The Hunger in Better Read Than Dead Book Club (Fargo)

Nov 13, 2019 Mari rated it really liked it

Shelves: brtd

Book Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5

Then the Lord must be mightily displeased with you, because he has led you into the valley of death.

It's 1847, and the Donner Party has set out west in a wagon party of 90 people. From the outset, it seems the cards are stacked against them. From party leaders unwilling to push the wagon train onward on the Sabbath to an untested path that hinders their progress, the journey is slow-going. All the while, their supplies are dwindling, and those prudent enough to recognize thi Book Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5

Then the Lord must be mightily displeased with you, because he has led you into the valley of death.

It's 1847, and the Donner Party has set out west in a wagon party of 90 people. From the outset, it seems the cards are stacked against them. From party leaders unwilling to push the wagon train onward on the Sabbath to an untested path that hinders their progress, the journey is slow-going. All the while, their supplies are dwindling, and those prudent enough to recognize this begin rationing their meals, sacrificing their dinners so their children can eat. Delirium, it seems, will set in early. But hunger isn't the only thing that plagues them. There's something – wolves? indigenous tribes? demons? – stalking them along the way.

This book surprised me. I'd wanted to read it for a while, but when a friend of mine gave it a 3-star rating on Goodreads, I checked my expectations (I'm fickle, what can I say). Well, I'm so glad I still decided to read it, because I ended up really enjoying it.

First off, the true story of the Donner Party is pretty messed up to begin with. Trapped in the mountains in the winter, divided from the safety of the other side by a mere day or two of clearer weather, it's the kind of "almost made it" where the end result is starvation, hypothermia, and cannibalism. Talk about survivors guilt. While knowing anything about the Donner Party isn't required to read this book by any standard (honestly, if you've played Oregon Trail, the stage is pretty much set), having an idea of what really happened to them did help me visualize the suffering a little bit better, which never hurts.

I think what I love most about Katsu's rendition of their story is the way that she conceptualized the "thing" following them. It perfectly matched, in my mind anyway, the real-life terror of what it would be like to slowly go mad as you starve and freeze to death, eventually completely losing your grip on reality. The story was incredibly dark, but it kept me on edge and kept me engaged, and even though I sort of knew how the story ended because it was based on something real, the way Katsu presented it certainly wasn't a letdown.

The only reason I docked a half star from this is because there are some flashback elements to the timeline and a wide array of characters, neither being a true flaw, that made it hard to follow sometimes as an audiobook. That's pretty much my only complaint, though. ...more

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