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Reviews tagging 'Death'
Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride by Daniel James Brown
106 reviews
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
I chose this particular audiobook at random after exhausting my usual podcasts, and it turned out to be incredibly interesting, albeit with heavy subject matter. The author’s main focus of his research is Sarah Graves, one of the lesser-known survivors of the event known as The Forlorn Hope. Despite not having many direct accounts from Sarah herself, Brown has done extensive research on her, her family, and other settlers who made the trek to California in 1846. He also includes a relevant background that creates a fuller picture of Westward expansion and what choices ultimately led to the deaths of so many on the expedition to California. Brown incorporates how the science of survival played a role in who would potentially live while others perished.
When it comes to historical events like the tragedy of the Donner Party, it is important to consider the factors that led to it. Brown highlights the aggressive push by the U.S for westward expansion, the war to claim California as a territory from Mexico, and the misguided greed and ambition of individuals. The settlers, particularly the men, are not entirely faultless for their predicament in the mountains, and Brown does not sugarcoat the facts. He provides detailed descriptions of what daily life and survival were like for these immigrants and how they made the best of their circumstances despite terrible and overwhelming odds. Although at times graphic and haunting, it is a deeply humanizing account of the infamous tragedy that made a foothold in American History.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Cannibalism
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Cannibalism, Death of parent
Moderate: Murder, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
informative
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Cannibalism
Moderate: Racism, Blood
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Cannibalism, Death of parent
Moderate: Violence, Murder
dark
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Cannibalism, Death of parent
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Jesus fucking CHRIST…. I thought I knew the story of the Donner party, but it was far more horrific and bleak than I imagined. This was a very difficult read. I feel like I have a particularly high threshold for stomaching the gruesome, grim, and grisly… but man… I was struggling to get through some parts.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Cannibalism, Murder
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
This was so well written and I love it. Well, loved and was was terribly stressed for all of the people in the Donner Party.
I really enjoyed how the author weaved scientific information about how people's minds and bodies would likely respond to the situations that they found themselves in. I feel like the added context really helped me to empathize and understand more deeply what they all went through.
I thought I knew the gist of what happened to them, but this thorough account made me realize I had absolutely no idea. The author brought all of these people to life so well, that I feared for all of their fates, even though these events are almost 200 years in the past.
I feel like reading this gave me a deeper appreciation for not only the people and story of the Donner Party, but also for all of the people living in this time. They were people just like us, but living in drastically different circumstances. Also I was shocked by how there are still some through lines in our political climate that mirror those of that time, even though the US was a very different place then.
All of the people that traveled the Oregon Trail were extremely brave, taking on a months long journey into the unknown and out of the country they knew. Part of me does hold some resentment, knowing that all of these (mostly) white settlers were all too happy to move into lands and territories that already had indigenous people living there and "manifest destiny" makes me angry.
This was extremely well written and really made me ponder a lot of different things. The heroics of frontier travelers, the horrors of the Donner Party, the frustrating political climate, racism and sexism of the time, the pain and suffering of all of the animals forced to be enslaved by humans, the inner workings of the human body while under extreme stress and the overarching philosophical nature of being tiny humans in a huge universe, trying to make something of the short time we have on this planet.
10/10 would recommend.
I really enjoyed how the author weaved scientific information about how people's minds and bodies would likely respond to the situations that they found themselves in. I feel like the added context really helped me to empathize and understand more deeply what they all went through.
I thought I knew the gist of what happened to them, but this thorough account made me realize I had absolutely no idea. The author brought all of these people to life so well, that I feared for all of their fates, even though these events are almost 200 years in the past.
I feel like reading this gave me a deeper appreciation for not only the people and story of the Donner Party, but also for all of the people living in this time. They were people just like us, but living in drastically different circumstances. Also I was shocked by how there are still some through lines in our political climate that mirror those of that time, even though the US was a very different place then.
All of the people that traveled the Oregon Trail were extremely brave, taking on a months long journey into the unknown and out of the country they knew. Part of me does hold some resentment, knowing that all of these (mostly) white settlers were all too happy to move into lands and territories that already had indigenous people living there and "manifest destiny" makes me angry.
This was extremely well written and really made me ponder a lot of different things. The heroics of frontier travelers, the horrors of the Donner Party, the frustrating political climate, racism and sexism of the time, the pain and suffering of all of the animals forced to be enslaved by humans, the inner workings of the human body while under extreme stress and the overarching philosophical nature of being tiny humans in a huge universe, trying to make something of the short time we have on this planet.
10/10 would recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Racism, Cannibalism, Murder