Damnation Spring

2.5 ⭐

I wanted to like this book so bad. It seemed like just the type of book I would enjoy, but it just didn't do it for me.

I disliked most of the characters in this book with the exception of a few. However, everything happening to them was just so incredibly sad and just seemed to drag on so long. Colleen didn't even begin to realize what was going on until around 200 pages in. Everything before this point was preparing you for the actual story which never got fully resolved before the end of the book.

3.5/5 stars

Oof. This was good.

First of all, massive content warning for pregnancy/infant loss. If this is a topic you struggle to read about, this book is absolutely not for you.

Rich and Colleen Gundersen live in the redwood forest where Rich is a fourth-generation logger. Colleen is a midwife of sorts, helping local women give birth. It's clear that the people in this area live in poverty, and are very dependent on the logging company not only for jobs but also for free food, subsidized healthcare, etc. Through the everyday lives of various people, you get a sense of issues like environmentalism, tribal rights, poisonous herbicides, forest preservation/stewardship - there are many factions fighting over the future use of the land.

The writing in this book is immersive - the author describes sights, sounds, smells and does it well enough that you feel you are there in the redwood forest. I also appreciated the focus on daily life and mundane activities, as this offered insight into characters' feelings and motivations.

I don't want to say much more for fear of spoilers, but this book would be great for book clubs as there is a wealth of topics to spark discussion.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

Beautifully written, it was easy to fall in love with (or learn to hate) the characters. The love story between Rich and Colleen, their little boy Chub and his sweetness, the relationship between Lark and Rich and Lark and Marsha – I felt I was in the middle of their story, they were made real to me. I also felt the tug between preserving nature and preserving a way of life that is little understood outside of a small circle who live it. I didn't love the ending, but finished the book in a day because did not want to put it down.

Where to start? There is so much to unpack with Davidson's debut. It is gorgeously written. It has exceptionally fleshed-out characters, including two likeable leads. The Redwoods tower. The setting otherwise is detailed and raw and perfect. The conflict is believable. The violence and illness is unsettling. And yet, I still can't give this more than 4 stars. I couldn't shake an overall malaise when I would return to it, which is not the feeling you need when working through a literary chunkster. I can't quite place why, but it just bogged down. And, the final act was an unwelcome but not unexpected conclusion.