Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Old Man and the Sea

I love spending time on the ocean. I loved how this book fires up my imagination and perfectly describes the beauty of the sea, through the eyes of someone who has lived his whole life there

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toffishay's review

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adventurous reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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cait's review against another edition

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challenging reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A

4.0

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muertango's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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hgbush's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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sageysage's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Nice quick read. Did find it a bit laborious but I think that’s kind of the point.

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surdiablo's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

So it's my first Hemingway work and while it was enjoyable, I also found it somewhat underwhelming, primarily due to my own high expectations. It's a simple but well-written character-driven novella focusing on the struggles of an old fisherman down on his luck. I could discourse at great length about how this book is or could be about perseverance, about having hope no matter what, we never know what might be around the corner in life, how an artist is often their own worst critic, etc. But apparently, Hemingway said the below quote in one of his letters:

"Then there is the other secret. There isn't any symbolism [sic]. The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man. The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish. The sharks are all sharks no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is shit. What goes beyond is what you see beyond when you know."

So I'm not gonna explain any of that and leave things to your own imagination. 😄 It's a great work for sure but I personally find Steinbeck's writing to be more appealing so far.

Content Warnings

sam_fielder_137's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I don’t have much to say about this one. I just felt like it was far too boring. It was a 127 page book about a single man catching a single fish. If I had to summarize it in one sentence it would be: A whole book about another book’s single paragraph. Fine, but too long for the amount of story it contained.

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