“loosely” is key here. I’m looking for a fictional horror novel that uses ideas from the Donner Party. I enjoyed Little Heaven which was loosely based on Heavens Gate(I think? I could be wrong, it’s been a minute since I read it), and am now on the hunt for something similar to that but different historical background.
by charliemusicthings
3 Comments
I am looking for 1 too, and my library has nothing!
I haven’t read it, but that’s the premise behind **Alma Katsu**’s novel _The Hunger_, that there was something of a supernatural element influencing things. There’s also _The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep: Voices from the Donner Party_ by **Allan Wolf**, a YA poetic retelling which is not exactly a horror, but that also presents Hunger as one of the narrating voices. Both are directly based upon, so YMMV if you wanted something with more distance.
Maybe possibly _Where the Dead Wait_ by **Ally Wilkes**. It’s a gothic that’s more about failed Arctic expeditions, but there’s some overlaps in the sort of stuff that can happen when isolated groups are snowbound far away from civilization with dwindling resources and little hope of rescue (this was apparently a not-uncommon risk during the heyday of Arctic exploration, and there are a few other novels which at least touch upon the matter, though not necessarily as genre horror), which apparently provides the backstory for the MC, which comes back to haunt him in the present day. The author is a Bram Stoker Award nominee for a previous Antarctic horror novel also about an isolated group.
Hope this helps!
Old Bones by Lee Preston & Douglas Child (adventure/mystery genres, not horror.)