my first read of the year and, wow. i finished this book last night and have not been able to stop thinking about it. brown expertly weaves the story of the infamous donner party, detailing their journey from the midwest to california. told from a perspective that focuses on sarah graves, she leaves with her family, husband, and other american hopefuls in search of a prosperous future in the west. 

brown pulls no punches with his descriptions of the horrors the donner party experienced, from starvation, hypothermia, violence, death, storms, and cannibalism. it took a little while for me to get invested in the story, but towards the middle - around when the group gets stranded in the now named donner pass - i could not put this down. 

i'm a big lover of described morbid or macabre non-fiction, so this did not disappoint. as i read through sarah's journey, i was so heartbroken for her and the other members of the donner party. i grieved with her, i desperately wished for her survival. brown's attention to detail made these infamous historical figures come to life on the page. 

truly a harrowing, gripping, and gruesome read. 

TW: cannibalism, child death, murder, animal death, racism, war