is unlikely. Or two, this book was written in the mid-1850s, and there were like two books back then, so it was either this or Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and this one is pretty cool. 8/10.

Content Warnings

authorrachelcooper's review

5.0

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Moby-Dick is one of my favorites I've read this year. It is top-tier classic literature. If you have not read it yet, let me just say that they ship it to you badly. Moby-dick is about the whale, yes. But Moby-Dick is really about one man and his descent into total and utter madness. Featuring so much of what I personally love from classics, the main character, Ishmael, loves to give you all his knowledge of boating, whaling, and everything in-between in the most pretentious way possible. Moby-Dick is wonderous, fascinating, horrifying at times, and a ride the entire way through. I absolutely loved it and could not put it down.

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thetatteredowl's review

I'm not going to be the person that's like 'classic book bad actually'. This book was very difficult to get into, but once I was settled I found it was enjoyable, albeit very slow. Gave up once I realised I was reading it for the sake of reading it, instead of reading it because I liked it

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