Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party by Daniel James Brown

16 reviews

daishaspencer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This is one of the most gut wrenching and horrific stories I’ve read. I found myself moved to tears many times placing myself as a young woman in the shoes of Sarah and her companions. The author wrote beautifully of the scenery in which the party found themselves, I could clearly see places I’ve never been (though I had to reference google maps a handful of times). This story is not without bias from the author, but no narrative non-fiction truly can be. This book has left me with a lasting impression of a story which I knew little about before. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Misogyny, Gore, Body horror, Animal death, Murder, Child death, Chronic illness, Grief, Death of parent, Death, Slavery, Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, Racism, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

kmaemiller's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Colonisation, Violence, and Child death

sare1125's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Cannibalism, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Murder and Racism

Minor: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, and War

sarahbroccoli's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

3.5

Check TWs this was a harrowing book. Loved the empathy and thoughtfulness that the author employed when discussing the Donner party and the central theme of hope and perseverance.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Cannibalism, Child death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

courtney_g's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism

Moderate: Murder, War, and Violence

cveeders's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Cannibalism

reverenddustbunny's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

Exemplary work of explorative non-fiction

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Colonisation, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Gore, Blood, Racism, Animal death, Death, and Violence

coyote__teeth's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative slow-paced

5.0

sometimes I struggled to read non-fiction, but this book provided visually descriptive commentary and tangents about what society was like in order to make it all seem so much more real. Well-researched and well-written. If I could change anything, I just wish there was a map included. The Donner Party cover so much ground and I was losing were they were at times, so I read the book with a map on google open. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Cannibalism

kpeps's review against another edition

dark informative tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Medical content, Alcohol, Abandonment, Death, Animal death, and Colonisation

Moderate: Grief, Violence, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Gun violence, and Gore

peppermint_pink's review

adventurous reflective tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Child death, Abandonment, and Animal death

Minor: Xenophobia, War, Mental illness, Torture, and Gore