North Sun: Or, The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther

Fiction

Oct 7

About the book

Author: Ethan Rutherford
Publisher:

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

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My review

I wouldn’t have picked up North Sun if not for its nomination for the National Book Award. Normally when I start a review like that, the next thing I say is something like “but I’m so glad I did!” Wellllll…not so much this time, but it’s also not the book’s fault. This was a classic case of mismatch between book and reader.

As its subtitle suggests, North Sun is about a whaling ship. It takes place in the late 1800s and features a captain who is hired by the most powerful whaling family to retrieve a formerly employed captain (and something he possesses) from where he’s trapped (or maybe not trapped) on the ice. Then let’s just say the figure on the book’s cover shows up, and things get weird. It’s written in 200+ vignettes.

Ultimately, this is part horror novel, part fable. But unfortunately for me and my taste, it is much more horrific than fabled. There is a lot — and I mean a LOT — of graphic animal slaughter and harvesting in this book, plus some very terrible things done to children (although that, at least, is not described graphically). It was just too much for me, fully distracting from anything the book was doing from a literary perspective. I rushed through, wanting to just be done, waiting for the promised shift, which I thought would bring an end the horrific parts but did not. And that is a shame, because I can tell that Rutherford is extremely smart; this book just requires the reader to engage with it more than I had the stomach for.

TLDR, my feelings about this book are much more about me than the book, and I’ve heard from plenty of others who like it — so if you think it might be for you, don’t let me dissuade you! Just go in with eyes wide open.