A review by howdyhoward
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

2.0

Spoiler warning I guess. This was so boring. I really don't understand why anyone would read this in this century purely for fun. At it's heart, this is a travel novel. It spends most of its time describing the different places the Nautilus travels. There is very little characterization of the main character. I did like everything we found out about Captain Nemo, he was pretty cool (the narrator was also obsessed with him lol). The fighting the giant squid scene that this book is known for lasts exactly one page. I had kept reading because I thought there was going to be a cool giant squid and there barely was. The narrator says himself that the text he's written (the book itself) doesn't really capture the emotions of what happens and that he is not a good writer. The most egregious example of JULES VERNE being a bad writer is that the narrator passes out while they are escaping so he can't describe any of the action of how they escape. THAT'S SO BORING! There's also just some stuff from the time period that hits super weird 150 years later. There was some anti-indigenous stuff that is pretty much exactly what you'd expect. The narrator has a servant that is so completely devoted to him it's like a rich person's wet dream of a servant. The writing style is very scientific and describey, not very plot or emotion driven. I had a bad time. That's on me idk why I read this.