Reviews tagging 'Death'

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

100 reviews

dogswithnogs's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Colonisation, Death, and Xenophobia

Minor: Slavery, Torture, and Animal death

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.5

David Grann is one of the best nonfiction authors today. He writes on a multitude of subjects; this book is about a shipwreck and subsequent mutiny in the 1740s. 

He describes the plight of the officers, trying to outfit their ships with no money and few worthy crewmen, as well as that of the unwitting men press ganged (ie, kidnapped by the Royal Navy) onto ships they were ill-equipped to crew. No matter that some were sick, criminal, juvenile, or elderly, all were rounded up in a time of war and forced to serve. 

The ship split into factions rather than working as a whole so in a time of crisis, it was no surprise that any discontent would devolve into mutiny. Alcohol, disease, starvation, and fear exacerbated the stresses on everyone. Before the benefits of vitamins were known, scurvy could wipe out a crew both physically and mentally. On top of typhus and shipwrecks, sometimes less than 20% of a crew made it back home. 

Grann explains how this volatility affected the voyage of the Wager, and how the chain of command fell apart once the shipwrecked men were on shore. His copious research reveals that there were too many different versions of truth to know which was the most factual. The Admiralty wanted the embarrassment to just fade away so the court martial didn’t address any of the real issues. 

I didn’t feel as much a part of this book as with Killers of the Flower Moon. I was wracked with guilt as I read what the white people did to the Osage and I felt complicit. I didn’t have that closeness to The Wager. Considering how dire the circumstances, that’s likely a good thing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Colonisation, Death, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Racism, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War

giovik93's review against another edition

adventurous informative inspiring fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Death

Moderate: Slavery, Violence, Murder, and War

Minor: Cannibalism

amygibbs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

4.0

This book seemed well researched and the story was very interesting.   Made me wonder what I would have done in those circumstances...probably died in fairness.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Death

cait's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious sad slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Blood, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Violence, Vomit, Torture, Abandonment, Animal death, Excrement, Gore, Ableism, Confinement, Classism, Murder, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Medical content, Body horror, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Child death, Chronic illness, Grief, Hate crime, Mental illness, and Slavery

marietheo's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative sad tense fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Slavery, Gore, Medical content, Cannibalism, Torture, Death, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Confinement, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, and War

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative inspiring mysterious slow-paced

4.0

This starts out incredibly slow but after chapter 5 grows into a story of mutiny, murder, and survival. You become involved in this insane story of how a British ship and its sailors fight off scurvy, the rough seas, and other crewman to eventually end up back in England depleted and desolate anywhere from a year to five years later. I'm traditionally cautious of non fiction historical books because I find them tedious and boring but, with The Wager, once the initial accounts of send off and troubles at sea are finished, you're immersed into a tumultuous account of the shipwreck. It was interesting and full bodied. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Chronic illness, Abandonment, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death of parent, Deportation, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Slavery, Suicide, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Classism, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, and Toxic friendship

miriam_in_life's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

4.5

I almost never read nonfiction because it drags too much but apparently this is what I was looking for! It reads like a documentary with a super good narrator. I had a really good time with it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and Death

Moderate: Cannibalism, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, Gore, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Slavery

hheartbooks's review against another edition

adventurous informative sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Murder, Slavery, Violence, Cannibalism, Suicide, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

elskabee's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative medium-paced

 A very humanistic recounting of historical events. The people involved and their thoughts and experiences are at the heart of the book, which makes sense as journal entries from those involved are a major source of information.

The author also does a good job of outlining the historical context but doesn't get overly bogged down in details. I find these kinds of books to often be extremely dry, but this was highly engaging and almost cinematic at times (I'm not surprised seeing as this is the author of Lost City of Z which got turned into a movie). 

I really appreciated the inclusion of discussions of colonialism and racism towards the end of the book. While brief, it gave extra context and acknowledges historical reality rather than ignoring or erasing it.

Dion Graham did an excellent job with the narration too! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Abandonment and Animal death

Minor: Cannibalism