Publication Date: January 21, 2025
White Hell tells the story of Peter ‘Peanuts’ McEwan, a white man pioneering west to California in 1846, who befriends an escaped slave named Violet and fights to protect her from the bigotry of his fellow travelers, and ultimately, from being sacrificed and cannibalized when their journey is halted by the mother of all snowstorms.
White Hell is loosely based on the infamous Donner Party Disaster, but author Sean Tyler draws on several genres-the novel is, at once, a romance, a western, a racial injustice drama, and, finally, a horrific freefall into cannibalism that seamlessly flows into one hell of an epic tale.
In the early 19th century, danger stalked those seeking to travel across the country to California. Wagon trains were often attacked by marauding Indians or decimated by the harsh travel conditions.
In White Hell, author Sean Tyler takes readers back to 1847 to what became known as the “McEwan Party Disaster” with details pulled from a diary.
Loosely based on the real-life Donner Party, the story is written from the perspective of Peter McEwan, the younger brother of the wagon master. In it, a group of 35 travelers comes across a broken down wagon with five ex-slaves and reluctantly helps them.
In a time period where racial equality is practically nonexistent, Peter insists that his brother allow the ex-slaves to travel with them, in spite of grumbling amongst the travelers. As the story develops, Peter falls for Violet, one of the black women.
If you are familiar with history, then you’ve no doubt heard the horrifying tales of the Donner Party, in which a group of travelers stranded by snow resorted to cannibalism to survive. In this instance, the McEwan group had been following notes left by their invisible tour guide, Gaylord Hightower, regarding shortcuts along the way. Unfortunately, those shortcuts lead to them getting stranded and hungry while in the Sierras.
While the story itself could use a solid round of editing to clean up some pesky mistakes, the end result of White Hell is a haunting tale illustrating how desperation can bring out a human’s animalistic tendencies.
Sean Tyler is a novelist, journalist, freedom fighter, U.S. Coast Guard vet, and father of two. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Youngstown State University in Ohio. In order to fully immerse himself in the subject matter of White Hell, Tyler spent a winter in a log cabin along the shores of Donner Lake, California, where deathly starving members of the Donner Party feasted on human flesh some 175 years ago. Tyler currently lives in a fortified compound near ‘The Strip’ in Las Vegas, Nevada.
