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Reviews tagging 'Rape'
Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride by Daniel James Brown
2 reviews
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
I knew nothing about the donner party beyond they cannibalize each other in a mountain pass. This did tell me, in excruciating (tedious, dry, and dull) detail, of the trek to California of a group of people with all the attendant horrors that befell them.
For whatever reason Dan explains every person's motivations (which he also admits he doesn't know
... Dan. Why?), and intersperses an equivalent modern day anecdote to the CURRENT predicament as though this will help the reader understand. Dan, sweet summer child, I did not need the medical definition along with every possible symptom of hypothermia, PLUS a modern day example of it with full cast included, to understand the description of people in the donner party experiencing hypothermia meant they were experiencing hypothermia. This happens multiple times with different experiences. I wanted to scream. This man is insufferable.
It was also slow as all hell. It took 60% to get to the point where they eat each other, and then it feels like Dan wants to both speed run and bore you to death with the logistics of who ate whom and why and when and did you know that's probably really taumatizing for at least some of them? Ad nauseum. We also make time in the last 40% to detail their lives after the people eating tragedy. AND Dan had some final parting thoughts... because I really cared about those.🙄
I wish I liked this better. I hated the authorial voice in this (I also hated the narrator's voice which didn't help). In the prologue, Dan, an adult man, wants to insert himself into a young girl's journey through a tragic experience. Ugh. And, of course, we couldn't center that woman at the end. No. We need to center Dan in the epilogue driving along the approximate route of the donner party and thinking about how his daughters aren't brave enough to be like Sarah to round out what was meant to give me a visceral connection to the people in the donner party. Failure, Dan. Failure.
I am confused why it's so long. I could edit at least a third of it out, half if I made Dan rewrite it properly, and convey the same things. The lack of care or interest in the natives in this (they felt like set dressing. I suppose when you center people on an expedition to colonize someone else's land that's bound to happen) also pissed me off. You're willing to ponitifcate on these white folk running around like idiots, but I guess you didn't get any native stories from that time?
FYI: This is not a good story to listen to (due to writing, not content) which sucks for anyone who wants or needs that medium.
For whatever reason Dan explains every person's motivations (which he also admits he doesn't know
... Dan. Why?), and intersperses an equivalent modern day anecdote to the CURRENT predicament as though this will help the reader understand. Dan, sweet summer child, I did not need the medical definition along with every possible symptom of hypothermia, PLUS a modern day example of it with full cast included, to understand the description of people in the donner party experiencing hypothermia meant they were experiencing hypothermia. This happens multiple times with different experiences. I wanted to scream. This man is insufferable.
It was also slow as all hell. It took 60% to get to the point where they eat each other, and then it feels like Dan wants to both speed run and bore you to death with the logistics of who ate whom and why and when and did you know that's probably really taumatizing for at least some of them? Ad nauseum. We also make time in the last 40% to detail their lives after the people eating tragedy. AND Dan had some final parting thoughts... because I really cared about those.🙄
I wish I liked this better. I hated the authorial voice in this (I also hated the narrator's voice which didn't help). In the prologue, Dan, an adult man, wants to insert himself into a young girl's journey through a tragic experience. Ugh. And, of course, we couldn't center that woman at the end. No. We need to center Dan in the epilogue driving along the approximate route of the donner party and thinking about how his daughters aren't brave enough to be like Sarah to round out what was meant to give me a visceral connection to the people in the donner party. Failure, Dan. Failure.
I am confused why it's so long. I could edit at least a third of it out, half if I made Dan rewrite it properly, and convey the same things. The lack of care or interest in the natives in this (they felt like set dressing. I suppose when you center people on an expedition to colonize someone else's land that's bound to happen) also pissed me off. You're willing to ponitifcate on these white folk running around like idiots, but I guess you didn't get any native stories from that time?
FYI: This is not a good story to listen to (due to writing, not content) which sucks for anyone who wants or needs that medium.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror
Minor: Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Pregnancy
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
Some of the violence is hard to take. At the same time, the overall message of resilience is inspiring
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Rape, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail