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The Oregon Trail Diary of Willa Porter
“The Oregon Trail Diary of Willa Porter” is a collection of diary entries from Willa Porter’s journey west with her family, into territory which gets stranger and stranger.
At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.
At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.
32 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 6, 2013
5 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
About the author
Andy Marino
32 books258 followersAndy Marino was born in upstate New York, spent half his life in New York City, and now lives in the Hudson Valley. He is the author of seven novels for young readers, most recently THE PLOT TO KILL HITLER trilogy.
THE SEVEN VISITATIONS OF SYDNEY BURGESS is his first novel for adults.
THE SEVEN VISITATIONS OF SYDNEY BURGESS is his first novel for adults.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 11, 2020
this is a short story that puts forth an important question: yes, the oregon trail was horrible, but was it horrible enough??
and this version is much worse. it's a destiny you wouldn't wanna manifest.
it is impressive for managing to develop such a wide arc in such a short story, and in a story that is comprised solely of diary entries. not only do we get a story arc that escalates quickly into ineffable terror, but we also get a broad character arc, as our young diarist is changed by what she and her fellow travelers endure.
it's a very surreal tale, without a firm explanation for the events, but no less enjoyable for its ambiguity. some of the imagery reminded me of julianna baggott's "pure" series, in an unexpectedly chilling development.
free tor shorts are continuing to rock my world.
and off-topic, but necessary, when i was looking for that oregon trail image, i found this:
NOOOOOOOO!
read it for yourself here:
http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/11/th...
come to my blog!
August 24, 2014
When Karen mentioned ineffable terror I probably should have got and picked a different short story to read. The ineffable is a tough sell for me, there are books where I have enjoyed it usually doesn't do much for me.
So forgive my two star ratings, it's all about me and not the book, which someday in the future when maybe someone tells me what an awful/dumb/ignorant/whatever person I am because I rated the story on my own reaction and not with some ineffable objectivity which my accuser is perfectly attuned to, because they are a better/smarter/wiser/just more perfect person than I am I will have to agree. You are better than I am. Good for you!
If you'd like to read about the Oregon Trail and you like nameless terror then I'd say, read this right now!! You'll probably love it. And then you can go search out some websites that allow you to play the 1980's version of video game, and you can wonder how anyone thought the game was any fun since it seems like it is just an exercise in fatalism.
I spent, maybe an hour trying to play it and I quickly realized that I'm either really fucking dumb (see paragraph two) or else the game is almost impossible to play successfully. Was the game meant to show us how difficult life on the Oregon Trail was? Or was it a more subtle lesson us soon to be slacker/generation x losers were being taught that chasing a dream is probably going to get your drowned/killed by raiders/death by dysentery/death by broken leg/death by starvation/robbed and then left for dead. So kids it's better to just stay home, do nothing and because in the end you are just going to die anyway.
So forgive my two star ratings, it's all about me and not the book, which someday in the future when maybe someone tells me what an awful/dumb/ignorant/whatever person I am because I rated the story on my own reaction and not with some ineffable objectivity which my accuser is perfectly attuned to, because they are a better/smarter/wiser/just more perfect person than I am I will have to agree. You are better than I am. Good for you!
If you'd like to read about the Oregon Trail and you like nameless terror then I'd say, read this right now!! You'll probably love it. And then you can go search out some websites that allow you to play the 1980's version of video game, and you can wonder how anyone thought the game was any fun since it seems like it is just an exercise in fatalism.
I spent, maybe an hour trying to play it and I quickly realized that I'm either really fucking dumb (see paragraph two) or else the game is almost impossible to play successfully. Was the game meant to show us how difficult life on the Oregon Trail was? Or was it a more subtle lesson us soon to be slacker/generation x losers were being taught that chasing a dream is probably going to get your drowned/killed by raiders/death by dysentery/death by broken leg/death by starvation/robbed and then left for dead. So kids it's better to just stay home, do nothing and because in the end you are just going to die anyway.
March 28, 2021
Overnight we have become a city of wagons stuck in the mud. The buffalo have begun to venture close. They are suffering from some sickness that we could not see from a distance. Staggering like fat hairy drunkards on all fours, they mill about the edge of our stalled party. Hundreds of them turning this way and that, butting heads in a swarm, their movements more like bees than lumbering beasts.
The Oregon Trail Diary of Willa Porter by author Andy Marino is a collection of diary entries from Willa Porter’s journey with her family, into territory which gets stranger and stranger.
With mom in a sanatorium and dad in jail, Willa travels West with her aunt, uncle and cousin to Willamette Valley to homestead. Through Willa’s colorful and humorous diary entries we get a good slice of life on the trail. Then the rains come and when something evil begins to sprout the mood begins to change. Eep!
A perfect little standalone with a mysterious happening that’s never expanded upon.
Themes: May-June 1846, Nebraska, on the trail, taking up smoking to keep the stench of the unwashed at bay, Chimney Rock, unrelenting rain, vines, oh shit.
4 Stars
The Oregon Trail Diary of Willa Porter by author Andy Marino is a collection of diary entries from Willa Porter’s journey with her family, into territory which gets stranger and stranger.
With mom in a sanatorium and dad in jail, Willa travels West with her aunt, uncle and cousin to Willamette Valley to homestead. Through Willa’s colorful and humorous diary entries we get a good slice of life on the trail. Then the rains come and when something evil begins to sprout the mood begins to change. Eep!
