Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Wager by David Grann

24 reviews

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative slow-paced

2.75

Narrator Rating: 4.0 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Chronic illness, Cursing, and Vomit

akswhy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative medium-paced

3.5

Grann weaves an extremely thorough compilation of deliberately differing historical accounts and manages to make it suspenseful and compelling. I had more hope for historical contextualization within the story, and more of a discussion of the Wager incident’s implications for imperialism today, but Grann stopped short of those opportunities. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

mcbrantley's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense slow-paced

4.0

Well handled and harrowing, this narrative take on a true 18th century shipwreck and mutiny is a riveting read after the first half. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Medical content, Cannibalism, and Colonisation

sharkfan's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death

laura_nel13's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Suicide, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Classism

ekcd_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

unlikelyplaces's review against another edition

4.75

The Wager - David Grann

🎧

⭐ - n/a (I don’t tend to rate non fiction)

I really need to read more non-fiction. I was obsessed with this the whole time I was listening to it.

So this is a non-fiction telling the story of the ship “The Wager” and its crew who were castaway on an island and then follows all the events and scandal surrounding it. Although this isn’t my usual period, I am a general history nerd plus, I’m well up for any historical scandal and drama so when I heard about this I knew I had to pick it up.

This is written in a really accessible, narrative way so if you don’t read a lot of non-fiction (like me) but are interested in history or people’s behaviour when faced with desperate situations, I’d definitely say that this is a good one to pick up.

You can tell that the author has taken all the different accounts of events into consideration to piece together a narrative, while not shying away from addressing the issues present at the time like colonialism and lack of scientific knowledge. It goes into enough detail to explain the context around the events without getting too bogged down in every tiny little piece of information and keeps it to a really streamlined narrative. I will say, it did take longer to get to the island than I thought and the beginning did feel a little slow but I can recognise that it was necessary to set the context.

So yes I really enjoyed this, it’s one of those stories that you hear about and just can’t believe that it actually happened. I absolutely flew through this because I just wanted to be listening to it all the time. I would love for someone to make this into a tv series! Highly recommend this one!

Content warnings: Gore, graphic illness descriptions, animal death, real world violence

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Gore

Moderate: Violence and Vomit

Minor: Cannibalism

softanimal's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative medium-paced

5.0

This book gets five stars because in addition to being a fascinating and well-written historical narrative it also includes extremely important observations about the missing voices of black and indigenous witnesses and the impact of empire.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Gore, Murder, Abandonment, and Colonisation

mmccombs's review against another edition

adventurous informative slow-paced

3.5

I leave this book unsure exactly how I feel about it (and wanting to watch Master and Commander, and also very thankful I don’t have to experience life on a ship in 1740). This was adventurous, well-written, and focused in a way that helped this story feel manageable. But I also finished this wondering if this was the story to tell or the way to tell it. The last like 3 chapters were the most interesting to me, asking questions about imperialism and what stories remain through time as a result of that imperialism. At its core, this was a story of white supremacy and imperialist incompetence, but we are still left to be wowed by the survivalist, seafaring-ness of it all. The little story Grann shares at the end of the book, almost as an afterthought, of the true “mutiny” of Indigenous, enslaved men taking over the Spanish ship immediately sparked my interest, more so than the story told this entire time. I’m always down for a story that expels the grand mythos surrounding “brave, cunning, European explorers” to show that most of them were bloodthirsty and inept, a degree away from murdering each other out of their own self interest. I’m just unsure if this book did that enough or if I came in with the wrong expectations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Racism, Medical content, Murder, and Colonisation

koboldmartian's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

5/5. 

I do not really have any good experience reading non-fiction so forgive me if this review is not as eloquent, but this was the most gripping and fascinating non-fiction story I have ever read. David Grann's writing is so immersive and clear and painted such a vivid picture of the turmoil, and horrors that these men were put through. 

The book is structured beautifully, it flowed well, I was angry at people, I sympathized with people, I was disgusted by what they did or what they had to do, I was all the proper emotions needed to read this book. 

This book was so educating and the life that people had to live back then on the ocean is just absolutely terrible. The entire time, I felt pulled by both "parties" involved in this stories and I don't think you can really blame anyone of the decisions made in this situation; it really makes you think about what you would do put in these men's shoes. 

I will be picking up Grann's other works to read and this book has opened the floodgates for non-fiction for me. I hope to read more especially if they are this engaging. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic