Reviews with content warning for Car accident - Damnation Spring

Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson

31 reviews

katesbooknook's review against another edition

2.5

emotional sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

bookswithmybulldog's review against another edition

5.0

dark reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

hollybearhouck's review against another edition

4.25

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

A slow burn, one that brought me to tears multiple times.

Content Warnings

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

4.25

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

What happens when economic concerns and environmental concerns collide? That’s the issue at the heart of Damnation Spring, the story of a marriage and a California logging community both facing challenges in the late 1970s. It does a great job of highlighting growing environmental concerns about the logging industry, especially the impact of the aerial application of weed killers and balancing this with the needs of people for whom logging is not just their economic livelihood but is also a family legacy - it’s in their blood. We see this conflict play out at the community level and also through the marriage of Rich and Colleen Gunderson. He’s a tree topper whose father and grandfather died on the job. She’s a woman whose desire to have a second baby is thwarted by constant miscarriages and whose volunteer work as a lay midwife has made her aware of the number of still births and birth defects in their small community. Things that are well-known now were not common knowledge 45 years ago, meaning many people were sceptical of claims that chemical sprays could damage their health, didn’t value tress except as the source of timber, and were willing to tolerate environmental consequences like landslides. I think the author did a great job of taking the reader back to that time, when attitudes were very different than they are today - when views and knowledge that are more mainstream were fringe and viewed with scepticism. Another aspect that was done well, chillingly well, was the portrayal of the power of the logging industry and the threats, intimidation and violence companies used to quell any uncomfortable questions or opposition. This is a slow moving book, possibly a little long, and one where it takes a while for the threads of the story to really come together. However, I thought it was well-crafted, the characters and their problems compelling, the community and the work of the loggers richly depicted. My time and patience were well rewarded.

Content Warnings

keepreadingbooks's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

So, this book. I loved it. It’s best described as Migrations, but in the past and with trees (that’s not an apt description at all, but it’s what I’ve got), and – for once – we see the environmental story through the eyes of the “bad guys”, the loggers harvesting old-growth redwoods in 1970s California. I loved it much more than I did a book like The Overstory, which did the opposite and focused on the ones fighting to save what can be saved of our forests and should have been right up my alley, but it became mightily preachy for me, and that’s not my thing. My thing is morally grey characters, a narrative emphasising the fact that the world is rarely, if ever, black and white. And that’s what Damnation Spring does to absolute perfection. Was it conflicting rooting for a guy who plans to harvest a grove of ancient redwood trees? Yes. Did I simultaneously hope he would be able to do it, while also hoping he could make money some other way? Yes. But oh, isn’t it marvellous how stories like this can broaden our minds and make us see things from a new perspective, forcing us to acknowledge the people on the other side?

Some have criticised the heavy use of logger lingo in this book. For me, though, it felt natural. Some things I didn’t quite understand, but that’s okay, the context did the job, and in my view it didn’t hurt the story at all. On the contrary, it painted a pretty good picture of a community of people who live and breathe logging, who know every single detail of the job and of the environment they live in, because that’s what they’ve been doing for generations, and that’s what’s keeping them alive. In all honesty, it would have felt unnatural if a book like this wasn’t littered with logging slang.

It’s a fairly slow book, especially the first 150 pages, but I love this kind of slow. The characterisation is excellent, the plot builds and develops intriguingly, it’s suspenseful, gritty, vivid, educational, timely, beautiful, heart-breaking all in one. It’s a story of man’s havoc-wreaking ways, of greed and desire, of community, for better and worse, and not least of a family and its hardships.

Content Warnings

maregred's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

dwager's review against another edition

Content Warnings

emily_koopmann's review against another edition

3.75

emotional

Content Warnings

rynicolereads's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Damnation Spring was such an immersive read for me—I felt like I was wandering the Redwood Forest and taking in the views of the Crescent City coast. And the characters were as rich and complicated as the setting. You'll love this if you enjoy character-driven literary fiction with strong nature themes.

Note: Please check the content warnings for this one. They're heavy!

Content Warnings

prof_pelon's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

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