Reviews: The Dark Side of Hunger Mountain
Reviews are in for The Dark Side of Hunger Mountain (available on Substack and in book/eBook formats) from readers in 38 countries including: Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Macedonia, Mexico, Namibia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, the Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam.
Here are links to podcasts discussing the book and I hope you enjoy the story.
READERS’ REVIEWS of THE DARK SIDE OF HUNGER MOUNTAIN:
•… compelling, deeply dramatic, and reminiscent of novels when they meant something.
•… Full of intriguing plot twists and juicy information vital to understanding what and why things are happening the way they are…
•… I couldn’t stop! I actually took the whole day off yesterday and read the book online.
•… one of the best books I’ve ever read.
•… a staggering achievement of storytelling.
•… easily one of the most electrifying and enlightening books I have ever read.
•… riveting … a story that needed to be told … an outstanding read and a valuable contribution … a timeless book … remarkable … a fascinating tale … engrossing … one hell of a novel … poignant … beautifully written …
•… a totally awesome book that I couldn’t put down! I still think about those characters.
•… The characters kept me interested and the story made me wonder if it was really fiction.
•… I greatly appreciate the book … I like the characters and their journeys, and the plot kept it all moving at a nice clip. I really enjoyed reading it beyond even how important the message is.
•… The novel moves well while instructing the reader. GREAT!
•… the prose is captivating.
•… I loved the “Hunger Mountain” book. Very well researched! Drew me in right away.
•… a literary ride readers will grab onto with characters we can identify with and care about. I highly recommend this entertaining, yet educational, heavily researched novel.
•… an eye opening exposition of the vile things effecting every aspect of our lives.
•… a great book, an exciting and satisfying read, and profoundly engaged with the real world.
•… Your depth of knowledge of the dark under belly of our world where we are merely puppets both educated and terrified me. Thank You for your brilliance!!
•… Millions of people around the world will relate to this book, especially to the characters as they face authentic challenges detailed so well by the author.
•… An excellent book weaving fiction and fact together seamlessly. Not only a good read but it joins up a lot of dots in the matrix.
•… a seriously interesting novel, a fast-moving story with strong characters and real human drama. Highly recommend.
•… it's a moving, inspiring and well-told tale of human bravery, faith and love that you won't soon forget.
Full reviews follow:
ELIZABETH NICKSON, ABSURDISTAN: T. H. PLATT is one of the most knowledgeable people about the catastrophe wrought in rural regions all over the world …and has written a novel which painlessly describes what has been going on. …The Dark Side of Hunger Mountain is both an escape into a parallel world, and confers knowledge you will find nowhere else. You will come out of it fully enlightened about one of the battlefields of the modern era. I highly recommend it. It is compelling, deeply dramatic, and reminiscent of novels when they meant something. The Dark Side of Hunger Mountain is a great book, an exciting and satisfying read, and profoundly engaged with the real world.
JIM PETERSEN, EVERGREEN MAGAZINE: The Dark Side of Hunger Mountain is easily one of the most electrifying and enlightening books I have ever read. [The] story takes the reader around the world and into the halls of power. It has everything: intrigue, romance, sex, murder, treachery, betrayal and an inside look at the billionaire cult aspiring to control every acre of land on earth. … Although T.H. Platt’s book is fictional, it is a gripping tale brimming with truth, reflecting an enormous amount of research and thought. It is one helluva story, very well told… SPOILER ALERT if you read more of this review...
PITCHFORK PAPERS: An outstanding read and a valuable contribution to understanding the devious and destructive complexity of environmental regulation, lawfare and the people and organisations financing the despicable movement. Shout out to elizabeth nickson for introducing me to @T.H. Platt.
QUINCY: I read the first three chapters of the Dark Side Of Hunger Mountain by T.H. PLATT on Elizabeth Nickson’s Substack and I couldn’t stop! I actually took the whole day off yesterday and read the book online. I don’t know if I’ve ever done that before. I almost always just buy print books and sort of linger over the great ones, reluctant to finish and end the joyful experience. Like mature lovemaking. But yesterday was definitely a teenage rush, to continue the analogy. TH has literally written one of the best books I’ve ever read. Full of intriguing plot twists and juicy information vital to understanding what and why things are happening the way they are, this summer of 2024. I will be ordering the printed copy for a more leisurely re-read and for all the incredible who-what-when-where-why research information the book is cleverly packed full of.
KAYTLYN: I too had not read a digital book and stopped everything to read this! Teenage rush indeed lol! I really appreciated this read. Good writing. Good story. I learned a lot!
JEN: It was so riveting that I ended up burning through it in less than a day. Couldn't stop reading. That hasn't happened in awhile. My husband and son were a bit irked at the “go feed yourselves” instructions.
