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cass_lit's review against another edition
1.5
Before I say anything else about this: THERE IS NO EXCUSE TO USE THE R-WORD. You can make it clear that a child is being bullied in a million other ways. Reading the r-word just once will absolutely ruin my experience and opinion of a book, but Ash Davison uses it FOUR TIMES. ONE WASN’T EVEN BULLYING, it’s a kid *thinking* about his mom!!!! Absolutely not necessary and, in my opinion, reflects poorly on the author and the book.
Now, for the rest of my review:
I hated this. I wanted to DNF, but I also wanted to be able to rate this low and explain for anyone else considering reading it. I need everyone to know that my review is fully informed. But then I decided my sanity was more important; I decided to DNF and felt great about it. Since I had decided not to continue, I went to read others’ reviews and *one* on here said if you get past the first quarter of the book then it’s so worth it. I was excited for this book, I bought this book, I wanted to like it! Now, I was already at 37%, but I thought maybe the reviewer was just estimating. I picked Damnation Spring back up, upped my audio speed a bit (not easy, the narrators are definitely trying to give rural logging community), and tried again.
Unfortunately, it never got better for me. As I said, I hated this. I did not like the writing style to begin with, and as soon as the r-word mentions started I *hated* the writing style.
Now to my more substantive issues with the story.
- All the adults suck. Colleen bugged me more than Rich (SO whiny), but god they both sucked. You’re adults. Communicate. Or do something. Anything. We didn’t even get to read about the infidelity for something fun, it got like two mentions. I hated Ridge but god Colleen just leave him. Also, fuck you, Daniel (and that’s coming from an environmentalist).
- The POV switches to Chub felt not super important and random and were kinda just as boring as C & R’s (more understandable for him because he’s five though). Random sister POV there at the end too?
- The “mystery” or conflict doesn’t start until 45-50%. I didn’t even know there was a mystery or that this would be the plot point it became until those reviews during the period I tried to DNF. All the first half did for me was make me hate everyone in this town so… basically nothing.
- An absolutely individual, personal issue: I work in the environmental field; I started this while at a conference with other environmental professionals expecting it to be a fictionalized Silent Spring/Dark Waters (Exposure). I was sorely disappointed.
- Real quote from one of the adults in this story: “fifteen’s old enough to breed her.” Also unnecessary: dog murder.
- The end. Again, I didn’t care about these characters so it didn’t impact me too much emotionally, it just felt traumatic and draining. Writing a sad book doesn’t make you profound.
- Finally, it was Way Too Long. So long. So much of it was dragged out incessantly, but other parts were just completely unnecessary.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Miscarriage, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent
Minor: Abortion
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Sexism, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
lisas_bookshelf's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Miscarriage and Violence
bookswithmybulldog's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Infertility, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Infidelity, Violence, Medical content, Car accident, and Death of parent
Minor: Abortion
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
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Miscarriage, and Abortion
ssternle's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infertility, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Medical content, Abortion, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
bookishaddictions's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I’d like to start off by saying that this book would probably be most enjoyable for people who enjoy 1970s US historical fiction, as well those that are into environmental-themed reads. The novel’s concept is interesting, and you really get to know each of the characters involved. Although I found myself frequently getting distracted and could barely focus on this read; I spent months trying to read this chunks at a time so I could review this as fairly as possible Dr spite my apparent disinterest. I snagged this as a ARC from @netgalley, as I had heard great things about it. I found that I learned quite a bit about how the logging process goes, and it inspired a variety of conversations with my relatives about their memories of the time. As someone who has seen the environmental changes to my Southern California town over a few years, I felt for those residents of Damnation Springs that represented everyone who was tired of our forests being destroyed. I’ve seen my town get drier, hotter, and a whole lot less green. Even if I did not really care for the writing style, I will agree that it was covering some very important issues. I think what really made this a 3/5 for me though was the ending; it felt too cliche after the originality of the rest of the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage
Moderate: Animal death and Child death
Minor: Animal cruelty, Sexual content, and Abortion
kdowli01's review against another edition
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is slow, and took awhile to get into, but had really great writing and ended up being a really emotional story by the end.
*
Synopsis: Rich and Colleen Gunderson live in a redwood logging town in 1977 California with their toddler son Chub. Colleen's high-school boyfriend returns, now involved in studying the impact of pesticides, and causes a huge rift in the town between those who are worried about the environmental impact of the chemicals and the timber industry, and those who rely on that industry to survive.
*
This was just heartbreaking. It's easy to connect to the environmental side of the story, especially from a historical fiction perspective, because we know where this is going, but you can't help falling in love with Rich and wanting his work to succeed as well, and feel for him with the very real threats he faced. It's also impossible not to compare the red flags they saw at the time--the impact of pesticides in water--with the climate change evidence we're seeing now, which is just terrifying.
*
Rich and Colleen are really well-developed, and I loved how unique their voices were. I didn't love the chapters told from Chub's perspective as much. They were cute, and at least were short, but didn't add a whole lot.
*
If you liked Migrations or Once There Were Wolves, you definitely have to check this out!
If you liked Migrations or Once There Were Wolves, you definitely have to check this out!
CW: miscarriage, infant death, pet death
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, and Miscarriage
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Infidelity, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Car accident
Minor: Racism, Xenophobia, and Fire/Fire injury