I really enjoyed this book. Mr. Olsen did a wonderful job of combining the scientific information about the eruption with the more personal stories of those who died in the eruption and the survivors. The combination of the two work together to show just how powerful the Earth can be and how much destruction can happen in an instant.

The re-telling of the victims' and survivors' stories is just phenomenal. The ingenuity and perseverance of the survivors was amazing and a wonderful example of the human spirit.

The only complaint I have about the book is that two separate times, the author takes us on a tangent and neither really needed to be included in the book. They didn't add to the story line and in fact, their inclusion detracted from the story line. The first was the history of the WeyerHaeuser Logging Company and the family behind it. The second was a shorter tangent about Griffon Pinchot, who helped establish the national forestry services we have today. Both tangents are interesting on their own, but their inclusion in this book was definitely not the right decision.

All in all, I really enjoyed the book and I will definitely be reading it more than once in order to help all the scientific information sink into my brain.

** I received a free e-book of this title from NetGalley in exchange for my fair and honest review. All opinions are my own. ** ( )

I was living in Los Angeles in the 1980's when this eruption occurred. It was an amazing event to hear about. Now we live in Oregon and have seen the road to see Mt St Helens in Washington. After reading this book, we will make a special trip to visit the area, as long as the volcano is dormant! I was very surprised to learn the history of the Forest Service and the development of their policies, to not look out for the forest resources but how to sell them off to the highest bidders, the logging companies. This whole situation has had a profound impact on the quality of live here in the Northwest. The forest service will not change their ways without legislation, very sad. All of the old growth trees that were cut down only for profit shows now how our consciousness has changed, hopefully for the better. But not for the long run with the Forest Service at the wheel. ( )

Listened to the audio book. I was too young to really remember/understand what was going on when Mount St Helens erupted. This was a great account with lots of research into the history of logging, politics, and people. The author did a good job of making you feel connected to the people and situation. ( )

The organization could have been better; it jumped around. It also included political commentary which felt heavy handed. The history of Weyerhaeuser was interesting but not particularly relevant to the eruption. I would have preferred more science. ( )

Having grown up in the Northwest, I found all the background history to be tedious, and at times, was wondering if it had been lifted straight from Schwantes (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/606039.The_Pacific_Northwest) and Egan (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6452538-the-big-burn?ac=1&from_search=true). I liked learning more about the lives of the folks that perished, but I downright disliked the cold descriptions of their deaths and the factual way the deaths were presented - the facts are not known and we can only speculate, yet the author presented last moments as strict fact and that somehow managed to dehumanize these unlucky people. ( )