Damnation Spring was a beautiful, atmospheric, and deep story about family history and our environment.
The book could sometimes get a bit overly detailed or specific, but I do think that the story overall won out over the frustration I did at times feel skipping through passages.

This is about Rich and Colleen, they live in a logging town in the northwest. There is emotion, crisis, and conflicts intertwined in the story. This is one I recommend going in blind, but also be prepared, it’s long and somewhat drawn out in places. The beautiful storytelling more than makes up for it. This is to be one of the top books of 2021. I’m positive it will win rewards and I even chose it as my book of the month so I could have a hard copy to loan out.

Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson had my emotions all over the place.

The heart of this story is a married couple who live in a California logging town. Their relationship and community are tested when suspicions rise about the dangerous impact of the logging company’s herbicides on the community’s health.

Damnation Spring has a lot of elements I love: multiple POVs, a focus on nature, and family drama. It is character-driven with a very gradual buildup. A few parts felt drawn out, but I enjoyed getting to know the characters along the way to the heart-wrenching final chapters.

Colleen’s chapters were particularly evocative as she struggles with miscarriages and advocates for public health. The story had a lot going on with many side characters, so I would’ve appreciated a narrower focus that gave Colleen more attention.

Even though the book takes place in the 1970s, many of the themes mirror today. It’s very much about our relationship with nature and the ways we try to protect ourselves and each other. I loved these layers to the story.

Overall I enjoyed this and recommend with the caveat that you should be patient with the pace. If you need quick action, this might not be for you.

This novel is hailed as one of the best books of the year. For me, it was not.
Rich is a logger who is cutting down trees in the redwood forest of CA in the 70's. His wife Colleen is struggling to get pregnant and has been through many miscarriages. People all around them are having misfortunes. Is something going on in town to cause these issues?
This novel is VERY descriptive. The intricate details of logging and technical terms had me putting the book down way too often. Unfortunately, I love a good description, but TOO MUCH description is boring to me.
This was a DNF and I hate to do that to ARCS. I apologize and for that reason, I can only give it 1 star.

Ash Davidson's debut novel takes the reader on a journey to the coastal redwood region of California. She also takes us back in time yet tells a relevant story for today (can I call this book historical fiction even though I was a teenager when it took place? Sigh.).

I was impressed with the empathy and compassion Ash showed her characters. They are complex, even the children. Ash shows us how complicated life is, especially during a tumultuous period of change.

The old-growth redwood forest is, to me, the most magnificent place on Earth. Damnation Spring presents a multilayered story, starting with the bonds and interdependencies within a nuclear family and expanding to global issues of environmental stewardship and industrial greed. Every page, every turn in the plot is accessible and relatable.

I loved this novel.

I also received a free copy from Netgalley in return for an honest review. I honestly loved this book.

Rich and Colleen Gundersen live in the Pacific Northwest in 1977, raising their young son and barely surviving life in the timber industry. Colleen's college boyfriend returns to town with talk of stopping the logging and concerns about the chemicals the company uses. As a midwife, Colleen can't help but see the many miscarriages and birth defects the town's women are experiencing. Colleen and Rich soon find themselves on opposite sides with each other and with the rest of the town.

This is a slow moving story that sometimes gets bogged down in logging terminology. I thought the ending was good though and that saved it for me.

3-1/2 stars rounded to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the tight knit community this book painted, however I was sometimes confused about who was who. I thought the character development was important and I really liked Rich’s character a lot! He reminded me of some of the men in my family. Overall, I really enjoyed this book.

Damnation Spring is a love story: A love story about parents who love their child, wives who love husbands and husbands who love wives, and people who love their land and their home. I fell in love with these characters- their vulnerabilities and their rawness. After reading other "tree" books recently (Greenwood, Overstory) it was an interesting perspective to read about the livelihoods of the loggers in the 70s, in contrast with the conservationist. I loved Davidson's story and character development and highly recommend this book!

I found this read to be a bit drawn out. At first the story line seems to be of interest but then I lost sight of character and storyline.