JOHN: Like I didn't have enough to read already! This one sucked me in with the first paragraph & I've been reading pretty much to the exclusion of everything else ever since. Thanks a whole hell of a lot—which I mean both ironically and even more sincerely.
WGOH: I’m impressed that you could weave the globalist’s dark agenda into a fun action-packed story! When I tell my family what the globalists are up to, their eyes just glaze over. Wish I had your talent with story telling! One of the chapters near the end is real and raw, and probably more graphic than some friends could handle, but I recommend it for grown ups! 🤓
JACKIE HEYNEMAN: Your book is remarkable. The research you must have done for this story is unfathomable. l am totally blown away with the volume of work it has to have been to write this story. Keep up the great work. I love the book.
RICK ELKIN: It's a good read, especially if you live in California where fire terrorism is so common. Beyond that the prose is captivating.
TONY: Environmentalism hiding the world’s biggest land grab ever. Its happening right under our noses. An excellent book weaving fiction and fact together seamlessly. Not only a good read but it joins up a lot of dots in the matrix. Pleasing to see that several of the books mentioned in it are already on my bookshelf, and they add more strands to the thread.
JIM STEELE: In The Dark side of Hunger Mountain, T.H. PLATT weaves a fascinating tale of the wisdom, the struggles and the heartaches of people in a small town that has depended on small lumber businesses for generations. This engrossing fictional tale accurately reveals the web of conflicting regulations and economic forces that have conspired to destroy the town’s livelihood. Having been an ecological researcher in California’s northern Sierra Nevada for 30 years, I am very impressed with Platt’s knowledge of forest issues, such as those driven by concerns for the Spotted Owl’s habitat loss and misguided policies to protect forests. It’s the small landowners whose livelihood depends on rejuvenating their privately owned forests, that have an intimate understanding of how to best manage the forests. Similarly, I am reminded how it was America’s duck hunters and their personal interest that was the driving force that saved America’s remaining wetlands and marshes, 50% of which had been lost to real estate and agricultural interests.
As Platt reveals, politicians and environmental activists without such intimate knowledge, have increasingly pushed regulations to protect forests that counterintuitively made forests more vulnerable. Such policies have allowed fire fuels to accumulate resulting in forest fires that burn hotter and are more destructive. Attempts to protect forest growth with herbicides and pesticides too often disturbed critical ecosystems on which forest re-growth depends. Paradoxically, as misguided state and federal regulations undermined small loggers, forcing them to sell their land, real estate and global economic interests step in and buy up their property, further reducing the forests best caretakers and placing control of our forests in the hands of distant business interests.
Ironically, it was also government efforts to grow more trees that allowed the eastern Barred Owl to migrate across the Great Plains and into western forests and threaten the Spotted Owl. In the 1930s and 40s, Prairie States Forestry Project and Civilian Conservation Corps Forestry Projects planted an estimated 3 billion trees nationwide. Now to save the Spotted Owl, the government’s plan is to kill off thousands of Barred Owls.
The Dark side of Hunger Mountain explores the many different forces affecting forest management, providing us with a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t. Hopefully it will inspire America to evolve to a place where sound economics and a vibrant environment co-exist, led by the small landowners and their intimate knowledge of their surroundings.
CHRISS: I loved the “Hunger Mountain” book. Very well researched! Drew me in right away. It is really sad how manipulated everyone is and how many humans have to suffer for their arrogance and market capture. If only people knew they must fight back to have a better future
THERESA: I greatly appreciate the book for its deep dive into the corrupt and hateful forces acting in the name of climate change but against the average American citizen and the health of the land. I have recommended it to several friends. It’s also a good read, you know just as a novel. I like the characters and their journeys, and the plot kept it all moving at a nice clip. I really enjoyed reading it beyond even how important the message is.
STEPHEN: I read it through E. Nickson’s Substack. I knew if it was vetted by her it had to be worth my time. What's fascinating is the in-text video links and those to real-world substantive writing/documents on subjects touched upon in in the book. I especially liked links to how TPTB cover up their evil through govt and NGOs. The novel moves well while instructing the reader. GREAT!
SAMO: Thanks for posting this book. DARK SIDE is like Painless Sunday School. It is simultaneously a fast-paced novel AND a great education on the global elites —what they do, how they do it, and why. Great book! Highly recommend. Was hooked after first chapter. This would make a great series!
KEVIN: I'm hooked... Thanks for sharing!
NAN: Solid read you won't want to put down. Give this one a look. I enjoyed this book immensely and hope to see more in the future by one of my new favorite authors, T.H. Platt. Well written, especially given the globalist (totalitarian) geopolitical context of the antagonist(s). The setting is on American soil for the most part but wraps its arms around hard working people interacting with evil people in nations across the globe.
