A review by rationes_seminales
Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale by Herman Melville

3.0

(2.7/5) I can't express how angry I feel after finishing the book, it was as if I was ripped off. It hurts because it was about to become one of my favorite books. Let's see, the first 400 pages are fine, even the data on whales did not displease me or the processes of distilling oil (I like to learn new things so it was my favorite part of the book, honestly) I must say, for the first 400 pages I felt like a real whaler on board a whaling ship and I felt quite animated and happy, but as the reading progressed I saw that less was said about Moby Dick and I was losing my spirit, as I must admit, I had high expectations about what the narrative of the moby Dick hunt would be like. And with only 100 pages remaining, I was already convinced that it would be a disaster, but I didn't stop and finish it, and as I intuited, it was a real disaster. I don't know if it's my little knowledge in maritime terms that spoiled the reading, or that the whale hunt was done on about 30 sheets (which was really disappointing), or the fact that they didn't tell how Ishmael survived all of that, or anything else. I was really hoping to read something about a shipwreck or something else. But no, it was all pretty fast, that I didn't even see the end coming. Honestly, it's sad. I really loved the book at the beginning, I wanted to give it a higher rating but I can't, I don't like it enough. On the other hand, several chapters of the beginning are a jewel, and the hunt that more impacted me was when they hunted the sick and old whale. I think that part was narrated much better than the Moby Dick part, but I don't know, maybe I should read it again to have another opinion.