Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

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

41 reviews

rosa_lina96's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

One of my coworkers is actually distantly related to the Donner party--evidently one of her grandfathers was invited on the trip and (maybe wisely) decided not to go--and the information she's told me about the terrain in that part of California and the artifacts that still remain got me intrigued enough to check out this book. I loved Boys in the Boat by the same author, so I thought I would thoroughly enjoy this one as well.

And I did. But holy crap, is this book not for the faint of heart. It tells you more details about how starvation works than you'll ever want to know. It goes into excruciating detail about the challenges the early settlers faced, even before any of the calamities that happen to the Donner Party actually start happening, to the point where you start wondering why any sane person would want to load everything they own into a wagon and set off into untamed and stupidly rugged territory. These people have to have more mental fortitude than me. After the first canyon where they essentially had to bushwhack their way along the entire route, I would have gone "whelp, I don't think this route is all it's cracked up to be, I'm actually quite comfortable being where I am now, sayonara" and turned my ass quite thoroughly around. To know that they kept persevering, kept going even when every single odd seemed stacked against them, was both inspiring and a little sobering.

It followed the trend I've seen in a lot of disaster books, too--the idea that if just one of a multitude of factors was changed, maybe it wouldn't have turned out quite so badly for everyone involved. Maybe if they'd never taken the shortcut that was proposed in the first place, it wouldn't have turned out the way it did. All we can do is guess.

Overall, this was a beautifully descriptive and haunting book that made me appreciate the little luxuries we take for granted in our modern world (and made me want to visit that part of California sometime soon, but only in the dead of summer when the weather is halfway decent). Highly recommended.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Child death, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Murder and Animal death

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

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

taylordnelson's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism and Death

Moderate: Child death and Death of parent

Minor: Animal death

elfsteel's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Colonisation, Cannibalism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child death, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Racism

I’ve tagged this book as having graphic eating disorder content because there’s no better content warning tag in the system. This book may be triggering to those who have eating disorders due to graphic descriptions of starvation and the physical and mental effects of it.

a_beautiful_soup's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Death, and Child death

rhi_reading's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Cannibalism, Animal death, Death of parent, and Murder

annabananarama's review against another edition

dark informative sad tense slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Cannibalism

amandamethot's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Mental illness, Grief, Death of parent, Cannibalism, and Animal death

ablot's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

while the author sometimes derails into speculative sentimentality, there is so much heart to this book. it presents the story and implications of the story of the donner party in an accessible but stimulating way. something Brown tends to do successfully is contextualize the events he is recording, and he does a wonderful job here. i left the book wishing i knew more about sarah, and will likely do more research on the westward expansion just due to this incredible book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Animal death, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Child death, and Death

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Murder and Animal death