Let me start by saying that I love to read. I love to read all sorts of books in many genres. That being said I did not really like reading this particular book. I am also aware that I am in a great minority when I say this. Firstly, I usually read a few books a week. I think I was reading this book for two weeks and I had extra time to read. I just checked to see how many actual pages it was and was surprised to see it was only 463 because it sure felt like many more. I enjoyed the main characters Rich and Colleen and their son Chubb and could get involved in their feelings and their point of view. The story was very repetitive and the book could have probably been half the size it was. There were a lot of random characters inserted throughout. A few of them definitely were important to the plot but there were quite a few that I'm not sure why they were there. You could pretty much guess where most of the plot was going but there were some surprises towards the end. I really wanted to like this book. The description made it sound that it could've been interesting. It just took way to long to get to where it was going.

I have to admit, I initially found Colleen, Rich and Chub far too precious. But as the book developed, and the complexity of their situation reveals itself, they pulled me in. Okay, Chub stayed a bit too precious, even for a five year old, but not enough to detract from the story. And it’s a great story, expertly told. Loved it!

Damnation Spring is the story of a couple in crisis after a series of miscarriages and evaluating their path forward. Colleen and Rich Gundersen, living in Redwood Country, cope with their grief differently but in ways that will deeply affect not only their family but their whole community.

While Colleen and Rich are really engaging characters and the fundamental conflict-were the miscarriages caused by the spraying of pesticides-is compelling, the first half of this book is a slog. Davidson engages in some deep world building ranging from introducing many minor side characters, to monologues on the intricacies of logging redwoods. The real action of the story does not truly begin until 50 percent mark, which is incredibly frustrating. There is no need for this book to be nearly 500 pages. However, once you get going, the second half of this book is wonderful.

Davidson is a talented writer who is able to convey the importance of minor moments in a marriage and how two people who love each other approach the same problem differently and sometimes at the detriment of the other. Her story on what happens when a company runs a town is also a story that rings true in many different cases and I think Damnation Spring was a great rendition of that theme. I just am frustrated it took so long to get there.

Damnation Spring is a timely story about the conflicts between loggers and environmentalists, and workers and big corporations, as well as a touching story of a family dealing with issues around failed pregnancies. The main characters, Rich and Colleen, have one son, but wanted a larger family; Colleen has had several pregnancies after their son's birth, but none have resulted in a live birth. Rich is a tree-topper, the fourth generation in his family to work for a big logging company, and is looking for a way to secure his son's future, knowing that he wants a different life for him, and that logging in their part of Norther California is approaching its end.

The main plot line of the novel is engaging, if a bit drawn out. I was put off slightly by the author's use of logging jargon without sufficient context or explanation to make its meaning clear, and by the stilted and confusing dialogue among some of the characters. Despite this, I found Damnation Spring a good read overall, definitely worth the time and effort to read. In addition enjoying to a good story, I appreciated the insights it offered about this industry and its impact on the community that developed around it.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free ebook in exchange for an objective review.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

Damnation Spring was a rough read for me. The pacing was VERY slow. A whole lot of nothing happened. The language was so descriptive and the writing was so detailed that it honestly got to be too much. I did finish this one, but I don't really have much to say about it. I would not revisit it, and I wouldn't recommend it.

This book was good! Had me anxious to turn the pages! I was so thankful to receive an ARC and will gladly read more books by this author. Her character development and in depth descriptions kept me wanting more!

This book gives an alternate perspective on what it means to be a “free hugger.” Written flawlessly with a slow burn. Follows an entire family across generations of wood loggers and what it means to build your own. Great character development!
All and all, this book was not for me. I felt like there was really no underlying plot. I picked up and put down this book so much I started to dread reading it. I’m sure others will love this one, just not me.

Full review can be seen on my page soon.

I wanted to love this so much based on all the wonderful reviews from critics but I just could not finish it. The overly descriptive writing (normally what I love), was too much that it distracted from the overall storyline. This was a DNR for me.

Thank you to Scribner books and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really struggled to get into this book at first due to the extremely slow pacing, but I am glad I pushed on. I fell in love with the characters and their plight, and although it was utterly heartbreaking, this was a truly beautiful story.

This book, ugh got me. It’s a slow paced book, but it really just gives you time to soak everything before it tears your heart to pieces. I loved it though, such a beautiful story. I absolutely loved all the characters and was so invested, which is why is hurt so much. Not going to spoil it but it’s a book you just have to read for yourself.

I wanted to love this book so much! Alas, the writing was so clunky and overwrought, with lots of repeated details and generally not a lot that 'happens.' The setting is so cool, but there just wasn't a lot of there there.