I figured that reading this book would teach me a lot about California redwoods and the logging industry bent on harvesting them, but I didn't realize I would feel so much--love and frustration--for the characters. Damnation Spring is a beautifully written, engrossing book that tells the story of a family, a logging town, and a team of conservationists. Somehow Ash Davidson makes us sympathize with each disparate group, one after another. Rich Gundersen comes from four generations of tree-toppers and, along with his wife Colleen, has rarely left their community amid the California redwoods. Colleen wants desperately to have a second baby, but a series of miscarriages and a devastating stillbirth have her questioning her worth as a woman. When other women in the town start confiding stories of their own losses, Colleen begins to wonder if the anti-pesticide/nature-loving activists may be onto something. Davidson offers a ton of detail about logging and draws a vivid picture of life in their gritty town and Damnation Grove. There are so many layers to peel back here, each one revealing some new truth about human nature. Damnation Spring is not an "easy" read, but it is a page-turner. You can feel the novel building toward some kind of crescendo, like a train hurtling toward a washed-out bridge, but you can't look away.

Davidson's book is excellent. I was immediately drawn into her story. I love beginning a novel like Davidson's where the writing is so strong and crisp. Davidson's characters are excellent, and I was eager to discover their stories. The focus of the story was fascinating, and I learned quite a bit. I really appreciated her author's note with details about further learning. Excellent writing, and I can't wait to read more by her in the future!

This was a really great story that got lost in a sea of words. It was too long by about half. More concise writing would have let the story shine.

This was such a good book! The characters stay with you long after you finish the book and I loved all the twists and turns. My first time to read a book by this author but I cannot wait to read more!

Rich and Colleen Gundersen live in a house on land they do not own. Rich's family has been logging for many years, and he has never known any other way to provide for his family. But the industry isn't what it once was. Environmentalists want the trees saved and it appears that the pesticides they use might be ruining the water and their health. For a town that relies on logging, what is the most important fact? People who would leave them unemployed, because of their scientific claims or a way of life that has worked for generations.
This is the story of one marriage and also a community. Rich and Colleen are both focused on different things. Rich is getting too old for this kind of work but is too young to retire. He makes a risky decision to take all of their savings and a hefty mortgage to make his dream of becoming his own boss come true. But numerous forces are working against him, and he may lose much more than money.
Colleen loves her family but has just suffered through another miscarriage. She desperately wants another child and when it seems the herbicides used by the logging company are causing irreparable harm, will she stand by Rich and his way of life, or do the hard but right thing? Colleen has made bad grief-fueled decisions already, and she may well be the catalyst to destroy Rich.
I ended up really enjoyed this book. Some parts seemed to slow me down though and took away from my overall experience. A lot of logger jargon, and while I suppose that was necessary to make you see how much this life meant to Rich, it became more than a bit of a page slower rather than a page-turner. I also really did not understand Rich and Colleen's relationship until I was very far along into the book. For two people who supposedly loved each other, they both seemed willing to let their secrets and lies ruin their marriage. Everything does make sense and come together in the end, but it seemed like a shorter book without so much detail would have made it flow much better. Finally, don't even ask me about the ending, because it just broke my heart. This may sound as if I didn't like this book, but after thinking about it for a few days, I really did. The underlying themes were extremely thought-provoking, and if I was in Rich's shoes, I am not sure what my decision would have been.

Damnation Spring was a different type of book for me to read. I don't know what I was expecting but this was not it.
I found the book to be dry ..very boring and I had a hard time following the story especially with so many different characters.
I did not finish..ended at page 75.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

“ ‘The real timber’s gone,’ Lark said. ‘What’s left, ten percent, including the parks? Two thousand years to grow a forest, a hundred years to fall it. No plague like man.’ “ 🌲

For generations, Rich Gundersen’s family has chopped a livelihood out of the California redwood forest. Rich’s employer, Sanderson Timber Co., is making a killing at Damnation Grove. The herbicides the company uses to keep the roads clear were promised to be safe. But Rich’s wife Colleen has lost 8 pregnancies, and people are dying of cancer all around the forest. They drink from the creek. Eat fish out of the streams. But now an environmentalist group has descended upon the area, threatening the loggers livelihood and the company’s profit margin. When Colleen starts to question the safety of the creek water, it puts in jeopardy not only their health and marriage, but also Rich’s job. Can Rich and Colleen take on the logging company, the government, and the environmentalists and survive?

