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Reviews tagging 'Racism'
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea / Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (Bilingual Edition: English - French / Édition bilingue: anglais - français) by Jules Verne
18 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
eveningreverie's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
lighthearted
reflective
slow-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
3.0
It's fine. Lots of descriptions about what they see and where they go with not nearly as much action, plot, or consequences. It's... fine. It's fine.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
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
kanderoo's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
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
1.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism
witchnova's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism
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
readingwithcoffee's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Need to reread because I liked the prose a LOT and I want to sit with Nemo’s issues more but the narrator made me sleepy. That said while it’s 19th century book written by a white man there is a lot of racism especially calling people savages for a book who’s speaking cast is entirely white that I think readers who care about racism should know before reading. It also doesn’t even seem that relevant to the story one way or another and if anything confused the novels awareness of some countries being oppressed with the implication by a European one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
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 air