T.H. Platt does an excellent job weaving personal lives of characters into the overwhelming scope of today’s interlocking maze of academic, banking, environmental, multicorporate, political, and social influences. Psychopaths, many of whom are socially deviant burrow into and hide, unseen within this enormous labyrinth of conflicting interests.
If and when power is attained, with gate keepers in place, such morally challenged people are able to manipulate events into a corrupt, unmanageable stew intended to harvest the hard-working wealth created by entrepreneurial Main Street citizens around the world. While many of us feel unaffected, others have their average day turned into a living hell.
T.H. Platt handles these demanding issues without preaching or making his personal opinions part of the story. The result is a literary ride readers will grab onto with characters we can identify with and care about. I highly recommend this entertaining, yet educational, heavily researched novel.
CAROL: I enjoyed the book. The characters kept me interested and the story made me wonder if it was really fiction. Great job!
PAM: I’m so glad you told this story. The powers that be, are against the world and working for themselves. See it all the time. But I have faith in the true people of this land to find a way to hold on to the blessings we enjoy. And It’s our duty to honor those who made it possible for us to be here. Especially our loving God.
REBECCA: You won’t be able to put it down....fantastic plot and characters!
SHERRY: I presented your novel to the book club for our January session. Some had not yet finished but all gave positive reviews and our discussion was certainly lively. Folks here are tremendously invested in smart land use, conservation and stewardship of our land’s resources. Thank you for your work on this project.
GARY: I enjoyed reading Hunger Mountain very much! So much so, that I shared it with friends. Reads like a realistic crime novel, with insights into the “green” agenda, and corruption on many levels. I live in California, and have witnessed the destruction of towns and forests, which seem to be part of a plan of control.
PROFESSOR GRAHAME WEBB: The Dark Side of Hunger Mountain is a seriously interesting novel. It is a fast moving story, with strong characters and real human drama. Highly recommend. The novel introduces the reader to the life and harsh livelihoods of a remote rural community of tough, earthy, but likeable foresters and their families, plying their trade as their fathers and grandfathers had done before them. Their obvious nemesis is forest fires. The real dangers in trying to contain them are well described, as are the consequences of men and women losing their lives as fires turn direction. But at another level, their ability to engage in sustainable forestry is equally at risk. On the one and there are business interests trying to control and monopolise, which results in fires being deliberately lit to increase the pressure on them, but on the other they have to contend with continually changing regulations and constraints, that ultimately result from foresters being cast as enemies of Nature by environmentalists, rather than as an integral part of Nature.
Through the eyes of a young, determined journalist, the reader is taken through the political intrigue of how national organisations pursue economic opportunities, packaged as altruism, but resort to violence when it suits them. Then there are the international players, the resource traders, that are formidable opponents equally or more violent. After reading The Dark Side of Hunger Mountain, you are unlikely to see a timber stack again without thinking of the people responsible and the challenges they have had to contend with so people can continue to use wood. The way the main characters confront seemingly insurmountable challenges through the story is totally believable and authentic.
While forestry is the contextual canvas upon which this exciting story is painted, it is clear that the same political context applies to other communities providing resources for our benefit. Millions of people around the world will relate to this book, especially to the characters as the face authentic challenges detailed so well by the author.
KARA: I just loved the book! The way you weaved fictional characters into what is happening in the real (?) :-) world was awe inspiring. I felt like I’d read about real people and their trials and tribulations. …a totally awesome book that I couldn’t put down! I still think about those characters. …Your depth of knowledge of the dark under belly of our world where we are merely puppets both educated and terrified me. Thank You for your brilliance!!
SUSAN: All the things happening in the book made me nod. I saw these things happening to forestry, from a distance, and you gave me the close-up view painting the picture of what happened behind the scenes. It’s happening to farmland too.
STEPHEN: I can’t put it down. It defines so much of the tyranny we now live under in all aspects of our lives. Another wake-up kick in the pants…
JARROD: A timeless book highlighting both past and modern-day issues. This book will no doubt become more poignant as the years go by with ever-increasing attempts by centralized powers to control us at the most personal and local levels.
CYNDI: I loved it, thank you, I also shared and recommended to others, …I actually need to buy a hard copy to give to my daughter. Thanks again for sharing your work.
LAURA: Got the book and read it in a few days. It’s a good read; really liked the characters. The information is amazing; we can learn a lot from the struggles of the timber community. Boggles the mind how convoluted, illogical and inefficient the systems have become. Thanks so much for writing this and putting it in an enjoyable work of fiction. I have already begun to share the story with friends and look forward to hearing how the book is received.
