Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale by Herman Melville

50 reviews

authorrachelcooper's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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 against another edition

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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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call_me_ishmael's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book can be challenging but, boy, is it worth it. I recommend listening to an audiobook to help you get through. (Librivox has a great free recording done by Stewart Wills.) The style is very experimental and not a straight-forward adventure story. But even though it is dense, there is a lot of humor, wit, reflections on humanity, and lovable characters within. Herman Melville raises great philosophical questions about man, nature, and God. There is a reason this is considered the great American novel.
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captahab's review against another edition

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dark funny informative slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I love this book. Obsession with an unknowable thing and the desire to understand what can’t be understood! 
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msjenne's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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thewintersings's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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sherbertwells's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The sole survivor of a shipwreck immortalizes its ill-fated final voyage: its crew, its prey and its captain’s monomaniacal obsession with the titular white whale. Verbose and glorious, and if Melville is not quite the American Shakespeare he is something deeper altogether.

“Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began. Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself?” (283)
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cadencec's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No
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yavin_iv's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny informative reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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isabeldotml's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective tense slow-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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