This is a debut?? I’m sorry, what?!? I am gutted. Gutted I tell you. Wow. This book was just…it was…it was just beautiful and gut wrenching and devastating and hopeful. It is told from multiple points of view which I appreciate as it gives multiple perspectives and makes for a more well rounded story. I don’t even know what else to say, so I’ll keep this one short and sweet. Wow. Just wow.

Damnation Spring is a quiet yet deeply evocative family drama set in a 1977 rural California logging town. It follows Colleen, a lay midwife, Rich, a fourth generation logger, and Chub, their 5 year old son over the course of a year. Colleen has suffered many miscarriages and recently a stillbirth, and struggles with her desire for another child. Rich has invested his life's savings in a parcel of land with an eye towards securing his family a better future. Their community is inextricably intertwined with the logging industry, the people of the town spilling sweat and blood for the local logging company for generations. Now their way of life is literally and practically eroding before their eyes.

I was completely engrossed by this story. It took me a little while to settle in and get to know the characters, but once I did I was fully immersed. Politics, in-fighting, relationships impacted, lives changed as a community clings to a vanishing way of life and we're reminded nature is not something which exists for our consumption, rather a complex eco-system we are a part of. This story of a tug of war between capitalism and environmental degradation, economy vs. ecology, is incredibly relevant today

Damnation Spring is a beautiful book! I loved it and now count it among my most favorite reads for 2021.

Rich Gunderson comes from a long line of tree toppers - a dangerous job in which he climbs high the canopy in the forests of ancient redwoods. His wife is a amuteur midwife and asists the locals while dreaming of a second child of her own. They live together with their son Chubb in Damnation Spring, a small town in the Pacific Midwest.

This sprawling epic novel could take place in the present, but it's set in the late 70's when Americans are still determining the government role in regulation and safety in the environment. The logging company uses strong herbicides in which the town people had not yet connected to a high rate of birth defects. It comes to a head when a native son returns to collect data on the water and educate the townspeople on the dangers.

My review cannot describe the vast beauty in this novel - the descriptions, the emotions and the complexity of the Damnation Springs town. This first novel brings to mind the work of Richard Powers, Jonathan Franzen and Ian McEwan. I highly recommend you grab it now and immerse yourself in this stunning novel.!
Highly Recommended. Thank you to #NetGalley and #Scribner for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. #DamnationSpring

Damnation Spring is a rich family saga—something I am generally not drawn to, but the environmental themes were knocking on my door—with an epic finale. The length of this book is mighty, but I flew through it in just two sittings because I was so drawn to both Colleen and Rich’s storylines, both separate and joint.

Something this book did exquisitely, where many fail to succeed, is add clear dual-sided context to those lost in climate crisis messaging. I, like many others, tend to hone in on ‘why is this transition to *insert something renewable* so difficult—let’s just do it and be done’ without the consideration of those who will be lost in said transition. Timber is one of those industries that is held by the neck of lobbyists on both sides, rarely without consideration for those dependent on timber for their livelihood.

My only thought after reading was this book was just a bit too long, but don’t let that deter you from picking it up. The writing (specifically nature writing) was gorgeous and accurate, and its a family I am still thinking about today.

While I found this a tad too long, it is my literal only knock on the book. Very beautiful writing and beautiful story. The love in this book will stay with me for a long time and so will all its themes.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for this review.

Damnation Springs seems to be a book critics cannot quite agree on.
It is definitely a rather brainy read. There is a lot of very specific jargon (logging industry) involved, which can be a bit of a bog down. The pace of the book is slow. Nothing much happens in the first half, and if you are looking to be riveted by action, this is not the book for you.
It is more of a deep dive into a setting most of us likely know very little about, told in beautiful prose.
While I enjoyed it for what it was, it took me a rather long time to finish the 450+ pages, because I needed to be in the right mood, and only ready a little at a time. I will say, this is definitely not for everyone, but if you are ok with a slow build, a character driven story told in beautiful writing give it a try!