A perfect little standalone with a mysterious happening that’s never expanded upon.
Themes: May-June 1846, Nebraska, on the trail, taking up smoking to keep the stench of the unwashed at bay, Chimney Rock, unrelenting rain, vines, oh shit.
4 Stars
February 26, 2018
An interesting story. More odd than not. Not a particularly exciting read.
November 10, 2013
My Take
It’s a brilliant look inside the mind of an angry teen when this story starts in May 1, 1846 with the wagon train that Willa’s uncle, aunt, and cousin have joined. And it’s horrifying...absolutely horrifying and Marino wrote it so well that I can’t tell what is truth and what is fiction. What was truly horrifying was how easily I could see this happening. I appreciate even more the horrors that the pioneers had to face. That sense of abandonment, the ills…
Even if I had wanted to stop, I don’t think I could have.
The Story
It’s just a short blip in their journey by wagon train to the Willamette Valley in Oregon. A peep inside Willa Porter’s agonies and thoughts now that her parents are gone.
The Characters
Willa Porter is a young teen tossed into an unwanted guardianship due to her parents’ disgrace.
Barkface is Uncle John, a banker from St. Louis, while Horseface is Aunt Martha, and Sarah Jane, Willa’s cousin, is Pinchface obsessed with her dolls and the boys
she attracts.
Pastor Kemple is obsessed with his Bibles.
The Cover
The cover is perfect as the ultimate horror of this story as human blends into buffalo on these days on The Oregon Trail Diary of Willa Porter.
It’s a brilliant look inside the mind of an angry teen when this story starts in May 1, 1846 with the wagon train that Willa’s uncle, aunt, and cousin have joined. And it’s horrifying...absolutely horrifying and Marino wrote it so well that I can’t tell what is truth and what is fiction. What was truly horrifying was how easily I could see this happening. I appreciate even more the horrors that the pioneers had to face. That sense of abandonment, the ills…
Even if I had wanted to stop, I don’t think I could have.
The Story
It’s just a short blip in their journey by wagon train to the Willamette Valley in Oregon. A peep inside Willa Porter’s agonies and thoughts now that her parents are gone.
The Characters
Willa Porter is a young teen tossed into an unwanted guardianship due to her parents’ disgrace.
Barkface is Uncle John, a banker from St. Louis, while Horseface is Aunt Martha, and Sarah Jane, Willa’s cousin, is Pinchface obsessed with her dolls and the boys
she attracts.
Pastor Kemple is obsessed with his Bibles.
The Cover
The cover is perfect as the ultimate horror of this story as human blends into buffalo on these days on The Oregon Trail Diary of Willa Porter.
May 27, 2019
I loved this creepy tale set on the Oregon Trail, told in journal format by Willa Porter, who starts her journey as a teen-aged brat but ends as something entirely different, something that's been warped by the strange, unrelenting rain. This was strange and creepy and I definitely want to read it again.
October 1, 2020
Excellent spooky story for the season! I really enjoyed this. 4.5 🌟
August 11, 2025
Willa Porter's diary reveals what happened to the trail party during the storm.
A well written and engaging piece, which teases the horror of Marino's story in small, but telling, disclosures.
A well written and engaging piece, which teases the horror of Marino's story in small, but telling, disclosures.
November 29, 2013
Creepy story told as a diary (obviously) of a journey along the Oregon Trail. Narrator starts as a bratty teen but sobers as shit happens.
June 13, 2020
I gave it a 4 because it certainly held my attention so that I didn’t stop until I finished, but it was really weird too. I don’t usually like short stories, but that was worth reading for its strangeness.
August 21, 2018
Frightening
What a horrible journey was taken by a young girl who's mind seem to be failing under the strain. The rain came and a nightmare of misfortune followed.
What a horrible journey was taken by a young girl who's mind seem to be failing under the strain. The rain came and a nightmare of misfortune followed.
June 10, 2019
Disturbing.
December 31, 2020
Meh
Interesting concept for a story, but it never really went anywhere. I know these shorts are limiting, but I expected more I guess.
Interesting concept for a story, but it never really went anywhere. I know these shorts are limiting, but I expected more I guess.
March 8, 2017
**3.5 stars.**
A chilling tale that would have been made more satisfying by offering *some* kind of explanation for the events taking place. The ending comes much too soon and smacks of a missed opportunity, providing the reader with no sense of closure and no insight into why these terrible things were happening to Willa and her extended family.
The writing is beautiful. But it isn't enough to make up for the lack of resolution.
A chilling tale that would have been made more satisfying by offering *some* kind of explanation for the events taking place. The ending comes much too soon and smacks of a missed opportunity, providing the reader with no sense of closure and no insight into why these terrible things were happening to Willa and her extended family.
The writing is beautiful. But it isn't enough to make up for the lack of resolution.
April 17, 2016
That was deliciously creepy! Marino's tale is a horrific take on the settler journey across the US, where rain and magic twine together to do unnerving, terrifying things to the bodies of those wandering through... This story will stick with you and you'll never look at the Oregon Trail game the same way...
September 10, 2016
It was cool, and creepy. I enjoyed seeing Willa mature throughout this short story. Can't say I really understand what this story was all about but it was definitely interesting.
August 26, 2014
A short story about a wagon train headed to Oregon that falls victim to a strange rain.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews