Hope you have a strong stomach

The North Water by Ian McGuire

Hey kids! Do you like violence? What about gratuitous amounts of gross imagery?? Great!! You’ve come to the right place.

This book is full of all things capital-V Violent and capital-D Despicable. Seriously, it is not for the feint of heart. If you can’t stomach a book full of terrible characters and grotesque descriptions, don’t read this book. Not just for your sake, but also because I don’t want you to judge me for actually finishing a book full of terrible characters and grotesque descriptions.

This story in itself is pretty good, and I do like McGuire’s writing style, but too much of it involved painting an incredibly descriptive word picture of the last things I want to imagine. Having read/watched Game of Thrones, I didn’t really heed the warnings I heard, but Henry Drax puts the likes of Joffrey Baratheon and Ramsay Bolton to shame.

I can see the appeal in this book, and can appreciate the literary value in the tale of survival and moral exploration, but I just didn’t enjoy my reading experience. Some other reader may love this book, but it certainly was not for me.