A review by becca_2505
Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville

2.0

Though this book presents a number of compelling moral dilemmas (is a crime a crime regardless of intent? can the military work without unwavering loyalty? should we rule with our heads or our hearts?), I found it poorly written and dense. The entire book is only about 100 pages and yet the first half is essentially world building and character backgrounds. This would make sense if the novel was 500 pages, but for its length, this content was a waste of space. I didn't feel it contributed anything to the story, except perhaps at the very end. Even so, much of this non-narrative writing could be cut to easily half the length. The narration only started about halfway through the book and, though interesting, was rather dense and tangential. Worth reading for the moral and historical aspect, but otherwise rather mind-numbing.