Honestly, I feel like this book could've been condensed to around 300 pages if it weren't for the MC jerking himself off over whales and whaling. The interludes can be quite a drag to get through. Although the main plot was entertaining enough at least.

AHAB, YOU STOOPID FUCK!! also Queequeeg my love💔  I did not expect another gay tragedy😭 I was really rooting for them to get a happy ending but I guess not. Damn you Melville😭

“…to the last gasp of my earthquake life…”

A weirdly captivating book for how much of it is just straight up whale facts. Herman Melville's writing has something in it, something in the way he contructs sentences that's genuinely great. Some absolutely brilliant lines and really interesting characters (though there's a lot of the very unfortunate period-typical use of language to describe POC characters, which I think is good to be aware of before you start) and I just really love nautical fiction. And boy is this book homoerotic in some parts. Jesus. But it's really just 70% whale facts and not always (barely ever) interesting ones and I don't think I need to have any more whale information thrown at me for another decade. I'm also very interested to see what a modern cetologist would think of some of the biology in this book. 
Overall though, I see why this is a classic! I just do not think it needed to be this long! And also maybe Herman Melville needs to have a think about his feelings towards men. Just saying.