Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 9/8/2018 + 1223 more book reviews

I thought this was an interesting take on the story of the ill-fated Donner Party. I grew up in Utah and the Donner Party was part of Utah History taught in Junior High School. I always thought the actual historical story of the party was horrific in itself with the party resorting to cannibalism to survive when their party was bogged down in the Sierra because of an early snowfall. The Donner Party crossed what is now Utah south of the Great Salt Lake about a year before Brigham Young arrived there and established Salt Lake City.

Anyway, I thought the story of various members of the party as described in the novel were quite fascinating. The interactions and conflicts between various groups was well-portrayed although I'm not sure how much of it was based on fact. The author included back stories for many of the party that included many secrets and showed why they had decided to go west rather than stay in the comfort of their eastern homes. Then Katsu throws in an element of horror as people start to disappear along the trail and lurking shadows seem to be responsible for this. So what exactly is happening here?

Well, overall I did enjoy this but I do agree that the actual story of the Donner Party was horrific enough without the added horror element included here. I'll probably seek out a nonfiction account of the story to see how The Hunger compared to the realities of the tragedy.

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