From the award-winning author of Eliza Waite comes a gripping tale of adventure and survival based on the true story of the ill-fated Donner Party on their 2,200-mile trek on the Oregon–California Trail from 1846 to ’47.Nineteen-year-old Ada Weeks confronts danger and calamity along the hazard-filled journey to California. After a fateful decision that delays the overlanders more than a month, … overlanders more than a month, she—along with eighty-one other members of the Donner Party—finds herself stranded at Truckee Lake on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, stuck there for the entirety of a despairing, blizzard-filled winter. Forced to eat shoe leather and blankets to survive, will Ada be able to battle the elements—and her own demons—as she envisions a new life in California?
Researched with impeccable detail and filled with imagery as wide as the western prairie, Answer Creek blends history and hearsay in an unforgettable story of challenging the limits of human endurance and experiencing the triumphant power of love.
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Learned a lot about the trek West and the determined pioneers going to CA
The story of the Donner party’s devastating choice to take the “Hastings Shortcut” as they travel to California, and thus become tragically snowbound in the Sierra, is a well known part of California history. Answer Creek fleshes out the picture of that ill-fated wagon train, through the eyes and inner musings of a young woman, Ada Weeks, just 19 years old as her journey begins. Through her eyes we see and feel the unimaginable ordeal endured by the stalwart people who survived that terrible journey. Ada’s hopes and dreams, her short-lived love story, her grief in losing people who died along the way, her physical pain and the final struggle to surmount the Sierra make for a compelling story. Even knowing the horrific end met by so many, the reader must continue until the journey ends. Despite great sadness and unforgettable trauma, the survivors begin life again. The story of Ada Weeks’ life after the ordeal makes for a satisfying ending to this fine read.
I really enjoyed the story of the famous Donner party, as told by a 19-year-old girl. Highly recommended.
While dealing with the complications of life with COVID it was refreshing to read about someone else’s trials and tribulations. While fiction it is based on a lot of good research about the Donnor party going west.
This is an excellent fictional story based on the journey of the ill-fated Donner Party as they attempted to travel from Independence, MO to California on the Oregon-California Trail in 1846. I thank the author, Ashley E. Sweeney, for sharing a copy of her book with me.
The subject of pioneer emigration west during this time has always intrigued me. The tragic documentation of events that happened to this particular party always left me with a sick feeling. The author has done a wonderful job recreating the day to day reality that the individuals faced on this trek. She gives us an up close look at the women’s role on the journey and the tremendous strength it took for them to keep their family together and alive through conditions one might not consider survivable. She described the circumstances of the awful reality we have come to know in a delicate and respectful way.
I loved the way the author gave us a fictional young woman, Ada, to follow along on this arduous journey. Through her eyes we could interpret the events ourselves. I also enjoyed following her once she was safe in California. Her strength and fortitude made it clear that it wasn’t just the men who carved out a life in the west!
The only thing I didn’t quite like about the book, or understand, was the last chapter – present day. I just didn’t see the need. Maybe if the book had started present day and the story unfolded in letters and such and then followed up at the end in present day. Just my opinion.
Ashley E. Sweeney recreates a cross-continental journey that makes social distancing and being in lock-down at home feel luxurious. Answer Creek is about endurance and survival.
Set in 1846-7 on the California-Oregon trail, the novel tells the story of Ada who travels across the continent with the Donner-Reed party.
Yes, the infamous, ill-fated, starving cannibals of history.
After the tragic death of Ada’s parents, she was taken in by a Norwegian family who decide to move to California. Early in their journey, they impulsively drive their wagon into high water and are lost. Ada is next taken in by the Breen family.
Dyin’s gonna get us all in the end, one way or t’other, she thinks. But dyin’s not the hardest part. Livin’s a lot harder than dyin’ any day. ~from Answer Creek by Ashley E. Sweeney
Ada, one of the few fictional characters in the novel, has endured a lifetime of troubles over her brief nineteen years. As hardened as she is, she also has a tender heart, caring for children and women and giving medical care to the men.
The tale can rival any story of hardship I have read, from Polar explorers to concentration camps.
Staying home for two months? Running out of toilet paper, milk, and eggs?
This is nothing compared to living 124 days in an overcrowded cabin, buried in snow, starving, without heat or blankets or decent clothing.
Ada experiences the elements’ extremes and the daily pain of sore feet, bug bites, sunburn, chapped skin, frozen extremities, hunger, and painful loss.
Ada survives, but what kind of life can she have, linked as she is to the cannibalism of the Donner party? Luckily, a man named Riddle takes her to Answer Creek where she can heal and find a new life.
Sometimes, it’s all we can do to hold it together, she thinks. And over and through it all, we’ve got to forgive ourselves, and others, over and over and over again. ~from Answer Creek by Ashley E. Sweeney
I was swept into the novel by the beautiful, descriptive writing. Ada is a strong, appealing character who is easy to relate to. The novel gains momentum, from the early beauty of the plains and the impressive natural formations of the West to the privations and life-threatening brutality of mountain winter. It was a joy to read.
