Pym is an adventure tale about a young man on a whaling ship--something you would associate more with Melville or Conrad than with Poe. While there are passages of gruesome crimes, people being buried alive, and--if you wait long enough for it--the fantastic, this mostly reads like an adaptation of Robinson Crusoe for young men. There appear to be nods to Crusoe throughout, from Pym's choice to go to sea against his family's wishes; to his ague that makes him lose a day or more; to the inclusion of a journal account in the midst of the regular narration. The fantasies of blowing up of "savages" is the worst element it shares with Crusoe. I would recommend only to someone looking to read all of Poe's oeuvre.