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olma 's review for:
Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale
by Herman Melville
adventurous
dark
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If I hadn’t been doing this as a buddy read, it would have been a DNF. There were moments where I absolutely loved Melville’s writing, unfortunately those moments were few and far between, drowned amid hundreds of pages of whale trade information suited for a textbook. There were also the rambling chapters of Ishmael’s inane views on life, whales, and sailing. The last 150 pages are where it really gets into the plot, of course the last 150 pages are some 500 pages into the novel. If I were to read the story again, I’d skip all of the filler and only read the chapters that contain actual plot.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Death