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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Those who lacked the drive to survive are already dead. Those who are left will stop at nothing.”
Unflinchingly harrowing yet simultaneously empathetic and nuanced, The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep retells the historical events involving the Donner Party during a winter they’re entirely unprepared for in 1946-1847. This party involves a huge number of families and solo travelers moving from the Midwest to California in hopes of better prospects. However, they, unfortunately, decided to hinge on the untested shortcut despite conflicting feedback and ended up with many misfortunes—including but not limited to animal, child and adult death; severe wounds, illness and inadequate treatment; starvation, wasting and cannibalism.
What made this book painful to read is how real the characters felt. Despite the use of multiple voices and the mixed verse and prose format (which can mean lesser ‘time’ to properly richen the story), everything came together well to paint a comprehensive, strong picture. The author does a brilliant job of utilising narrative pointillism (that is, the creation of “a story one point at a time. Each point has its own unique perspective. And only by stepping back to consider all the points together will the [story] become complete.”). Though, I must admit that the pacing can be rather slow at some points.
“The body will starve in the absence of food. But the soul will starve in the absence of hope.”
Nevertheless, this book remains a powerful read wherein the resilience and strength of humanity pierce through the pervasive darkness brought upon by the tragedy and despair caused by unfortunate circumstances. If history books were written like this well-researched retelling, I would’ve paid more attention back in high school!
Thank you so much Pansing for sending me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review! The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep by Allan Wolf is available at all good bookstores.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Murder, Dysphoria
Such an awesome look at the Donner Party tragedy. I learned a lot of information that I didn't already know. Also loved the added bonus of Hunger as a narrator to the story. The only thing that knocked star down was the pacing got a little slow in the middle.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is a story many true crime / spooky fans know well and I found that I didn't learn anything new from this particular work. The narrator is Hunger, who's voice is prose and played against the verse of the other wide cast of characters. I was interested in listening to this but it was not available in any of my library catalogs =( but I may pursue another of the author's works on audio.
What a read. What a book. I’m still thinking about it. I mean what a horrifying story, but I also really appreciated that Wolf makes the reader humanize these people and question what they - the reader - would do. Truly disturbing. But do you allow your children to go through what they went through? What do you do to save them? But also... not that. Man it’s rough. Like... still thinking about it.
I thought this book was phenomenal. I literally read it like my life depended on it
4.5 stars. This was absolutely fascinating. I’m slightly familiar with the history of The Donner Party (I read The Indifferent Stars Above in 2018, as well as the fictional The Hunger) and I loved how this was done. Bahni Turpin as the personification of Hunger was amazing (as always!) but all the narrators were really well done. This combined interesting truth with historical fiction, and was hard to put down.
I ended up enjoying this book much more than I anticipated. For me, the format of the book and the use of multiple perspectives are what made the book so enjoyable. I think if this story had been told from one person's point of view in a traditional format, I would not have been interested at all.
There was also a great deal of extra material at the end about the real Donner Party, and I loved pouring through all of that and then looking up photos of the key people and places.
This was a really interesting and quick read that I recommend to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.
There was also a great deal of extra material at the end about the real Donner Party, and I loved pouring through all of that and then looking up photos of the key people and places.
This was a really interesting and quick read that I recommend to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.