" I wanted to like this but the first chapter was almost painful to get through. I understand the need to set up the environment and describe a little bit of what life was like in this bit of New England history, but it bored the socks off me and felt mostly irrelevant. I expected to read about the last voyage and survival of the crew of the Essex. What I got in the first part of this book was a history of New England. As I said, it was expected a bit, but there was no real flow to it. The history was presented as little tidbits that just rambled from one to the other with little rhyme or reason. Not sure why but I was very put off by the writing style and organization of the story and didn't feel it was worth going any further. "
— Kevin, 12/31/2013