STEPHEN: I’m enjoying… The Dark Side of Hunger Mountain. … It’s one hell of a novel. Thanks for your 🔥 story!
JOHN: Your work is just amazing and sure to make a big difference in this battle against the fraudulent PTB. I highly value your contribution to the efforts of many of us to let people know the real truth before they (and we) are destroyed by the lies and frauds parading as world leadership. You have reached deeply into this dark world and … I thank you. It’ been a real pleasure to read your work.
ELAINE: I always knew there was more than meets the eye. I think you pulled the curtain back in a very entertaining way and I couldn’t put the book down. Thank you..... and WOW
JAMES: It was beautifully written. I would have been shocked by the things I learned about all the outside dirty players in the natural resources game and the exploitations involved. Not so much anymore with all the deceptions and crimes that we’re discovering have been and are being committed by Big Pharma, Ag, Food, Defense, NGO’s, Ecofreaks etc. Thank you for this eye opening exposition of the vile things effecting every aspect of our lives. I generally am not the type of person who can’t put a book down once I start, but this was certainly the case with your book. I greatly appreciate the necessity and timeliness of this book. It’s a story that needed to be told and I’ll look forward to your sequel.
JOHN EDSON: The Dark Side of Hunger Mountain is a staggering achievement of storytelling. It not only alters world views and basic understandings of life, but also offers fine examples of how these unparalleled challenges must be dealt with honestly and courageously before it’s too late. Most importantly, it reveals exactly how certain groups of vastly wealthy elites have manipulated and swindled all mankind for centuries.
For too many people—and for far too long—a maddening swirl of propaganda and lies from multiple well-financed fronts and false “mainstream” sources has left us in a foggy miasma of chaos, uncertainty, and confusion—filling up the places where only the plain truth should be. T.H. Platt's engaging and heart-stirring novel carefully removes these layers of cunning criminal deception so we can see, at last, what really lies beneath their matrix of facades. The breathtakingly vast lies and pretenses of “help” this hidden network of “do-gooder” poseurs has foisted on an all too gullible and trusting public is simply overwhelming in scope. To gain a correct understanding of this point of view is invaluable in getting to the bottom of this ages old mystery.
Like other reviewers here, I first discovered this book through Elizabeth Nickson on Substack and I’m thankful to her for sharing it with me. I don't know of a better place than this novel for battered seekers of truth to finally discover where all the worldwide political turmoil and societal upheaval is coming from.
When you meet the honest, hardworking families of Silvercreek you can feel their authenticity and deep humanity and see it in their cheerful, supportive daily way of life. All the most solid values of the best of America are exemplified in them and their family centered community.
It is an exciting journey of discovery which begins with a tragic, raging forest fire very near their small logging town. As the story unfolds, the many forces and evils that led to the fire and the town’s struggles to survive are slowly flushed into the open by courageous investigative reporting by Grace and the unrelenting intent of the lead character, Jackson. His dogged determination to find and face the oppressors and controllers of the forests and open lands of the earth by the UN, along with varied NGOs and other nominally beneficial organizations such as Save The Spotted Owl, etc., is inspiring. It’s a long list—all with virtue signaling names, of course.
As the investigation proceeds you become aware of how badly we’ve all been had by these oh-so-clever demons. For instance, the whole dark spectrum of “sovereign loans” to small nations such as the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean— loans which lead only to enslavement—are exposed as pure robbery. All of the phony “carbon capture”, “offsets”, “derivatives”, etc. just add up to a vast transfer of wealth to these same small groups and families at the top. They are steadily whittling away (with malevolent intent) at the vanishing Middle Class—all while further impoverishing, diminishing and culling the vast majority of Earth’s population.
All of this is very important—especially for those who intend that it not be allowed to happen. It’s crucial to know and understand these facts. They nullify all “conspiracy theory” allegations and give us solid common ground on which to stand and prevent their “Plan” to take over our planet from succeeding. All of their phony “programs”, psy-ops and “policies” are unfolding in real time every day. But if enough people come together and refuse to recognize, participate or tolerate these concealed “attacks with intent to cause great harm”, they can be stopped, taken down and done away with. The perpetrators can be punished and prevented from causing any further damage or harm.
Please share this great novel with everyone you can. It is full of beautiful illustrations, music and stunning photography. You will find this story to be of great help and service in your journey back into the sunlight of truth and trust. Plus it’s a moving, inspiring and well-told tale of human bravery, faith and love that you won’t soon forget.
The Dark Side of Hunger Mountain is a 100% reader-supported work of fiction. Please support the author’s work with a contribution, book purchase, a Substack subscription and by sharing this story link.
T.H. PLATT · thplattbooks@gmail.com · +1 760-468-2025 USA