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Reviews tagging 'Death'
Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar
16 reviews
terrygirl's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail
eliasaurus's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
sad
medium-paced
3.75
I picked this book up because I've been interested in the Dyatlov incident for years, so I already knew the basics. Even so, I learned plenty and was very impressed with the attention to detail and depth of research.
The author follows three timelines to lay out all the relevant information: the recovery mission and subsequent investigation; the known steps of the hikers themselves; and finally the author's own two trips to Russia. This structure does a great job of moving the book forward. Each of the three tells a different part of the story, and the chronology never seems confusing or jumbled.
I do think the author's trip to the site of the incident seems... superfluous? Overly self confident? I don't know what this random dude, who admits he has no background or expertise in hiking, thought he was going to accomplish, and indeed, his major breakthroughs for this project all happened elsewhere.
That's a minor distraction, though, and overall I think this book represents a great effort on the part of the author. I'd recommend it to anyone curious about the Dyatlov Pass incident.
The author follows three timelines to lay out all the relevant information: the recovery mission and subsequent investigation; the known steps of the hikers themselves; and finally the author's own two trips to Russia. This structure does a great job of moving the book forward. Each of the three tells a different part of the story, and the chronology never seems confusing or jumbled.
I do think the author's trip to the site of the incident seems... superfluous? Overly self confident? I don't know what this random dude, who admits he has no background or expertise in hiking, thought he was going to accomplish, and indeed, his major breakthroughs for this project all happened elsewhere.
That's a minor distraction, though, and overall I think this book represents a great effort on the part of the author. I'd recommend it to anyone curious about the Dyatlov Pass incident.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Blood
amris's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail
jenmtnbike's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
ddrosche's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Death
ericasbookshelves's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
I’ve always found the Dyatlov Pass Incident to be a very fascinating case, but often find it gets convoluted and mildly confusing when reading/listening to things about it, I think this did a good job explaining everything that happened leading up to the tragedy. Although the author also included the story of him going to russia to investigate, which was an interesting addition, but I wish it wasn’t factored in Every other chapter. Some of those chapters were full of personal anecdotes that could have been left out(things about his family or his health) and switching back and fourth ended up causing me to be pulled out of the Dyatlov chapters. I think the theory put forth by the author at the end was very convincing and I liked reading about that. I feel like he dismissed and went through the other theories at lightning speed and I wish he spent more time on them and why people think those are plausible. Overall, I found the book interesting and engaging and would recommend it to people both familiar and not familiar with the case.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail
byashleylamar's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Injury/Injury detail
xoshee's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
4.25
Opinion: Investigative mystery by Donnie Eichar uncovering the details behind the eerie Dyatlov Pass incident in 1959. I loved this book and Eichar goes the distance in uncovering this mystery, from pouring through old case files to partnering with case experts and traversing the mountains himself. Eichar does a good job of alternating between present-day investigations and past events; they are separate chapters throughout the book so some chapters are denser than others. At times I felt Eichar used too much creative freedom in recounting the past but when paired with photos and journal entries from the hikers, it created a real emotional connection for me, and I totally cried. At the end of the book, Eichar offers his own conclusions of what really happened, and I’ll leave it at that.
Synopsis: Eichar exhaustively investigates the mysterious death of nine hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains by digging into case files, journals, and interviews. Eichar also teams up with scientists and current case experts and journeys to the Ural Mountains in an attempt to retrace the steps of these hikers. Eichar alternates from 1959 to present day in recounting the group’s final few weeks and the original investigation of their deaths. There are personal elements of the hikers throughout the book in the form of photos and journal entries. Eichar does exercise his own creative storytelling when recounting events, which may detract from the authenticity of events, but it makes for an immersive story. POTENTIAL SPOILER…
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail
jhbandcats's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
4.5
This book tells of the hiking trip gone wrong in the Ural Mountains of the USSR in 1959, the unknowable end of the nine college friends, and the multiple theories that have been put forth over the years. The book alternates sections discussing what happened at the time of the tragedy with descriptions of how the American author began his research and what he discovered during his trips to Russia.
Some reviews complain that the author shouldn’t be a part of the book but I found the contemporary sections as fascinating as the ones on what originally happened. He tells about the people he interviewed, the papers he studied, the photos he pored over - and then he tells about his trips to the Urals to see if he can experience the hike the way the friends did fifty years earlier, albeit with Gore-Tex, Polartec, and snowmobiles.
The book ends with the many theories being examined and then tossed out. Then the author proposes an unusual idea about infrasound caused by high winds and the possibility that it disoriented and frightened the hikers enough where they ran out of their tent in -25 degree weather where they froze. I am not sure I’m sold on the infrasound theory but it’s certainly compelling, especially when he recreates what *might* have happened on that last night of their lives.
Some reviews complain that the author shouldn’t be a part of the book but I found the contemporary sections as fascinating as the ones on what originally happened. He tells about the people he interviewed, the papers he studied, the photos he pored over - and then he tells about his trips to the Urals to see if he can experience the hike the way the friends did fifty years earlier, albeit with Gore-Tex, Polartec, and snowmobiles.
The book ends with the many theories being examined and then tossed out. Then the author proposes an unusual idea about infrasound caused by high winds and the possibility that it disoriented and frightened the hikers enough where they ran out of their tent in -25 degree weather where they froze. I am not sure I’m sold on the infrasound theory but it’s certainly compelling, especially when he recreates what *might* have happened on that last night of their lives.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail
authormelissameyer's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Medical content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail