Well written with good character development but very predictable to me. I just couldn’t get into it. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Good book, long read. Important story but hard to read…sad and true things happen like this in our world. Ending broke my heart.

I have to say, this book had me eating crow. But in the best way. About 25% in, I put Damnation Spring down and was about DNF it. Something drew me back and I am so glad I gave it a second chance. The first 1/4-1/2 is a bit slow and heavy laden with information on the logging industry, but push through this and you will be rewarded. The character development is top notch and the sense of place is incredibly atmospheric. I felt like I could smell the pines they were cutting down and feel the achy muscles from a day spent doing dangerous, heavy labor.

What I especially loved is that this story is based on true events from history. I love when a novel incorporates aspects of environmental issues and ties in real issues. A major part of the storyline is that the chemicals used to kill the brush and aid the loggers is leaking into the nearby streams and drinking water, potentially causing an uptick in miscarriages. Because of this, there are some content/trigger warnings surrounding miscarriage and stillbirths. There are some pretty heavy and traumatic scenes, so be aware going into this. This creates a division in the town, between those who believe the woods should be saved for public preservation and the chemical sprays stopped and those who depend on the logging industry to put food on their tables and roofs over their family's heads. The battle between the two is vicious and ugly, but a true depiction of the times.

My only complaint is that this book was a tad bit long and over detailed. It could easily have been 100 pages less. But overall, I really enjoyed it and was completely invested in the character's storylines. The ending though.....that got me.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Set in a logging community, the townspeople struggle with ailments and birth defects. When one of their own joins up with an activist scientist, violence erupts.

This novel is about family, land, and the difficulties of taking a stand.

Let me start by saying that I was very excited for this book as it seemed right up my alley. Unfortunately its undoing for my may be what others love - the amount of descriptions is overwhelming and bored me. I found myself skipping whole passages because, instead of creating a vivid scene, I felt like they were just adding to the word count. If you enjoy a large amount of detail then this may be the book for you. It had great characters and helped transport me, at times, to a different life but the overexplaining pulled me out of it too often.

This novel takes place in the late 1970's in the rugged coastal area of Northern California among the famed redwood trees. Rich is a logger who has his heart set on harvesting timber from the land that his father dreamed of but never got a chance to. He finally gets his break and purchases the land without telling his wife, Colleen. But soon after the purchase, the "tree huggers" and environmentalists want to preserve the area as a National Park. Added to this, the sprays that are being used on the land might be causing a string of miscarriages and birth defects in the area. Colleen has suffered 8 miscarriages and finds herself torn between her loyalty to her husband and the logging community but heartbroken with the environmental aspects that are destroying families. Over the course of a year, 1977-78, where Rich and Colleen must face tough decisions to preserve their family, their livelihood and their community.

I enjoyed the overall storyline of this novel. While I appreciate the authentic descriptions the author has provided, the logging references were difficult to understand for readers like me who are unfamiliar with them. The novel could have been shortened (it was slow to start) and some terminology clarification would have been helpful. But the novel itself was an eye-opening perspective of life in the logging communities.

Thank you to @Netgalley and Scribner Books for this electronic copy. This review can be found on Goodreads and on IG @maria.needs.to.read

I am sorry to say that I struggled to finish this book. I enjoyed learning about the logging industry and liked the main characters, but I found it overly detailed, very depressing and very slow. . I was happy I stuck with the book, because it finally picked up in the last few chapters. Thank you to netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Despite the good buzz around this one and the very interesting premise, I just couldn't get into this book. I could see myself picking it up again in the future to try again,

This is the story of Rich and Colleen – a couple living in a Pacific Northwest logging town. Rich spend every day performing dangerous logging work as a tree topper and his wife Colleen raises their son Chub while often working as a midwife. Rich and Colleen are both pining for different things. Rich dreams of and secretly spends all their money on a plot of land with ancient redwoods. Colleen has had multiple miscarriages and desperately wants to have another baby. As Colleen comes to believe that the logging company’s use of herbicides is the cause of her miscarriages, she and Rich end up in conflict and their family ends up at risk.

This book was gritty and very well written – I felt as if I was there in the forest with this family. I struggled, though, with all of the logging jargon and truly had to force myself to finish this book – I’m not one to quit on a book. I also struggled because I was incredibly irritated with the dishonesty and lack of communications between the two main characters. This was a tough read for me.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC digital copy. I have not been compensated for my opinion and this is an honest review.

Unfortunately, I was unable to finish reading this ARC digital copy before needing to switch to other books that were being archived. The book is no longer on my Goodreads "want to read" list, but I will update my review to reflect an updated opinion if I decide to finish at a later date.