I received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did. The only reason being that I had read another book that is along the same lines as this one. The wagon train from Missouri to California. While this one is quite a bit different and delves into things that the other did not, both are great books. This book literally had me holding my breath in places.
What would you do to survive? To live or allow others to live. When you are surrounded by death everyday and have such limited choices. What would you do? I don’t think any of us knows unless we are faced with the desperate, horrific, unheard of, challenges that these people where faced with. Day in and day out they marched on. So many didn’t make it. Such heartache. So much death and despair. Then to choose to go a different route and be stranded for months on end with nothing to eat, nothing to keep you warm, nothing to assure you that things will get better. Life during these times were so awful yet many people chose to go west. To go where they thought life would be better. Life would be easier. Giving not thought to what they would face.
Ada was only nineteen years old and had already had a lifetime of loss. A lifetime of heartache. She didn’t need anymore yet here she was facing the worst life imaginable. Stranded on a snowed over mountain with people who became her family. Friends who she thought would last a lifetime. A love she looked forward to seeing through. She had no idea what lay ahead for her. For any of them. Ada wanted a life, a family.
This book is so well written you will feel like you are right there in this wagon train heading west. The tiredness, the dust, the sickness and sadness. Losing friends to such horrible accidents. You will feel the freezing cold of the many feet of snow covering the mountain. The hunger from not having anything to eat. The pain of losing more than you ever thought imaginable. This story brought out so many feelings for me. From some laughter and deep sadness. Emotions that will stay with me for a good while every time I think of what these people endured. This author did a wonderful job with the descriptions in this book. You will love the characters, cry with them, laugh with them and feel the emptiness they felt. The hopelessness that some felt. The desperation to live. Sometimes we do things we never ever thought possible just to survive. Don’t judge until you have walked a mile in their shoes.
Thank you so much to #NetGalley, #SheWritesPress, #AshleyESweeney for the ARC of this book. This is my own true review.
I gave it a big 5 stars and a very high recommendation.. Enjoy with an open mind and open heart.
“”Wagons, HO!” is the rallying cry at dawn, and again after nooning. “Gee, haw, walk on, steady now,” these, too, are trail words.” Oh, the hopes and dreams the pioneers who embarked on the Oregon-California trail had. The visions of the “promised land” that swirled in their minds as they packed their lives and treasured possessions into covered wagons. Along with all the possible foods and supplies they should need to make the 2,200 mile trek. They are aware of the dangers and hazards but there’s a future ahead and sheer determination will drive them through. Nothing could possibly deter them from their destination….then reality hits and the journey becomes one of sheer will to reach the California paradise. Not all who embark are fortunate enough to see the final journey’s end. This is the story of Ada Weeks and her grueling pilgrimage across the western frontier. The story of a fictional character placed in the middle of the true, ill-fated, Donner Party expedition. I remember learning about this infamous story in school and how horrible it sounded for people to have had to endure what they did. Ashley Sweeney took me back through time and brought me into the midst of the wagon train traveling west. She so descriptively writes the reality of how it was. I was struggling and suffering right along with Ada. Nothing in my prior imagination came close to how much endurance and strength this would have taken. She strips away the “romanticism” of pioneering and traveling across the plains and mountains of the unsettled western territory and brings the reality of it front and center. “Ada’s boots flap, slap, feet oozing with open sores. It’s one foot, then the other: six, twelve, eighteen miles per day through clouds of black gnats and dust.” “Walking, Walking, Walking”.
Ada is an amazing character. I really felt what she was going through. The trials of trail life with all it’s devastation, loss, death, and hopelessness. The feelings she went through being stranded in the Sierras…desperation, everyone for themselves kind of survival. The hunkering in a snowbound cabin with nothing to eat but scraps of shoe leather and blankets. The horror of what the Donner Party and the pioneers went through is so vividly described by Ms. Sweeney in the pages. My mind struggled to grasp just how desperate it was. Ada’s conscience and caring for the people touched my heart. Her desire to want to take care of the others was filled with compassion. The delirium of being so cold that she couldn’t even think made me feel like I wanted to lay down in the snow and just go to sleep. Ada brought so much to the true story and what it was like. Her character revealed more truth to what really happened than what the sensationalized news accounts were about. I learned so much about this event.
I truly had an experience reading this novel. One that I will keep in my heart for what the early pioneers went through to make their hopes and dreams happen. It also gave me an appreciation for how much detail and research Ms. Sweeney put into this novel. It’s one that is so well written. This book is a great reason why I love historical fiction. I was taken back into the setting and into a historical event as though I were living it myself. It’s an intense, extraordinary and riveting account of the events that took place on the Donner Party wagon train to California.
I want to thank Netgalley and Ms. Sweeney for the great opportunity and honor of reading this novel. It most certainly is a five star plus read for me. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my heartfelt own.
I remember first hearing about the Donner party in school during history class and being horrified at the lengths they went to simply survive. Answer Creek is a fictionalized account of the Donner party and one of the survivors. I love stories about pioneers and this book ranks up at the top for me. I loved reading Ada’s story! Ashley Sweeney has written a fascinating story of hope and resilience of the human spirit.