RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
Published: September 04, 2018
Publisher: HarperTeen
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
“For who needs devils when you have men?”
SYNOPSIS:
With harpoons strapped to their backs, the proud whales of Bathsheba’s pod live for the hunt, fighting in the ongoing war against the world of men. When they attack a ship bobbing on the surface of the Abyss, they expect to find easy prey. Instead, they find the trail of a myth, a monster, perhaps the devil himself…
As their relentless Captain leads the chase, they embark on a final, vengeful hunt, one that will forever change the worlds of both whales and men.
THOUGHTS:
This book is written in the perspective of a whale. And after reading the synopsis of the book, I did not know what to expect but I know that I was intrigued. Patrick Ness has a way of having bizarre characters like in A Monster Calls. I was engrossed with the story without even realizing that I already finished it in one sitting. It is a very short book with beautiful full page illustrations to add some touch to the story.
The story is so simple. It talks about whales and how they hunted humans the same way as humans hunted them; but then they stumble upon something that have been searched for such a long time, the devil, and they think that it is up to them to find him. Of course there are obstacles here and there that would give the story some thrill. But other than that I could just summarized it in a very simple way.
Yet even though it is so simple, I feel like I dived into this book and I came out of it with a different perspective. It makes me wonder how much of this story is true. The sentiment of the main character sees humans as devils for killing and hunting their kind. But I could not disagree for we all know that some humans also kill and hunt each other. I feel like this book embodies some questions that I didn’t know plague my mind about killing whether it is justifiable or not. There is this quote from the book that makes me think about people who killed and would justify themselves that in a way it is for the greater good:
“Torture me, harm me, kill me. Do all these things, but do not pretend that there is a must. That is how evil is rationalized.”
It is one of the things that I like about Patrick Ness’s books, it would make you think. It may have just been the philosopher in me to think deeply of such things when I never really dwell too much about other books even though they’ve highlighted certain topics. I think it’s because I’m seeing human kind in the eyes of another species that makes me contemplate how low this must think of us the same us how low some thinks of them.
I highly recommend this to anyone. It is a quick and fun read for me so I hope it will be to you as well. I may have ramble too much so that’s all for my review.
Till next time!
Maria❤
A Daughter of Parchment and Paper 