Reviews with content warning for Death - Damnation Spring

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson

25 reviews

keenanmaree's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This is a really hard one to rate. It was such a deeply personal reading experience in so many ways, not all of them super comfortable.

5 stars for setting, absolutely. It’s set in Klamath, which is about 45 minutes from where I grew up, and every mention of a familiar place and description of the environment was like a warm blanket over my homesick heart.

Everything beyond that, though, was just so heavy. I know that it’s all pretty accurate to the history of the area, but that didn’t make it less of a tough read. I knew a story set in that area around that time period was gonna be at best bittersweet, but it got to the point where it started to feel like misery porn.

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cass_lit's review against another edition

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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.

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betsygrace's review against another edition

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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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beccaj11's review against another edition

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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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katesbooknook's review against another edition

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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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ledegennaro's review against another edition

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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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rosie_b's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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miriamshira's review against another edition

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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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her_little_library's review against another edition

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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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serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

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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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