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Reviews tagging 'Confinement'
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea / Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (Bilingual Edition: English - French / Édition bilingue: anglais - français) by Jules Verne
16 reviews
gremlin24's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, and Racism
yvo_about_books's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
2.0
I won't be writing a full review for this one, but let's just say that this classic and me REALLY didn't get along. I read Around The World In 80 Days last year and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, so I decided to read more of Jules Verne's work. This ended up being Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, which sounded interesting enough as I love a travel element in my stories. What I didn't expect was for this story to be THIS boring and extremely tedious, filled with scientific talk and constant repetitions... I had to resort to skimreading multiple times, and I probably should have just DNFed it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Racism, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
abbyaxj's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Fun to read a very early sci-fi book. It's age and prevailing views of the time does show through how native people are discussed and the eating of endangered animals. I don't think I warmed to the characters much and found the first part of the story to be a bit too slow paced. Overall enjoyed reading something outside of what I'd usually read but don't think I'll seek more
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement and Colonisation
hjb_128's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Confinement
Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, and Colonisation
natashalg's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
The book was slow for me. There wasn't a lot that happened in the story, and it was incredibly science forward. I found it interesting, but at times it did see to drag on with explanation/descriptions of scientific topics.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement and Kidnapping
Moderate: Colonisation
Minor: Death
eagleshouse's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
The story itself is great - the premise is incredibly interesting, the characters are complex, and the mystery that continues throughout the entire book left me wanting more.
HOWEVER - this book has taken me 6 entire months to finish, oftentimes leaving me in a reading slump. Whilst the story is great, and the prose is of its time yet easy to read and understand, half of the book was literally just the main character rambling about every single sea creature he could see. I understand it's because it's his character describing what he would have written down for scientific purposes, but genuinely, this book would be less than half the size and much easier and enjoyable to read without it, or perhaps just cutting down on the descriptions.
TLDR: the story is incredible and left me wanting to read the next book in the series, but unless you're happy to read entire 20 page chapters just analysing random fish, then I would perhaps steer clear!
HOWEVER - this book has taken me 6 entire months to finish, oftentimes leaving me in a reading slump. Whilst the story is great, and the prose is of its time yet easy to read and understand, half of the book was literally just the main character rambling about every single sea creature he could see. I understand it's because it's his character describing what he would have written down for scientific purposes, but genuinely, this book would be less than half the size and much easier and enjoyable to read without it, or perhaps just cutting down on the descriptions.
TLDR: the story is incredible and left me wanting to read the next book in the series, but unless you're happy to read entire 20 page chapters just analysing random fish, then I would perhaps steer clear!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement
Minor: Racism and Colonisation
meganpbennett's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Having only read the illustrated classic that was an abridged version of the mangled Mercier translation, I jumped at the chance to read 20,000 Leagues via email, as things happened in the novel. I had vague memories of plot events and was delighted to see what really happened in this delightful story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
tiredcreature's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Much longer than it needs to be, but so it goes with serialized magazine novels.
Nevertheless interesting if one is curious about 19th century marine biology (if nothing else, then to compare and contrast what was already known and what wasn't), and the history of science fiction. Annotated edition recommended
Nevertheless interesting if one is curious about 19th century marine biology (if nothing else, then to compare and contrast what was already known and what wasn't), and the history of science fiction. Annotated edition recommended
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Confinement
Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism
Period-typical racismlily1304's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
The main character is not interested in:
- figuring out what secrets Captain Nemo is keeping, or his apparently tragic backstory
- talking to literally any of the crew, or even learning their names
- planning an escape (another character does that for him)
- considering the ethical implications of the Nautilus and Nemo's labor
The main character IS interested in:
- describing every plant and animal he sees, describing how someone killed it, and then describing how it tastes
Also, it annoyed me to realize that "20,000 leagues" refers to the distance they traveled underwater, *not* how far underwater they are - and that's dumb
- figuring out what secrets Captain Nemo is keeping, or his apparently tragic backstory
- talking to literally any of the crew, or even learning their names
- planning an escape (another character does that for him)
- considering the ethical implications of the Nautilus and Nemo's labor
The main character IS interested in:
- describing every plant and animal he sees, describing how someone killed it, and then describing how it tastes
Also, it annoyed me to realize that "20,000 leagues" refers to the distance they traveled underwater, *not* how far underwater they are - and that's dumb
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, and Death
Moderate: Grief and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Racism, Cannibalism, and Colonisation
Scene of near-suffocation due to lack of oxygen in the airatalea's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: Animal death, Xenophobia, and Classism