Reviews tagging 'Child death'

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

126 reviews

anemic_gecko's review against another edition

2.0

challenging dark informative slow-paced

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The indifferent stars above is an impressively detailed account of a fascinating and equally horrifying disaster faced by a group of American migrants in the mid 19th century. 

The drama, horror, and grim reality of the subject is dampened however by the clinical level of detail Brown goes into when discussing the events. 

When discussing a desperate fight for survival, with the victims having to choose between death or consuming the flesh of a loved one, you would expect a level of drama and emotion. Instead, the book is bloated with bizarre forays into tangential sub-topics such as the historical frequency of cannibalism in survival situations, the exact number of calories the members of the party would need, or details of various laws and customs present at the time. 

I understand why he felt the need to provide this context, but the pacing, detail, and timing of these descriptions massively reduces the impact of the very dramatic story it is attempting to tell. 

On the other hand, when brown is discussing his own journey, tracing the parties footsteps in the epilogue, he writes with a bit more artistic licence, full of metaphor and feelings, severely lacking from the rest of the book. The manner in which he wistfully describes his connection to a member of the party as he stands over her supposed burial site is so in contrast with the rest of his writing that it comes across as slightly arrogant more than anything else. 

As a side critique: being a non American who listened to the audiobook rather than read the account myself, I also had trouble keeping track of the names and locations mentioned.

Overall I think while the book is obviously well researched and written with passion, the prose, tone, and often contents betray the story. While this was a real life  disaster and should not be embellished for our entertainment, the reduction of the events to a flat account of every gory detail and all accompanying information is not much better.  

It’s harsh, but I genuinely believe most readers would benefit from simply reading the Donner Party’s Wikipedia page rather than this.

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Content Warnings

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

bri_i's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

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Very much appreciate the research and time that went into writing this book. Unfortunate that almost everyone in the 1800’s shared the same 5 names of Margaret, Nancy, Sarah, John, and William, it made it a bit tough at times to remember who was who. 

The author does a great job in making you to feel the sheer helplessness of the situation. What an awful tale, really sickening to imagine the decisions these poor people had to make, especially with small children. This was an interesting, compassionate, and horrific book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Gore, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Colonisation

seiten_weise's review against another edition

3.5

dark sad medium-paced

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Would get more stars if the epilogue weren’t so terribly mired in pathos. It’s too much pathos. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Cannibalism

midsummerbri's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark informative sad tense slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cannibalism, Death of parent

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death

Minor: Colonisation

maygoon's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Abandonment

greendog95's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexism, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War

hauntedzoo's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional informative tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Cannibalism

katie0528's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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A heartbreaking retelling of the Donner Party's ill-fated journey across the western United States. It follows mostly in the steps of Sarah Graves, a young recently married woman who traveled with her family and new husband, eventually meeting up with the Donner and Reed families, and joining them on their doomed "shortcut" through Hasting's cutoff. Brown never minces words about the horrors the pioneers suffered, but often puts himself in their shoes, offering empathy and speculation about the mental agonies they must have endured.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Cannibalism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Colonisation

Minor: War

emmasalandra's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder

constantreader867's review against another edition

4.0

dark informative sad tense slow-paced

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Content Warnings

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