I liked the plot of the novel, where we follow essentially the arc of the Wager from England around Cape Horn, to its demise and beyond. What I didn't like was the deep character study of all these historical figures. I think there's a "good enough" sketch you can give the reader of a character and when you develop a character too much, it's exhausting. I felt fatigued with this book, not because of the plot points but because of how the characters kept getting overcooked and dried out. I would've been fine knowing Cheap was the captain, he used a silver cane and was basically out for himself. At every scene with him, I felt like I was being hit over the head with this character study, and not just Cheap, all the characters. Maybe I'm not that much of a stickler for history, or I prefer more plot driven nonfiction. 

I love reading about shipwrecks, and this one stood apart because of the mutiny aspect, and how we explored each character's psyche. Ad nauseum in my humble opinion. I read this book for read harder 2024, read a book and see the author speak. I saw David Grann 25Jan2024 at Arlene Schnitzer hall in Portland. He spent 30m talking about the Osage and 30m talking about this book. 

His advice to would-be writers was, there's no trick. You have to sit down and write. He used to tell people all these stories he was going to write, at cocktail parties. He stopped sharing his ideas and started writing them in earnest. Both books follow a theme of disinformation and the Truth. I think the next prompt I'll do is the media literacy one, as a gentle segue from here to there!