Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

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

37 reviews

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

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

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

hmmclean's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cannibalism

Minor: Animal death and Animal cruelty

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

tamtamslibrary's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

3.0

An interesting telling of how nations were built and made their own rules by “ripping out pages” of history to fit a narrative they were unconquerable. 

What I take away from this mostly is

England wanted treasure and to “tame” natives who did nothing but offer them kindness when they were too cocky to go to shore. And their eagerness and greed for said treasure cost their tax paying citizens more than what was found, and the lives of their family members.

This is the point the author makes, but in a more elegant telling, of course. 

*note: if you listen to the audiobook version, the footnotes are read in tandem with the chapters. Some are a bit lengthy and drag the overall story a bit.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty

theabee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Slavery, War, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Animal death, Colonisation, and Murder

aus10england's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious

3.75

A wild ride!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror and War

Minor: Animal cruelty

c_serpent's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.0

This book was good. It didn't have the structural strength of Killers of the Flower Moon, but it was still extremely well written and interesting. Grann does a great job of tying the historical events he's writing about into the bigger picture, and I would love to pick something of his up again.

This book contains disturbing cruelty against people and animals.

Unrelated, I think it's ridiculous that I picked up Killers of the Flower Moon and then learned that it was being made into a movie with Leo DiCaprio, and then I picked up this book only to learn it, also, is being made into a movie with Leo DiCaprio. What's up with that?

Four stars have been awarded for Byron, who was really trying his best. One star has been removed and eaten by the other stars.

Total Score: 4/5 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Colonisation, and Medical trauma