Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

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

2 reviews

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

bibliomania_express's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad medium-paced

5.0

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann is a gripping and thought-provoking account of the voyage and shipwreck of HMS Wager in the 1740s. Drawing on primary sources and thorough archival research, Grann reconstructs the hardships of the voyage from before the ships set sail, through its perilous journey, shipwreck, mutiny, and court-martial. If you are squeamish about descriptions of disease and death, take care, but I do think Grann tow the lines of factual without going into excessive details. 

The story of the Wager is heartbreaking and amazing, with falliable human ingenuity and the unrelenting power of hope coming up against the forces of nature, disease, delerium, and himan depravity. 

I really enjoyed Grann's writing. He made the story feel engaging as a living narrative rather than a historical account. I also appreciated how he took the time to call out the intrisic racism and imperialist motives of the venture. He made space for the indigenous peoples of South America, the African slave trade, and even class divides amongst the British. 

I was mainly surprised by how the court martial ended, and I appreciated Grann's discussion of why it went the way it did. 

Overall, a fantastic book.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Animal death, War, Medical content, Violence, Chronic illness, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Blood, and Alcohol

Moderate: Murder, Terminal illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Torture, Racism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Slavery, Child death, and Cannibalism