Reviews tagging 'Death'

Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson

23 reviews

betsygrace's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Really good book with twists I never expected, but the story felt nice and resolved nonetheless

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Hate crime, Child death, Racial slurs, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Sexism, Abortion, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, and Medical trauma

beccaj11's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The writing is beautiful, but the book moves slowly for a while. It’s a heavy story with a lot of loss and grief, but the magnified look at a marriage under hardship and a town deeply rooted in its history was incredibly well done. What stopped me from giving this 4.5 or 5 stars? A truly devastating ending that I found completely unnecessary. This book has so much heaviness baked into it and just as the sun starts to shine through, it is torn apart again and honestly, it made me so mad. This writer is an incredibly talented storyteller and scene painter, but I will never forgive them for that ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Death, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Alcohol, Car accident, Violence, Misogyny, Abortion, Infidelity, and Animal death

Minor: War and Terminal illness

katesbooknook's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Racism, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Cursing, Miscarriage, Grief, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Misogyny, Murder, Abortion, Sexism, and Ableism

Minor: Cancer

ledegennaro's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Infertility

Moderate: Death and Miscarriage

Minor: Animal death

rosie_b's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Abortion, Miscarriage, and Animal death

miriamshira's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Death, and Animal death

Moderate: Death of parent

her_little_library's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Death, Violence, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

serendipitysbooks's review

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

 
What happens when economic concerns and environmental concerns collide? That’s the issue at the heart of Damnation Spring, the story of a marriage and a California logging community both facing challenges in the late 1970s. It does a great job of highlighting growing environmental concerns about the logging industry, especially the impact of the aerial application of weed killers and balancing this with the needs of people for whom logging is not just their economic livelihood but is also a family legacy - it’s in their blood. We see this conflict play out at the community level and also through the marriage of Rich and Colleen Gunderson. He’s a tree topper whose father and grandfather died on the job. She’s a woman whose desire to have a second baby is thwarted by constant miscarriages and whose volunteer work as a lay midwife has made her aware of the number of still births and birth defects in their small community. Things that are well-known now were not common knowledge 45 years ago, meaning many people were sceptical of claims that chemical sprays could damage their health, didn’t value tress except as the source of timber, and were willing to tolerate environmental consequences like landslides. I think the author did a great job of taking the reader back to that time, when attitudes were very different than they are today - when views and knowledge that are more mainstream were fringe and viewed with scepticism. Another aspect that was done well, chillingly well, was the portrayal of the power of the logging industry and the threats, intimidation and violence companies used to quell any uncomfortable questions or opposition. This is a slow moving book, possibly a little long, and one where it takes a while for the threads of the story to really come together. However, I thought it was well-crafted, the characters and their problems compelling, the community and the work of the loggers richly depicted. My time and patience were well rewarded. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Car accident

maregred's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Miscarriage, Abortion, Infertility, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Cancer, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Car accident, Child death, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Alcoholism, and Racism

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Racism, and Xenophobia

nordstina's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Damnation Spring highlights a close knit logging community in California who have to come to terms with both the increasing regulations around the industry and the environmental consequences of it. Colleen, a makeshift midwife and her husband Rick, a career logger live with their son Chub. Colleen has experience several miscarriages and has been at the births of multiple children with severe birth defects. Some important events propel the narrative forward. Rick purchases a plot of land where he could potentially make a windfall set up his family financially without telling Colleen. A man from Colleen's past returns to the town in order to research the fishing and water in the area, measuring the deleterious effects of the constant spraying. Davidson is able to color in a community and lifestyle for the reader, and provided context for different characters' motivations. There were a couple of characters who were sort of comically evil, but overall I enjoyed this one. It provided a nice balance of the effects of destruction of the environment while also highlighting the consequences for a community built on a single industry.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Death