After hearing a lot of buzz around Damnation Spring, I was really excited to receive a review copy on NetGalley. This book did not disappoint. Damnation Spring is set in a logging town in the Pacific Northwest during the late 1970’s. Rich’s family have worked as loggers in the Redwood forest for generations. Rich has a plan to improve things for his family. Unfortunately, after risking a lot to make his dreams come true, a series of problems including clashes with environmentalists, big business, and government, mudslides, and dark mysteries.

While Rich wants to provide monetarily with his family, his wife Colleen is struggling with the idea she may not be able to grow their family with a second child. After enduring a series of miscarriages herself, Colleen, an amateur midwife, notices a pattern of miscarriages and birth defects among women in the area. A friend from her past helps make the connection that an herbicide used by the logging companies may be harming the town’s health.

Damnation Spring is a long novel with a lot of details. Despite the length, the format of alternating perspectives with short chapters makes it feel like a fast read. This novel does a great job of showing the monetary, health, and environmental effects that big businesses can cause.

I really loved the premise of this book and the time period/location in the PNW are all things that made me request this one. I actually put this one down and came back to it several times because I just couldn’t seem to get invested. The writing is decent, a bit overly descriptive at times for me, but I just couldn’t make it stick. I think other readers will enjoy this one and I’ll definitely check out another from this authors.

Thank you to the publisher for my review copy. All opinions are my own.

Hmmmmmm. I am conflicted on this title. Let's just go ahead and ramble shall we? This one was not for me. I can't say why exactly. The writing was impeccable. The atmosphere...very well done. I tried many different ways and many different times to no success. I have put this title down.

I liked this book but I didn't love this book. The story was interesting which is what kept me reading to the end but it was very long. It is about the logging industry and used a lot of logging terms that I did not understand so I'm sure that didn't help. I also wasn't thrilled with how the characters ended up. But it was an interesting read which is why I kept going. The author keeps you invested in the characters lives and you find yourself cheering them on.

Damnation Springs nails a realistic and heartfelt depiction of a family, but misses the mark when telling a well rounded story. It is slow paced and some of the writing is hard to follow. There is a lot going on and no one focal point.

This book had great potential for me but unfortunately had so much logging jargon that I found it difficulty to enjoy. If you love descriptive writing, which definitely did add to the experience of the book, then you may love this one.

I thought this would be a book that I wouldn't be able to put down. Personally, I found it to be a bit slow and I wasn't running to constantly pick it up to see what would happen next.

This is a book about a logging community in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970's. Rich is a fourth generation logger and married to his wife Colleen. Rich and Colleen have one son, and Colleen desperately wants another child after experiencing multiple miscarriages throughout their marriage. Many of the women in the community are also experiencing heartbreaking losses. Is it coincidence or is there something more going on in the community to be causing this? Could it be the herbicides that are sprayed consistently in the community? Loggers and environmentalists face off, the environmentalists want the trees saved while the loggers want to make their living. Will they eventually get down to the facts of what is causing so many issues in Damnation Grove?

I am interested in most books that are related to the impending environmental crisis, especially those set where I live: California. The premise was interesting - a story of an intimate, small family (a couple!), a tight knit community, but ultimately it got too technical with the loggers vs. environmentalists for me to engage adequately. With such an intriguing plot and little to grasp onto in the storytelling, I felt like I had swiped right on the wrong tinder date. Still, the technical writing was robust and is impressive as a debut novel.

Damnation Spring was an engaging story about a Pacific Northwest Logging Town. It is a novel that will move you, pull at your heart strings, and make you think about the choices one makes in life. It was a window into a community I knew little about, but came to care deeply about.

Rich Gunderson is from generations that owned land in Klamath. He meets and marries Colleen who he loves deeply. They have a son, Chub who both adore and are so grateful for. Sadly, Colleen has had many miscarriages and the most recent was particularly devastating. These are such honest and decent people.

Conflicts arise when the land that Rich and the men in his community who work as loggers starts to come into question. Environmentalists, who really don’t have a stake in the area show up to protest. Worst of all, the wealthy corporate owner that everyone works for is spraying toxic chemicals. This starts to pit the close knit families against one another. Colleen also works as a midwife and has seen many other women deliver still born babies. There are incidents of developmental delays in children, people getting cancer, and other health problems occurring. Could the EPA approved chemicals being sprayed be wrecking devastating havoc on this community’s lives? Colleen starts to really look into this, but Rich wants her to stop since it jeopardizes his and his colleagues ability to work. This strain may be too much for the Gunderson’s marriage to endure.

I just got swept up in the horrific attitude displayed toward people when money has so much power. It is unfair and there is a complete lack of justice, yet it continues. This shown such a strong light on the power of family and love to persevere through hardship. It was beautifully written and the stories of these families is one that will stay with me. Excellent Novel that will change the way you think.

Thank you NetGalley, Ash Davidson, and Scribner for granting me a copy of this wonderful book. I appreciate it so much.

This was a very interesting story but I did get a little bogged down in all of the many logging details. I liked the premise of the plot, the conflict of the town and the conflict between Colleen and Rich. It was well written.
Many thanks to Scribner and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I very much enjoyed this story. It was wonderfully written. I look forward to the author’s next book!

Damnation Spring is a beautiful slow burn of a novel. Davidson has created a world that is simple but as the book goes on, you become invested in it. Rich and Colleen’s story is realistic and shows the good and bad of living in a logging community and of marriage. I would recommend this for fans of Kristen Hannah.

“𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘸𝘩𝘺.”

𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖: rich, colleen, and chub live in a logging community that is experiencing challenges. their use of herbicides in the field could potentially be the link of the many infertility issues & birth defects of the community.

𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒: this book was good. the characters were extremely well developed, the story was really beautiful. i loved the sense of community in the book in the sense that families living this type of lifestyle really do rely on their neighbors, friends & family to get through. i think though that i struggled a bit with the length of the book as well as with the heavy logging terminology. other then that i was deeply moved by colleen’s story especially. my heart just broke for her over and over again and honestly the ending truly did me in. i felt like i knew colleen and even chub so well that i felt every ounce of pain they felt at the end. i think if you’re someone who can handle a very slow placed book and someone that loves character development you should definitely give this one a try. i think it’s totally worth the time.

𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆: i liked it!

thank you to scribner, netgalley and ash davidson for a copy of this arc in exchange for an honest review!

I've been on a "historical fiction" kick lately--basically anything that takes place from 1970-2000ish, where everything is reasonably modern (cars, house phones) but without cell phones and social media, so this was perfect for me right now. I love that disorienting feeling when I'm reading a book like this and main character, a man in his fifties, is talking about about his father....and I realize that father was born in the 1800's. I also enjoyed the small logging town--this books take place in 1977, right as the industry and the way of life for this California town in coming to a close and it is fascinating to watch people fight against their own environmental interests, particularly in regards to the weed killing sprays.

It's a good book, with a great setting, however...it's too long. It drags hard in places. I'm fine letting my eyes skim over some of the technical logging stuff, but there were some darlings that needed to be killed here. It's not supposed to be a plot-driven book (definitely read it for the slice-of-life moments, not any exciting twists), but all of the foreshadowing is overdone, and it ends with an unnecessary attempt at drama/tear jerking that I could have done without. I could have forgiven all of this and it probably would have been a 4 star if it had been shorter--an unsatisfying ending hurts less when I've got less time invested.

*eARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was very hopeful going into this, as it promised the community feeling, family story with heart but also weight that I was looking for. Unfortunately, I thought this story was bogged down by an overload of logging details and description, that did little for the story itself. Not my favorite, but also not horrible.

Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson
In Damnation Spring, we are in 1977 with Colleen and Rich and their young son, Chub. They live on the California coast in a logging town that for decades, the town has survived on timber. Desperately wanting to expand her family, Colleen starts to believe that the herbicides used are the cause of her miscarriages as do several other women in town. Sounds like a great atmospheric novel with a bit of Erin Brockovich tossed in. Unfortunately, I found this book to be extremely slow moving. There is an overabundance of technical terms and logging slang and descriptions. I found myself drifting off and setting this down more often than not. The premise was good but the execution, not so much.
Thank you Netgalley for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my review.

This is a engrossing story of life in the 1970s logging community on the northwest coast of america through the eyes of three people: Colleen, RIch and Chubb (Graham) - a mom, dad and child. The story alternates between their perspectives and discusses a time in history where pesticides were being heavily used without concern for their toxicity. It is a beautifully written story that coneveys the emotional and financial struggles of this family to live in a world that is slowly killing them, their livestock and poisinging their food and water sources. Each character is detailed to the right amount so you connect and empathize deeply. I very much enjoyed this work and look forward to more from this author.

Damnation Spring

This immersive crossroads of historical and literary fictions takes a hard look at logging in the 1970s on the California coast.

While I was eager to learn more about life for those in the timber trade, I was shocked by how much this story spoke to me as a mother. The use of chemicals by the local logging chemical is causing women in the area to miscarry or give birth to children with, often fatal, defects. It is shocking, it is heartbreaking, but it is handled beautiful by author Ash Davidson.

I loved the change in perspective. Both Rich and Colleen are flawed but wonderful characters. Their issues are so much bigger than them but strangely relatable at the same time.

Overall, a beautiful story that I feel lucky to have read. The only thing that makes it not a perfect 5 star read was the ending. Oof. I don’t mind killing off a main character but it seemed like almost an afterthought. Either way, I have and would recommend Damnation Spring to everyone!

Set in the late 1970s, an aging logger Rich and younger wife Colleen have a young son nicknamed Chub, they struggle to get by as money is always tight. Colleen is obsessed with having another child, distraught over it and she serves as a mid-wife to the small logging community, yet whenever she is around a pregnant woman, she feels anguish and longing. She lost many herself, eight all told, with the last one being the most difficult for her and Rich. He shuns her sexually now, not wanting her to become pregnant again.

Colleen’s ex-boyfriend turns up, a scientist who’s back to help out with his mom who has cancer. He starts talking about chemicals in the water, all the spraying that is done to keep down the “weed” trees, the damage it does to animals, to people. His presence brings up questions for everyone.

The book felt belabored at times. There was too much daily detail and not enough thrust of a plot. We have short chapters with Chub’s viewpoint that don’t add very much to the story other than length. When the plot starts moving forward it then falters and stalls with more characters and situations that don’t add to the overall arch of the story. The end of the book throws in some drama that seemed unnecessary and didn’t save the book for me at all.

Reading this book was quite impactful, my husband also choosing to read it after I finished. The main characters, Rich and Coleen Gunderson’s awakening to the mystery behind so many losses and suffering in their California logging town was heartbreaking. It takes its toll on their marriage, and affects the relationships with their family, friends, and coworkers. This is such an important, well-written debut about our environment. A must read!