Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

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

31 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

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

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

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

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

amisk23's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

glyf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative tense slow-paced

5.0

What can you say about a Donner Party narrative? The event itself is both harrowing and captivating, and you're probably not here unless you're already interested in reading about it. So instead I'll talk about the writing style. I appreciated a lot of the author's choices, especially his dedication to weaving together all the threads in chronological order - this goes for all the people involved, but also contextual events such as the formation of storms and the war with Mexico to seize California. The sensory details are also phenomenal. At times I pulled up Google Maps and street view'd my way around the Salt Lake area and Emigrant Gap, so I could join the author in picturing these landscapes (I didn't participate in the odor-based descriptions). I liked the little scientific asides explaining what happens to a human body during core temperature fluctuations, or how many calories Sarah might have needed to burn; I found the context really interesting, and as I thought about the physiological processes involved in starvation or hypothermia or whatever he was describing, that was when the visceral horror of the experience started to creep up on me. I grew up in Lake Tahoe hearing about the Donner party since I was quite young, and this was the first time I've had a physical horror reaction about it, so well done, author. Last but not least, I loved the sweet little moments where she and Jay got to hang out quietly together, where her mother brought Jay's violin over the pass, where we got to see hope and love in the midst of disaster. Lots of these kinds of narratives relish the gory details and leave out what motivates survivors to keep going, and it was nice not to end on a totally bleak note.

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Content Warnings

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

dustghosts's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Animal death, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Abandonment, Gore, Racism, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

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