Reviews tagging 'Death'

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

101 reviews

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

kcbas1's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Xenophobia, Animal death, and War

Minor: Suicide, Racism, Cannibalism, and Slavery

daughterofatom's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative medium-paced

4.0

I enjoyed this. I appreciate the authors non judgemental perspective, never casting blame or guilt on any party, and keeps first hand accounts of native people in perspective. It's a tale of mutiny and horrible situations, but you never think "dang what a villain", you see the motivations of each party and are given ample details about the people to not just see them as pawns. They all had families at home they hoped to return to, some were on their first voyage, some were seasoned enough to doubt some choices. Great read for anyone looking to learn about 1700s seafaring, British navy shenanigans, or for folks looking for empathetic compelling tales of souls stuck in a true no win scenario 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Colonisation, and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Xenophobia, War, Gun violence, Genocide, and Animal death

Minor: Medical content, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Classism, Excrement, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Trafficking, and Racism

mtferal's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Minor: War

pumpkincore's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative sad tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cannibalism, Death, Violence, Alcohol, Body horror, and Murder

ecourtis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Suicide, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Racism

Minor: Classism and Colonisation

erica_reads_everything's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative tense fast-paced

3.25

Story was great and very well written. Stars taken off for a few extremely graphic descriptions that I don't think were necessary to have as detailed out as they were. The graphic descriptions don't add anything to the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Murder, Death, Gore, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Alcohol, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

pferdina's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

3.5

In 1740, the English sent a fleet to the southern tip of South America to hunt for Spanish ships. Several ships were lost in the dangerous seas, and the Wager was wrecked. This book tells the story of what happened to the crew, Ho had already suffered hardships like severe scurvy and then spent months on a desolate cold island without much food or hope. Only a few of the 250 original crew made it home, after several years, and all of them had tales to tell. Mutiny, murder, abandonment, starvation, abuse, and privation all appear.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Slavery, Cannibalism, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Violence, Medical content, Blood, and Murder

angela_iseli's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Murder, Abandonment, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, War, and Cannibalism

kshertz's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

It’s pretty fascinating how this shipwreck went down. I can’t imagine the amount of research and work went into this! I came in with super high expectations! I learned a lot about survival and pirates that’s for sure. But it was a lot of info and I zoned out when it got into too much detail. But also I’m not extremely into pirates? It’s probably a book for those who want to know about survival and human nature when stranded

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Gun violence, Animal death, Gore, Murder, Torture, Blood, Violence, Cannibalism, Death, and Injury/Injury detail