Stacked on a table, held down with rocks. Stripped nearly bare by the elements, dark empty windows like the hollow eye sockets of a skull, a stark reminder of another family’s failure. A sad, lonely place, like the abandoned farmhouse she used to pass every Sunday on her way to service. She could still picture the tiny makeshift shack, boards bleached bone-white by the relentless prairie sun. … “Two days ago, when we came across that abandoned trapper’s cabin…” Still, it was easy enough to look up the main events of the Party’s history online before diving headlong into the novel, and while I cannot say for certain just how accurate the author’s depiction of events is, it appears that she has done a lot of in-depth research, as the excerpt below suggests: When I first decided to pick up this book, I knew next to nothing about the Donner Party save that The Oregon Trail video game was inspired by what happened to the group. But as things begin to fall apart at the seams and people begin to actually disappear, the members of the Party begin to wonder: who or what is the cause of their misfortune? Is it Tamsen Donner, whom some in the group believe to be a witch? Is it because of political manoeuvring by the menfolk on who gets to lead the party? Or is it something else – something more sinister than politics or witchcraft, an evil that lurks in their midst, unseen and undetected, until far, far too late? Told from the perspective of a host of different characters, it follows the wagon train as they make their fateful journey westward. Unlike the survivors of El Milagro de los Andes, however, the survivors of the Donner Party’s expedition were not viewed with awe and wonder instead, many were viewed with suspicion, if not outright hostility, because they ate human flesh.Īlma Katsu’s novel The Hunger is a retelling of the Donner Party’s story. When the survivors were rescued from the mountains and brought into California in the first months of 1847, tales of cannibalism came along with them, since many of the survivors had had to resort to it in order to ensure their survival. But a series of mishaps, bad decisions, and disagreements led to the party first splitting into two groups, and then both groups getting stranded in the Sierra Nevadas during the winter with minimal supplies. In direct contrast to the above is the story of the Donner Party: the name given to the wagon train consisting of pioneers who left Independence, Missouri in 1846 intent on making it to the Oregon Territory in hopes of building new lives for themselves. In the end, sixteen people were eventually rescued, and the incident is remembered in Latin America as El Milagro de los Andes, “The Miracle of the Andes”, despite the cannibalism that occurred. Ten days into the crash, the survivors made a pact: those who died would allow the living to eat their flesh to help keep them going in the hopes of eventual rescue. That was the case in 1972, when Uruguayan Flight 571 crashed in a remote part of the Andes. There are many reports throughout history of people eating their fellows during famines or war, as well as when they are stranded somewhere isolated and cannot find food to keep them going. Despite this seemingly instinctual revulsion, however, there are certain circumstances under which that revulsion can be overcome – such as when people have to resort to cannibalism in order to survive. NFL footage © NFL Productions LLC.Trigger warnings for this novel can be found at the very bottom of this review.Ĭannibalism is simultaneously fascinating and disturbing. All other NFL-related trademarks are trademarks of the National Football League. NFL and the NFL shield design are registered trademarks of the National Football League.The team names, logos and uniform designs are registered trademarks of the teams indicated.
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