Book Review: Donner Dinner Party by Nathan Hale

Donner Dinner Party by Nathan Hale

Donner Dinner Party is another one of Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales, the series of graphic novels about American history's most dangerous and arduous moments. This volume is about a wagon train traveling to California in 1846. The group is the infamous Donner Party, who take an ill-advised short cut through modern-day Utah and wind up trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountain range for the winter. The group sets up camp in hopes of rescue but slowly die off. In desperation, the survivors begin eating the dead. While none of the cannibalism is shown in the book, it doesn't gloss over the fact either. At one point, the narrator character (American spy Nathan Hale) tells the reader to jump ahead a few pages to skip the worst of what happens. I didn't skip ahead. The tale is very harrowing and exciting, with plenty of tasteful jokes thrown in to lighten the grim mood of the story.

This book is well-researched (it includes a bibliography and a list of the minor changes and inventions for comic effect). The black and white drawings with green tinting helps lessen the horror of the occasionally bloody scenes. Highly recommended for young and old if you are interested in this historical event and don't know much about it!