Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick

19 reviews

bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad slow-paced

Review of In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

By: Nathaniel Philbrick

            Herman Melville’s famous novel Moby Dick is considered a must-read classic, and one that was inspired by the real-life tragedy of the whaleship Essex. Philbrick’s book tells of that event.  Just like Melville, Philbrick got a lot of his information from First Mate Owen Chase’s account of the events, though Chase’s account is limited as he, along with cabin boy Thomas Nickerson (the other source of information for Philbrick’s book), and a few other members of the crew were separated from the captain. It was a shock for Owen Chase when one of the Sperm Whale they would normally hunt attacks the Essex sinking it.  They experience the horrors of dehydration and starvation eventually resorting to cannibalisms.  Owen Chase comes off as ambitious and he along with the second mate didn’t always agree with Captain Pollard, who came off as passive and not a very good Captain.  We do get a bit of Nickerson and his thoughts on the situation, but most of the book focuses on Owen Chase.  Philbrick goes into detail on how they catch and remove the blubber from the whales and at one point crew ends up on an island where they try to hunt try tropical birds.  There is also a discussion of the African American’s being the first to died and are the ones that die first and are eaten by the survivors.  The author also talks other ships that have similar circumstances and how they responded.  This good deep dive into an event that people don’t know about.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, and Body horror

nimeneth's review against another edition

informative tense slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Cannibalism

genz_reads_classics's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

Oh boy this was so gripping but not worth the emotional pain

I think it was perfectly written and the last paragraph about bones is INSANE 🔥

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Gore, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Death, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

keepsleep's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, and Animal death

Moderate: Death, Blood, Classism, Medical content, and Racism

dorothygrace's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cannibalism, Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Racism, Colonisation, and Suicidal thoughts

bbbarttt's review

dark informative sad tense medium-paced

3.5

Even grimmer than I expected.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, and Medical content

Moderate: Animal death, Racism, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Dementia

melissacushman's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative medium-paced

4.5

Excellent, we’ll researched tale of old Nantucket, whaling, the shipwreck that inspired Melville to write Moby Dick, and the sailors’ struggle to stay alive in tiny boats with little food or fresh water for months. The parts about killing and butcher the whales at Galapagos tortoises were a bit hard to take though 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Racism, Animal death, and Death

janenx01's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative tense medium-paced

4.0

Absolutely appalling cruelty to whales made this a very tough read. Be warned. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

semeyers's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

4.5

I did not expect to tear through this book as quickly as I did! This is a well-written and researched work of non-fiction that honestly reads more like fiction. Much of the story is unbelievable and a true testament to the tenacity of the men involved. I honestly could not see how any of them could survive, even knowing that many of them did make it through. I was wholly unfamiliar with the history and prosperity of Nantucket, as well as the culture and politics of the whaling industry, and I was glad to learn more.

Make no mistake, it is also a depressing account of the brutality of whaling. The populations of many species of whales that were targeted by whaling boats have still not recovered, even 100 years after the industry was abolished in the U.S. It is a theory among scientists that sperm whales overall used to be even bigger, but the larger individuals were so thoroughly eliminated by whaling that the species as a whole got smaller. There are graphic descriptions of the process of killing and butchering the whales that had me putting down the book at times. This book is very pro-people, but I was rooting for the whales when the time came!

Highly recommend this one if you are looking for some historical non-fiction!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Cannibalism

caius's review

challenging dark inspiring tense medium-paced

4.0

Fascinating retelling based on first hand accounts of human adversity.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Death

Minor: Cannibalism