Damnation Spring is set in 1970's in a rural California logging town. The story is about several things, bust mostly focused on the logging industry, and the environment impact of that industry on the land and the people living in the town. Ash Davidson cultivated a very believable cast of characters from industry driven small towns. Logging and mining towns are often built on generations of families living and working in the same towns their entire lives. These sorts of town exist in their own insulated world built around a single livelihood, but the world changes and industries adapt to new cultural landscapes which threaten not just these jobs in rural America, but the place people have called home for much of their families history. So despite the horrific consequences towns people continued to fight against the banning of certain herbicides and logging regulations, because without logging, these towns just fade away. I liked this book, it was crass, graphic, chock full of triggers, and uncomfortable. This book captured so much of ethos of rural America, even though this book was set fifty years ago, so much of this sentiment is accurate today. I felt liked this book, I do not think it's for everyone, but Davidson wrote a story with sincerity and heart.

Trigger warnings: violence, miscarriage, birth complications, and adultery

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. (via Netgalley)

I struggled to get into this. The writing was kind of dense and disjointed at times. I found myself having to re-read parts to understand what exactly was going on. Also felt like more action happened in the last 25% of the book which may have contributed to me having a hard time getting into it.

I would have enjoyed it more if I knew more about logging. There was so much foreign jargon and tons of characters that I got bogged down early. As the story unfolded I saw how rich the story was with all the characters so I would not cut that. It just would have painted a better picture in my head if I understood the logging terms.

The human part of this story is gutting at times. It would make a great movie!

I was really excited about this one because I was interested in learning more about the logging situation as wildfires continue to ravish the Western United States. It was a bit heavy at times on the logging details, but not enough for me to give up.

However, what was a dealbreaker for me, was the writing style. It felt very disjointed and, at times, very hard to follow and comprehend. It just lacked that finished quality that would have allowed me to sink into the plot and characters.

DNF - Did not finish. I decided not to keep reading this title because I did not connect with the writing or plot. Thank you, NetGalley and publisher for the early copy!

I was really looking forward to this debut novel - many interesting themes of right to work, the environment and the effects of herbicides on both people and nature, and a woman's rights. Set in the 1977 Damnation Spring tells the story of Rich and Colleen Gunderson and their son, Chub. Rich hails from a family of several generations of loggers, and dreams of buying a ridge to harvest some of the last Redwood trees in the area as a way to provide for his family. Colleen, Rich's wife, is struggling with her most recent pregnancy loss - one of many that she has suffered. As a midwife, she is also seeing alarming birth defects, frequent bloody noses, and more unexplained unnatural developments in local farms.
Rich makes a decision to purchase land to harvest trees without Colleen's knowledge - he is able to use their joint savings, and take a loan in his own name that affects their future as a family. Colleen meets up with a former high school love, who is now researching the water in Damnation Grove - testing for harmful herbicides and documenting birth defects and cancers. Their marriage, the town, and also local Native Americans begin to fracture with the knowledge that is gained about the Sanderson Logging Company's spraying practices.
Many of the characters, especially Eugene - Colleen's brother-in-law, were despicable. Many locals stubbornly focused on the economic effects of stopping logging, versus the long term effects of destroying the Redwoods and spraying the herbicides. It was difficult to see town's people ostracized and shunned for their belief in standing up to the lumber company. I did not enjoy a lot of these characters, even if I understood their motivations. A good book for book discussion - many topics to talk about.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the copy.

I was granted the digital copy after publication date and I already had the book out from my local library.

At this time, it is a DNF for me. The writing was really dense and too technical about logging. I may plan to try it again in the future.

The description of this book caught my attention as it sounded like an Erin Brockovich type plot, with a community economically dependent on an industry that was killing them.
This debut novel tells a story of a PNW community in the late 1970s. The main industry is lumber, with generation after generation felling the redwoods in the forest they love. The plot, while including the entire town in the story, focuses mainly on one family- their marital problems, money problems, and their struggles with miscarriage and child loss.
It comes to light that the herbicide used to clear the roads for company vehicles is much more harmful than the people were led to believe- resulting in the cancers and birth defects occurring within the community at an alarming rate.
The writing is remarkably successful in reflecting the motherly concern, the masculine need to provide, the childlike observance, all while fully realizing the time/place/and attitudes of the other members of the community.
You can't help but sympathize with the old-school loggers who don't want to be told their way of life is wrong. Their livelihood depends on this lumber industry after all, what are they supposed to do? At the same time, you're frustrated with them for not seeing the science (😑 *sigh*) and recognizing that change is to their own benefit.
I do think the pacing of the story was a little off. It's slow and some scenes felt reduntant, but ultimately the time and place feel so real that I can't criticize that element too much.
Also, I wish the ending gave me a better sense of closure on the medical elements of the story.