Reviews tagging 'Gore'

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

19 reviews

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

unlikelyplaces's review against another edition

4.75

The Wager - David Grann

🎧

⭐ - n/a (I don’t tend to rate non fiction)

I really need to read more non-fiction. I was obsessed with this the whole time I was listening to it.

So this is a non-fiction telling the story of the ship “The Wager” and its crew who were castaway on an island and then follows all the events and scandal surrounding it. Although this isn’t my usual period, I am a general history nerd plus, I’m well up for any historical scandal and drama so when I heard about this I knew I had to pick it up.

This is written in a really accessible, narrative way so if you don’t read a lot of non-fiction (like me) but are interested in history or people’s behaviour when faced with desperate situations, I’d definitely say that this is a good one to pick up.

You can tell that the author has taken all the different accounts of events into consideration to piece together a narrative, while not shying away from addressing the issues present at the time like colonialism and lack of scientific knowledge. It goes into enough detail to explain the context around the events without getting too bogged down in every tiny little piece of information and keeps it to a really streamlined narrative. I will say, it did take longer to get to the island than I thought and the beginning did feel a little slow but I can recognise that it was necessary to set the context.

So yes I really enjoyed this, it’s one of those stories that you hear about and just can’t believe that it actually happened. I absolutely flew through this because I just wanted to be listening to it all the time. I would love for someone to make this into a tv series! Highly recommend this one!

Content warnings: Gore, graphic illness descriptions, animal death, real world violence

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Gore

Moderate: Vomit and Violence

Minor: Cannibalism

softanimal's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative medium-paced

5.0

This book gets five stars because in addition to being a fascinating and well-written historical narrative it also includes extremely important observations about the missing voices of black and indigenous witnesses and the impact of empire.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gore, Colonisation, Abandonment, Animal death, and Confinement

mmccombs's review against another edition

adventurous informative slow-paced

3.5

I leave this book unsure exactly how I feel about it (and wanting to watch Master and Commander, and also very thankful I don’t have to experience life on a ship in 1740). This was adventurous, well-written, and focused in a way that helped this story feel manageable. But I also finished this wondering if this was the story to tell or the way to tell it. The last like 3 chapters were the most interesting to me, asking questions about imperialism and what stories remain through time as a result of that imperialism. At its core, this was a story of white supremacy and imperialist incompetence, but we are still left to be wowed by the survivalist, seafaring-ness of it all. The little story Grann shares at the end of the book, almost as an afterthought, of the true “mutiny” of Indigenous, enslaved men taking over the Spanish ship immediately sparked my interest, more so than the story told this entire time. I’m always down for a story that expels the grand mythos surrounding “brave, cunning, European explorers” to show that most of them were bloodthirsty and inept, a degree away from murdering each other out of their own self interest. I’m just unsure if this book did that enough or if I came in with the wrong expectations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Murder, Racism, Gore, Colonisation, and Medical content

koboldmartian's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

5/5. 

I do not really have any good experience reading non-fiction so forgive me if this review is not as eloquent, but this was the most gripping and fascinating non-fiction story I have ever read. David Grann's writing is so immersive and clear and painted such a vivid picture of the turmoil, and horrors that these men were put through. 

The book is structured beautifully, it flowed well, I was angry at people, I sympathized with people, I was disgusted by what they did or what they had to do, I was all the proper emotions needed to read this book. 

This book was so educating and the life that people had to live back then on the ocean is just absolutely terrible. The entire time, I felt pulled by both "parties" involved in this stories and I don't think you can really blame anyone of the decisions made in this situation; it really makes you think about what you would do put in these men's shoes. 

I will be picking up Grann's other works to read and this book has opened the floodgates for non-fiction for me. I hope to read more especially if they are this engaging. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Animal death, Cannibalism, Cultural appropriation, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Vomit, Gun violence, Medical content, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Death, Abandonment, Alcohol, Trafficking, Chronic illness, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal cruelty, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Racism, Violence, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Suicide, and War

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

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