Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

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

43 reviews

mikaylawood's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.5

This is my first time reading David Grann and it will not be my last! Beautiful writing about a moving, albeit devastating, historical event. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Cannibalism, Death, Violence, and Animal death

Moderate: Blood and Medical trauma

Minor: Racism, Slavery, Suicide, and Excrement

simmonsj's review against another edition

adventurous informative medium-paced

5.0

This review is for the audio book read by Dion Graham 

This is a very well researched book concerning the HMS Wager and its shipwreck in 1741, including the events of the crew while stranded on an island in Patagonia. I was surprised how many sources of information there were for this event. Grann does a fantastic job pulling together the account from many sources, making a narrative fiction-like story of true events. Everything wraps up decently with the exception of a few pieces (which I expect with real events, especially from the 1740s). 

The narrator did a great job as well, expressive and a good cadence throughout. 

Overall a really good non-fiction read of a really interesting and at times larger-than-life story of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder - just like the title promises.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Murder, Abandonment, and Death

Minor: Cannibalism and Slavery

saraverboom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Slavery, Colonisation, Violence, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Gun violence, Murder, Animal death, and Death

laestaci's review against another edition

adventurous informative fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Cannibalism, War, and Gun violence

srm's review

adventurous dark informative medium-paced

3.0

Perhaps my expectations were too high. Maybe I've read too many other books about shipwrecks and men stranded at the ends of the earth and naval mutinies, but the simple fact is, I've read better. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness and Death

Moderate: Violence and War

Minor: Murder, Cannibalism, and Gun violence

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

brittney_weber's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative sad tense slow-paced

4.5

This book was a random grab at the library. It's very much outside my typical genres, but I saw the cover and read the title and thought "Ooh, interesting!" And it was, in fact, very fascinating. 

I feel like the author took the time to really research and learn about each of the men involved with the Wager, as well as all they went through and were exposed to. Honestly, parts of it were hard to read, imagining the hardships these men went through after being shipwrecked. The decisions they made. There were a few times I asked myself what I would've done in that situation. Would I have stayed faithful to my captian? Would I have joined a band of people going against the captian's idea of what was best and forged our own plan? And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the choices these men faced. What do you do when there's not enough food? What about when there's not enough space on the rickety little boat your using to find your way back home?

The beginning of the book did drag a bit as the author laid the foundation of who these men were and the daily manning of a ship, but overall this was a fascinating read about human nature when faced with the most dire of circumstances.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Cannibalism, and Gun violence

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

pickashelf's review against another edition

adventurous informative fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Violence, War, and Gun violence

Minor: Cannibalism

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