Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

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

7 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

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

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

snowdropwhiskey's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This isn’t the type of book I normally read, but I was greatly intrigued by it. This book was incredibly interesting, amazingly well written, and I’ve been thinking about it for months after reading it. There are lots of tangents in the book, but these tangents are in themselves interesting to hear about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Gore, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, Death, and Racism

laurenwash's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Gore, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Cannibalism, Xenophobia, and Suicidal thoughts

hannahniles's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Body horror

bronzemist's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Cannibalism, Gore, Racism, and Violence