Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

28 reviews

hannahbee_97's review

adventurous informative mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

Really well done telling of the event from a wide variety of perspectives! I also loved the narrator’s voice!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content, Abandonment, and Murder

Minor: Animal death

waterlogged's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative tense fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Cannibalism

Moderate: Terminal illness, Murder, Medical content, and Violence

Minor: Sexual harassment and Trafficking

zeldazonks's review

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Manages to be incredibly compelling and informative as well as highlight the hypocrisy, cruelty and nonsensical nature of colonialism. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was fantastic, I devoured this in two days.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Abandonment, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Death, Colonisation, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cannibalism

zsabella's review

adventurous dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, War, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Medical content, Medical trauma, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Slavery, Racism, and Animal death

sarasreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative reflective tense fast-paced

4.5

This was pretty unputdownable. So much was happening all of the time it read much more like fiction than nonfiction, which I enjoy. It can get pretty gruesome, so know that going in. It can be harder to stomach since it's a true story. But I flew through this and will definitely read more from this author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Colonisation, Cannibalism, and Classism

Minor: Racism, War, and Slavery

ekcd_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Child death, Death of parent, Excrement, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Slavery, Cursing, Death, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Trafficking, Violence, Medical content, Suicide attempt, War, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Confinement, Physical abuse, and Racism

knkoch's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative medium-paced

3.75

I found this worthwhile and informative, if bleak in its reminders of the way naval stories like this are shaped by the huge and destructive forces of imperialism and ruthless extraction of resources. All the human folly that went into conscripting hundreds of deathly ill men to run ships that take thousands of century-old trees to build just to attempt needlessly difficult cape passages, only to shipwreck in an extremely challenging climate and

waste the lives of hundreds of people from disease and starvation!

I really liked that David Grann gave great context into the Indigenous tribes the men from this ship interacted with and the impact that naval expeditions had on them and all others in South and North America in the eighteenth century especially. It felt like he was resetting the image of journeys like these, moving away from glory and adventure into the grinding hardship, weaknesses of leadership, imperial greed, racist assumptions of superiority/inferiority, and endless jockeying between major European empires like Spain and England. Grann developed the historical characters well, and clearly established how naval honor codes, class, and rank influenced the events at sea and land. Shocked to learn that

the value of the seized Spanish galleon, then the greatest single event war bounty seized, was dwarfed by the full millions-of-pounds cost of the entire expedition to seize it.

And yet, we can't forget that history can be so easily spun into self-congratulatory stories that flatter rather than invite critical examination. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Eating disorder, Murder, Body horror, Medical content, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Gun violence, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Xenophobia

Minor: Cannibalism

Eating disorder: Much discussion of starvation, but not sure what TW may fit better.

samchase112's review

adventurous dark informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book truly swept me away!!! I was enthralled by the writing, the narrative, and the narrator. I lost time listening to this story, and took walks to get further. David Grann made me feel like I was traversing the hazardous seas, searching the desolate island, and scribbling on the page with these men — truly impressive. I’ll be recommending this book (and especially the audiobook!) for a while to come!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Colonisation, Gun violence, War, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Murder, Racism, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, and Medical content

Minor: Suicide, Cannibalism, and Genocide

sonygaystation's review

challenging emotional informative sad slow-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Violence, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Minor: War, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, and Vomit

tinytrashqueen's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Cannibalism and Medical content