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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
I teeter on 3.5 stars with this one. There are so many things I loved about this book and so many things I wished happened differently. I would read a passage, think I understood it, read another 30 pages to then scour back to that previous scene and reread it 3 to 4 times and still be confused. The ending was confusing and flopped in my opinion. Except the last line was utterly perfect.
Please read so I can work out my confusion with you.
Please read so I can work out my confusion with you.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Car accident, Pregnancy, Colonisation
Minor: Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting
adventurous
challenging
informative
slow-paced
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Violence
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
On paper, Damnation Spring seems like the kind of book I would love. It's a family saga, the struggle of the environment against commerce, a love story. In the end though, it almost feels as if it's trying to be too many things and only halfway succeeding at any of them.
Rich Gundersen is a third generation logger. He lives on land that his father lived on and his father's father, the man who cleared the land and built the house with his bare hands. The property isn't Rich's anymore, it belongs to the National Park System, acquired recently, and Rich can stay on it for 25 years or until his wife dies. Like others in this small community, his life is controlled by the cycles of logging, lean times in the rainy season, long days in the summer. Rich's
father dreamed of buying a nearby allotment with some of the last big redwood growth before his untimely demise in a logging accident. When the opportunity presents itself for Rich to purchase the land ,knowing that he can piggyback off of a nearby logging project, he snaps it up, hoping to leave something for his young wife and son. Of course, what Rich doesn't know is that his small community is about to find itself at the center of a debate over the felling of the last great redwood forests, and the impact on the environment that logging has had.
I think the outline of this story succeeds but the book is too long by about 100 pages and the characters fall flat. There's exhaustive descriptions of mud, mudslides, logging techniques. The bad characters are extremely bad and the good characters are extremely good, with the exception of Rich's wife, Colleen, who's perspective is told in alternating chapters, along with Rich and their son Chub.
An okay read but certainly not as moving as some of the reviews led me to believe.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Rich Gundersen is a third generation logger. He lives on land that his father lived on and his father's father, the man who cleared the land and built the house with his bare hands. The property isn't Rich's anymore, it belongs to the National Park System, acquired recently, and Rich can stay on it for 25 years or until his wife dies. Like others in this small community, his life is controlled by the cycles of logging, lean times in the rainy season, long days in the summer. Rich's
father dreamed of buying a nearby allotment with some of the last big redwood growth before his untimely demise in a logging accident. When the opportunity presents itself for Rich to purchase the land ,knowing that he can piggyback off of a nearby logging project, he snaps it up, hoping to leave something for his young wife and son. Of course, what Rich doesn't know is that his small community is about to find itself at the center of a debate over the felling of the last great redwood forests, and the impact on the environment that logging has had.
I think the outline of this story succeeds but the book is too long by about 100 pages and the characters fall flat. There's exhaustive descriptions of mud, mudslides, logging techniques. The bad characters are extremely bad and the good characters are extremely good, with the exception of Rich's wife, Colleen, who's perspective is told in alternating chapters, along with Rich and their son Chub.
An okay read but certainly not as moving as some of the reviews led me to believe.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.