8 years. It took 8 years to finish this book. (Wow almost 8 years to the day, too...)
I started it. I put it down. I started again. I put it down again. Then finally I picked it up and finished it. I tried to read it all at once, but I couldn't give Johnny's narrative the attention it deserved when all I wanted to know about was the haunted house. So this time I read the Navidson Record first then went back and read Johnny's notes. The Navidson Record was great, it wasn't the horror I'd expected from other's reviews but it was unsettling in the best ways and made me fall in love with the Ergodic genre all over again. The text illustrating how Navidson navigated the dark space of the house were my favorite parts of the book.
Tackling Johnny's narrative was another story. Some of his exposition in the beginning felt superfluous. Like why do I need to know out all these seemingly random sexual conquests?? But when he truly begins to break down you see the ties between Zampano, Johnny, Johnny's mother and a host of other narrators, may they be reliable or not.
It was a ride to say the least, and mostly enjoyable. The rating is a 4.5 because I'm sure I'll read it again, but without bouncing around, but there are parts that's just a slog to get through.
I knew enough about this harrowing tragedy and it was still not enough to prepare me when the Donner Party eventually becomes stranded. This heartbreaking, riveting and complicated story (due to the idea of Manifest Destiny and it's effect on the indigenous people at the time) was hard to put down. You follow Sarah Fosdick, a new bride, through a journey along 87 other families who try to make their way to California, and the foils of traversing new lands bring to many. The book is supported by letters and accounts of those who also made the journey and the physiological and psychological evidence to support the choices made by so many desperate to survive.
I'm a sucker for some historical fiction and this did not disappoint.
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