Reviews

Benito Cereno by Herman Melville

whatleoreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

1.0

Boring, predictable, awful writing style 

strawberryvenus's review against another edition

1.0

not a fan of melvilles writing style sorry reading this felt like an eternity even though i respect what he was doing here

topbob's review against another edition

5.0

My favorite story to re-read. I missed a lot of details on my first read-through. This novella is brilliant, I love how the introduction props up the story. The distressed ship slowly docking upon the coast, and Delano boarded the dilapidated vessel. The middle was often tedious to read through the first time, but there are a lot of excellent moments. The ending is where this novella shines-- perhaps I was as ignorant as Delano going through this, because I didn't expect that the ship was already controlled by the slaves. As such, all of my confusion cleared and I felt called to re-read it. I just appreciated how much Melville pulled a fast one on me and the story weighs on my thoughts a bit sometimes, one of my favorite works of short fiction.

payaut's review against another edition

challenging dark informative tense slow-paced

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

3.25

read for eng242…interesting to analyze/listen to my instructor analyze it; but not interesting to read for most of it, the first 60-70% could be SOOOO much shorter, like i get it, but also why

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Slavery

angrybookworm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Had to read for class. It's long and old and not my favorite but there's something to be learned from it I guess. 

flisss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.75

jadeanne's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

violet_sky02's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

runia's review against another edition

3.0

Tre stelle perché sono magnanima.
Su 110 pagine, le prime 80 sono una lunga e lenta serie di nulla. ll capitano Delano per tutto il giorno pensa "uhm qui c'è qualcosa di strano, oh ma guarda che comportamento insolito, no dai le mie sono solo pippe mentali", Benito Cereno ha la vitalità e il calore di una statua di ghiaccio, e Babo è un'irritante figura sempre in mezzo ai piedi. La svolta è a pagina 84, finalmente accade qualcosa, le cose iniziano ad avere un senso e la trama si fa interessante. Siamo già a tre quarti della storia e non riesco a dimenticare la noia provata fino a un attimo prima, ma ormai il libro è finito, posso iniziare a leggere qualcosa di meglio.

bwluvs2read's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

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

2.0