Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

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

33 reviews

e_freckles's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Colonisation, Racism, Animal death, War, and Violence

Minor: Blood and Ableism

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

crocus_and_clematis's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

4.25

TLDR; A wild ride from start to finish, even for those for whom historical nonfiction is not the usual cup of tea.

Sailing into David Grann's The Wager was a departure from my usual reading preferences, but wow what a wild ride! This nonfiction masterpiece skillfully melds the gripping pace of a thriller with the scholarly depth expected in historical accounts. This is honestly the type of book I wouldn’t have read if it wasn’t for all the hype. The nonfiction I normally reach for tends to be memoirs or travelogues, so I was a little hesitant about going for a historical book. I was incredibly impressed—Wager reads like a thriller and more than once I caught myself audibly gasping and yelling at what was happening on the page.

Grann's writing prowess is commendable, as he maintains a dramatic narrative without sacrificing scholarly integrity. Having waded through my fair share of dry history books during college days, I was impressed by his ability to present facts, provide citations, and weave a compelling storyline simultaneously. While the story's trajectory may be somewhat predictable with the inevitable shipwreck of the Wager, the unfolding events read like a slow-motion disaster— you just can’t look away. The abundance of primary sources, especially the firsthand accounts of survivors, elevates the narrative, turning the men who chronicled their Wager experience into focal points. Grann's vivid descriptions instill a profound fear of the sea, dispelling any romanticized notions of maritime adventure (goodbye swinging around the rigging like Jack Sparrow, hello slowly wasting away to scurvy).

The Wager is a gorgeous historical thriller, and if you love (or have ever loved) true crime, adventure stories, or being on the ocean, I would recommend giving it a try. Its graphic portrayal of battles at sea, scurvy, starvation, and human resilience is not for the faint of heart, but weaves a story you won't be able to look away from. I was simultaneously horrified and entranced in the best possible way

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Murder, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Racism, Death, Medical trauma, and Alcohol

codymyre97's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, War, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Grief

Minor: Racism

afterplague's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

3.5

The Wager is a fascinating true(ish) tale of the HMS Wager's journey and subsequent wreck around the tip of South America. I find Grann's version of events to be believable, interesting, and backed by a huge amount of research and notation.
My main issue with this book is simply how long it took to get started. There was so much interesting information, but there was also so much information that was not necessary at all. At times it felt like I was reading a retelling of a castaway adventure with amazing tension and descriptions that had me cringing, and others it felt like I was reading a history textbook and studying for an exam. 
I was rooting for the men, and I was fascinated by watching their "society" crumble when faced with hardships. I'm amazed that any of them survived at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic and Murder

Moderate: Racism, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Cannibalism and Slavery

If you're worried about cannibalism mentions they are quite minor and never explicitly described

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

gringolet's review against another edition

dark informative reflective tense slow-paced

4.75

A well researched, entertaining and fascinating book. David Grann good as usual

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Racism, Death, Alcohol, Violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Xenophobia

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

sampcupp's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Murder, Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, War, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Alcohol and Slavery