A different view from the many books printed on this ghastly story of American history. The evil underlaying of disception including down right lies to reroute this party into the nightmare of endurance, death and life choices these families and individuals lived and died through. A hard read when you put yourself there with these heroes while also a hard to put down book as you move through the extreme endurances. The thought of worn out shoes, ice and snow, rocks causing bleeding feet, lack of food and one coat worn with the belief they would reach California long before snow......

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From the back of the book, " The story of the doomed Donner party, told through the experiences of a young woman who miraculously survived 33 days wandering in the Sierra Nevada". The woman being a newlywed named Sarah Graves, age 21. Sarah's family left Illinois bound for California. On the way they met up with another wagon party headed by George Donner. That would seal their destiny.

The author does a fantastic job relating the history and the background of many of the players, families and mistakes that were responsible for the Donner Party horror. He covers the ill-fated journey of the traveling conditions with meticulous detail. As he describes the insects I found myself itching! The author tells the history of the Donnor Party with a lot of compassion and in much detail.

Though, overall I was a little disappointed that the reader never gets to really know Sarah. The author goes from person to person/party to party every other paragraph and I found myself wanting to know more about Sarah. After all the title says "The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride", which is Sarah. From my point of view, I don't believe that getting to know Sarah or her story intimately was ever accomplished. I just think that the book might be mistitled. It's worth a read for the other exacting historical facts.

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