Reviews tagging 'Death'

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

106 reviews

bookmarksandbeverages's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous emotional informative tense medium-paced

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Well-researched and interesting, but very long-winded. The first nearly-half of the book was just a slog to get through, although it did pick up a bit from there. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Cannibalism, Death of parent

jenlengland's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging informative sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Confinement, Abandonment, Colonisation

Minor: Racism, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

syaluo's review against another edition

4.0

emotional informative sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cannibalism

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent

Minor: Racism

trapdorr's review against another edition

3.75

dark informative slow-paced

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It was overall a good read however for such an interesting/intense event, the book was a bit slow/dull at times. I know a lot of it was for the situation/set up to how the families ended up in the traffic situation they did but it took me probably 30% of the book to finally get invested. Hard at times with an audiobook; would’ve been helpful to have a family map and reference for the relationships between the groups. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation

cmbohn's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark informative sad slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment

Moderate: Gun violence, Mental illness

tlholmes's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

socolorfull's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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The book itself is a solid book, but the Audiobook is poorly done. You can hear the microphone hum throughout the entire book, and the narrator reads the whole book in the same tone. At first, you think it's a good tone, but after about an hour of the same exact cadence, regardless of what is happening in the book, it becomes grating.

Which is such a shame, because the book itself takes a stab at the haunting story of the Donner party in what I feel is a creative way. For every harrowing event the party encounters, the author brings us to the present and explains the psychology behind their actions, as well as how that shows up in other more present day scenarios. 

Biggest takeaway from this book: men are weeeeeak and women are the stronger species. 

I kid, but women did survive in larger numbers than men, and the book explains why. 

Also don't take shortcuts. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is and you'll die. If you're lucky (or unlucky depending on how you look at it I guess) you might survive but  have to eat your friends and family along the way. 

This book made me want to watch 1883 again. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail

sleepy_npc's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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Content Warnings

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

katkleaf's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous informative sad slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism

Moderate: Death

kendallashley's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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Definitely a harrowing read (even if you know the story, it’s still rough to read). But it was a fast and exciting read! I don’t know that “enjoy” is the right word for a story like this one, but it was certainly a fascinating and highly engaging read. The book was also a lot more emotional than I expected. Probably won’t ever read this one again due to the subject matter, but I don’t regret reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Death of parent

Moderate: Cannibalism, Murder