Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

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

37 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

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

oliviamich's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative sad tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Slavery, Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, and War

Minor: Cannibalism, Animal death, and Sexual harassment

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

isaacbereading's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Death, Cannibalism, and Abandonment

kimmykelly's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, War, Classism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Abandonment, Cannibalism, Body horror, Cultural appropriation, Gore, Gun violence, and Violence

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

maison's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Classism, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Violence, Racism, Alcohol, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Racial slurs, and Animal death

Minor: Cannibalism and Child death

mondovertigo's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Cannibalism, Animal death, Death, and Colonisation

Moderate: Body horror, Violence, Slavery, Racism, War, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Medical trauma

Minor: Blood, Vomit, and Excrement