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Reviews tagging 'Violence'
Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride by Daniel James Brown
42 reviews
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Excrement, Cannibalism, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
As someone who has grown up hearing jokes after joke about the Donner party, I loved that this book seemed to focus more on the people involved rather than the gruesomeness of what they had to do to survive.
I also appreciated the medical breakdown of what their bodies were going through, it definitely helps you appreciate the horror of their experience, even despite the cannibalism.
Additionally, Brown's focus on the human aspect allows you to appreciate their resilience - building whole cabins during the snow, crafting snowshoes out of spare supplies, and trekking forward in ten to twelve feet of snow hoping they were heading in the right direction.
Some parts of this book are very gruesome, and there are people who committed evil acts, but you're left with the uncomfortable feeling that the majority of the Donner party were normal people trying their best to survive.
(Also I loved at the end where Brown lists what happened to everyone after they reached California, it reminded me of movies where they do that)
I also appreciated the medical breakdown of what their bodies were going through, it definitely helps you appreciate the horror of their experience, even despite the cannibalism.
Additionally, Brown's focus on the human aspect allows you to appreciate their resilience - building whole cabins during the snow, crafting snowshoes out of spare supplies, and trekking forward in ten to twelve feet of snow hoping they were heading in the right direction.
Some parts of this book are very gruesome, and there are people who committed evil acts, but you're left with the uncomfortable feeling that the majority of the Donner party were normal people trying their best to survive.
(Also I loved at the end where Brown lists what happened to everyone after they reached California, it reminded me of movies where they do that)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder
Moderate: Violence, Death of parent
Minor: Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
challenging
dark
informative
tense
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Violence, Cannibalism
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
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence, Cannibalism
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Excellently researched and able to make historical fact into a compelling narrative. Harrowing story, good for someone looking for a tale of suffering, horror, and survival against all odds.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Violence, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
challenging
dark
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
A great book but very hard to read at times with some of the things that happened to the group. Look up trigger warnings for sure with this one!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
To appreciate beauty is to experience humility—to recognize that something larger and more powerful than oneself is at work in the environment. And humility, it turns out, is key to recognizing that in order to survive, you must adapt yourself to the environment, that it won’t adapt to your needs.
It's the year 1846 and the pioneer craze is sweeping America. Searching for something better to call their own and convinced that as Americans they were unique and gifted (and perhaps having drank a bit too much of the manifest destiny kool-aid) and thus worthy of this "new" land on the east, thousands of families embarked on the long trip to California. Carrying only what they could fit in their wagons, and putting all their faith in God and their handy trail guides, these families knew that the road ahead was long and perilous, and that certain seemingly small and inconsequential choices could make the difference between life and death. This is what the Donner Party sadly discovered when in early December they were stuck in the Sierra Nevada under freezing conditions, driving them all to make horrible and appalling choices in order to survive.
This is, at its core, a story about greed. Greed is what made Lansford Hastings insist on an impossible shortcut, greed is what got everyone of his associates to agree and participate in the farce, and yes greed is what drove all those people to take such a dangerous trip. It's truly horrifying to see how many times money and material goods were chosen above the lives of people, and the disastrous consequences this had. In the book, Daniel James Brown presents to us a very thoroughly researched account of the Donner Party's beginning and end focusing on Sarah Graves, one of the survivors of the whole ordeal. Besides telling the facts, the author uses Sarah as a device to explore other issues of the time and as a segue way into historical information. It also humanizes the whole party to have a central character (in a way) as the face of the disaster.
The beginning of this book is quite dry, it took me some time to get into it. I understand that there was a need for historical context, and I do appreciate it but perhaps it could have been edited better. The author has this way of writing when describing places or actions that slightly bothered. He would write this long paragraph and he would separate short ideas with periods, I don't know how else to describe it besides choppy. The ending felt anticlimactic, and I do feel that the author skirted around issues like enslavement, the fact that these settlers were basically invading MĂ©xico, and indigenous rights. It did deliver on the sordid history of the incident of 1846, and the harrowing events that the Donner Party had to live through so for that I give it a 4.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gun violence, Grief
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