Name: Tobias V. Langhoff's review of The North Water by Ian McGuire
Item: The North Water
Rating: 5
Author: Tobias V. Langhoff

Ian McGuire

"A fast-paced, gripping story set in a world of gruesome violence and perversity, where 'why?' is not a question and murder happens on a whim: but where a very faint ray of grace and hope lights up the landscape of salt and blood and ice. A tour de force of narrative tension and a masterful reconstruction of a lost world that seems to exist at the limits of the human imagination." --Hilary Mantel “This is a novel that takes us to the limits of flesh and blood. Utterly convincing and compelling, remorselessly vivid, and insidiously witty, The North Water is a startling achievement.” --Martin Amis A nineteenth-century whaling ship sets sail for the Arctic with a killer aboard in this dark, sharp, and highly original tale that grips like a thriller. Behold the man: stinking, drunk, and brutal. Henry Drax is a harpooner on the Volunteer, a Yorkshire whaler bound for the rich hunting waters of the arctic circle. Also aboard for the first time is Patrick Sumner, an ex-army surgeon with a shattered reputation, no money, and no better option than to sail as the ship's medic on this violent, filthy, and ill-fated voyage. In India, during the Siege of Delhi, Sumner thought he had experienced the depths to which man can stoop. He had hoped to find temporary respite on the Volunteer, but rest proves impossible with Drax on board. The discovery of something evil in the hold rouses Sumner to action. And as the confrontation between the two men plays out amid the freezing darkness of an arctic winter, the fateful question arises: who will survive until spring? With savage, unstoppable momentum and the blackest wit, Ian McGuire's The North Water weaves a superlative story of humanity under the most extreme conditions.

A Novel

The North Water

Alawander Bouston 

He finds the lying comes easy enough, of course. Words are just noises in a certain order, and he can use them any way he wishes. Pigs grunt, ducks quack, and men tell lies: that is how it generally goes.

Mitch Stewart

Tobias V. Langhoff

Will Vunderink

Andrew John Kinney

This book is fairly well-written, but is by no means uplifting. I enjoy 19th century sea-faring books, and have done since reading Moby Dick when I was 18, but this book is about a murderous sociopath on a whaling ship, not about a sea voyage.

Wynter

Not for the faint of heart! There are some very gruesome and explicit descriptions, which might make some cringe. Not that it bothered me, but I did find the violence a bit gratuitous. I don't really understand why Drax was such a psycho, and I had little connection with Sumner. Baxter's motivations were also sort of meh. I've read a lot of fiction and non-fiction about survival in the arctic, so nothing was new in that department either. A pretty good, gritty kind of novel of survival, but one that doesn't stay with you for long.

Siya S

About 3.5 - 4ish stars because at it's peak I couldn't put it down but then it's just gradually calming down toward mediocrity at the end, which is a damn shame. What was that movie with Leonardo DiCarprio slept in a horse carcass to survive a merciless snowstorm again? This is like that, but a little bit better. 

Patrick Sumner, the protagonist, was more of an anti-hero is this story about The Volunteer, a whaling ship seeking out the fortune one last time in the North Water. Everything seemed usual until one of the cabin boys was sodomized and killed in the creepiest way. It was dark, it was cold, it was a fucking roller coaster ride. 

The ending was a little anticlimactic as Henry Drax was supposed to be a somewhat the devil reincarnated and therefore difficult to perish. However, I like the gore, I like the coldness seeping out the pages, and I like the grayish morality of mankind shone out through the Jack London-like prose. Some say it's like Jack London on steroids creating this one, and well, I don't disagree to this.

A 19th-century whaling ship sets sail for the Arctic with a killer aboard in this dark, sharp and highly original novel, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2016

Jennifer Forrester

Barış Yarsel

A. D. Knapp

katherine

Mt Tetzel

Nicholas Charriere

Jayme Cochrane

Kyle Curry

Kevin Murphy

Kate Hall

Simon Lund Larsen

Shan

A 19th-century whaling ship sets sail for the Arctic with a killer aboard in this dark, sharp and highly original tale that grips like a thriller. Behold the man: stinking, drunk, brutal and bloodthirsty, Henry Drax is a harpooner on the Volunteer, a Yorkshire whaling ship bound for the hunting waters of the Arctic Circle. Also aboard is Patrick Sumner, an ex-army surgeon with a shattered reputation, no money and no better option than to embark as ship's medic on this ill-fated voyage. In India during the Siege of Delhi, Sumner thought he had experienced the depths to which a man can stoop and imagined he'd find respite on the Volunteer, but now, trapped in the wooden belly of the ship with Drax, he encounters pure evil and is forced to act. As the true purposes of the expedition become clear, the confrontation between the two men plays out in the freezing darkness of an Arctic winter.

Mitch Stewart &
The North Water by Ian McGuire

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Mitch Stewart &The North Water by Ian McGuire

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Mitch Stewart &
The North Water by Ian McGuire