Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

57 reviews

jamelchior's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
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hjb_128's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

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freddie_mond's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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jthyme's review against another edition

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

4.0

Honestly, I feel like this book could've been condensed to around 300 pages if it weren't for the MC jerking himself off over whales and whaling. The interludes can be quite a drag to get through. Although the main plot was entertaining enough at least.

AHAB, YOU STOOPID FUCK!! also Queequeeg my love💔  I did not expect another gay tragedy😭 I was really rooting for them to get a happy ending but I guess not. Damn you Melville😭
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abomine's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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byejohn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“…to the last gasp of my earthquake life…”
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ro_lux's review against another edition

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

4.5

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gingervandorsten's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

A weirdly captivating book for how much of it is just straight up whale facts. Herman Melville's writing has something in it, something in the way he contructs sentences that's genuinely great. Some absolutely brilliant lines and really interesting characters (though there's a lot of the very unfortunate period-typical use of language to describe POC characters, which I think is good to be aware of before you start) and I just really love nautical fiction. And boy is this book homoerotic in some parts. Jesus. But it's really just 70% whale facts and not always (barely ever) interesting ones and I don't think I need to have any more whale information thrown at me for another decade. I'm also very interested to see what a modern cetologist would think of some of the biology in this book. 
Overall though, I see why this is a classic! I just do not think it needed to be this long! And also maybe Herman Melville needs to have a think about his feelings towards men. Just saying. 
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grem_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny informative sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

i love ishmael. girl what do you MEAN a whales blubber is its skin what’s wrong with you. and he’s even gay
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piahz's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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? Yes

2.5

Herman Melville sure liked to write. He also wants you to know that he read the Bible and all of the philosophers (all of them!) and he understood what they meant to say. A book written by a man, and you can feel it. So graphic about killing and gutting these whales, between getting tangled in all the philosophy crammed into it and being blatantly racist. When there's plot happening it's actually fast paced and interesting, but the other 250 pages draaaaaaaagged on forever. And did he already mention he read philosophy books? This made me understand why people don't like reading classics. If this discouraged you, please give one of the Brontës or Austen a go. 
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