I really enjoyed the historical fiction portions of this book. I didn't know anything about the logging of the Redwoods in the 1970s or that Agent Orange was used to blaze roads. I also loved the characters, Rich, Colleen, and Chub, but it could have used a better editor. This book dragged on too long.

A slow burn, Damnation Spring is beautiful in its simplicity, its straightforwardness.

Throughout a good bit of this novel, Damnation Spring has loud echoes of Erin Brockovich. And rather than feeling familiar, it started out feeling like merely a disguise wearing lumberjack garb. But, a little over halfway through, it manages to shed its ghost and emerge with its own unique story.

Rich and Colleen Gundersen are part of a logging community from generations back. Rich is following in the hard-earned steps of this father, and his father before that — but when a once-in-several-generations opportunity unexpectedly arises, Rich risks all he has to finally own a piece of this land he's loved and known as well as he knows the palms of his own hands.

Davidson has crafted a world that sneaks up behind you and grabs you before you realize how invested you are. There are so many clear angles with this one: big government, clear-cut science, failure to see lies and betrayals, denial in the face of truth. But beyond that, Davidson has really dug deeper into what it means to be a human on this planet with other humans — the good and the bad. She doesn't hesitate to dig in to the muck and pull out the dirt along with the beauty. I will definitely be checking out what she has up next.

Set in the late 1970s in the forestry territory of Northern California, this is a story that I had to be patient with.

At first, I thought it was just about a logging community. I had difficulty getting invested with the characters; I had to navigate a lot of logging terminology.

But soon, my heart went out to Colleen, who had multiple miscarriages, and how her husband Rich won’t touch her in fear of another pregnancy. I felt for her as a midwife and all the deformities and stillborns she had to witness. I wanted to understand Rich’s point of view, that logging was his family’s way of life for generations. But it was infuriating when I heard what the pesticides were doing to the water, wildlife, and most likely Rich’s own unborn children.

𝐃𝐚𝐦𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 turned out to be a very emotional and intimate family drama that also brought to light environmental issues.

**Please note it discusses miscarriages, birth defects, children deaths, and animal deaths.

This is a big book and honestly wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. I felt like it was a bit slow and hard for me to get into but I did enjoy the ending.

This novel took me a long time to read..I first started it while I was reading Barkskins and the subject matter was too similar. And then the emphasis on miscarriage was a lot. I finally pushed through and felt like it was worth it, and overall it has a strong ending.

It takes place along the Klamath River, a river that ends at the Pacific Ocean, and the forests that were so heavily logged in the 1960s and 1970s on both sides, so southern Oregon and northern California..the novel looks at the effects of overloading and herbicides before those things were better regulated. The two central characters - Rich and Colleen - have had hard lives, but it's what they know, and they come to it through several generations.

This was a buddy read with a friend who had gotten it from Book of the Month club. Though we often have divergent opinions on books like this, we both thoroughly enjoyed it; her so much she even has her book club reading it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this new book.

I normally read history and bio's but was intrigued by the premise of this work. I really enjoyed this one! Wasn't necessarily expecting to but I did. I know this book may not be for everyone but I highly recommend it. The author will take you on a journey and you will be glad you went for the ride. At times a little slow in the first 200 pages, the reader will be rewarded if they can hang in there.

Thank you so much to the author, Ash Davidson, the publishing company, Scribner, and NetGalley for an Early read for my honest review.

This book does not disappoint; the love between people and the love of the land and having a dream, is forefront and center in this book.

If you need a book at the top of your TBR stack, grab this one. You will want more from this author, and I can't wait for the next one.

Many thanks to @netgalley and @scribnerbooks for the digital ARC of damnation Spring by Ash Davidson! I highly recommend this book if you like settling in with a community, getting to know a wealth of vivid and complex characters (the kind you think about when you aren’t reading), with an excellent slow burn of increasing tensions that come to an emotional conclusion. And it’s a heartbreaker.
I was initially drawn in by the very familiar Pacific Northwest atmosphere, and could picture it all so clearly. This was an especially impactful read after having finished The Seed Keeper and listening to Braiding Sweetgrass on audio. The author is from this logging area of Northern California and, though she is not indigenous, I think she represented her indigenous characters well. So many themes to unpack on environmentalism, and how we take care of ourselves, our families. This book will stick with me, and I highly recommend it - with the caveat of major trigger warning for miscarriage and stillbirth.

As much as I wanted to love this book, it was a slow burn that couldn't peak my interest enough for me to muster through. I've seen its prose described as beautiful and profound in other reviews; for me, the first 100 pages felt dense, drowned in pages and pages of forest and logging jargon that ultimately lost me. It's possible that I might revisit this title but ultimately, the sluggish development coupled with the focus topic was not for me. Categorized as one of my DNF titles for 2021.