Last night I finally finished The Children's Blizzard. I typically don't read things like this... it's probably as close to horror as I'll go. It took me about 2 or 3 months to read it... reading a chapter or two once a week.
But I am posting about it here for those who are putting their hero/heroine in a blizzard. This book describes what it is like to perfection. It was such a sad story. It's a true story... but the author wrote it "like a thriller." This blizzard killed hundreds of people and many of them children caught in the blizzard on their way home from school.
I never read anything like this. Mr. Laskin did his research... he described the children's struggle in the blizzard and then what it was like for them to die. I found myself praying for the people in this story.... it may have happened in 1888 and this story is Mr. Laskin's retelling but he based his story on real people, and got the accounts from diaries, newspaper articles, things like this. This really happened.
It makes a person appreciate the advancements made in weather prediction. This was also another element of the story... the weather prediction service run by the military screwed up. They didn't have the technology they have today... but because of one reason or another... they didn't warn the people fast enough even though the signs were there. Not that it would have necessarily helped because it wasn't like the people working their farms had a radio or tv to catch the news of the coming weather.
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