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adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was surprised how much I truly enjoyed reading this book. It was funny and sad and ironic. The story is very compelling, but the organizational structure is lacking. The tangential chapters about whaling history and religion are important to setting the scene of the story and putting the events into context, but I wish Melville had organized them differently and paced the story better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Religious bigotry, Classism
adventurous
dark
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If I hadn’t been doing this as a buddy read, it would have been a DNF. There were moments where I absolutely loved Melville’s writing, unfortunately those moments were few and far between, drowned amid hundreds of pages of whale trade information suited for a textbook. There were also the rambling chapters of Ishmael’s inane views on life, whales, and sailing. The last 150 pages are where it really gets into the plot, of course the last 150 pages are some 500 pages into the novel. If I were to read the story again, I’d skip all of the filler and only read the chapters that contain actual plot.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Death
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death
Moderate: Body horror
Minor: Racism, Religious bigotry
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
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
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail