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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
Could not handle the descriptions of female, abuse, rape, and assault
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Not my favorite Krakauer book. Fascinating story and good questions on the nature of faith and our tolerance of it in America but it does drag in sections and can be hard to keep all the names straight.
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
dark
informative
medium-paced
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
What a wild ride. TW: for rape, incest, xenophobia, etc.
This is a fairly comprehensive history of the Mormon Church that splinters off into true crime, with the Lafferty murders, and philosophical and theological discussion. It's frustrating that Joseph Smith's polygamy is mostly brushed aside by the church and practitioners when he was very much into it. I have to admit I laughed out loud reading his revelations on the subject. It struck me as way too similar to the current POTUS, especially when the revelations specifies that Joseph NEEDS to have these marriages, if Emma stops him she will be damned, and also if Emma takes multiple husbands she will be damned, byeeeee.
Although I had heard of it, reading the bits of revelations regarding PoC was horrifying. Especially as the Lafferty brothers consistently fought with cops and other authority figures about speeding and traffic laws. The contrast between how their sense of self-righteousness allowed them to argue with cops without being shot left me feeling quite cold, emphasizing the importance of #blacklivesmatter.
A good few chapters is devoted to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, which was horrifying to read for a number of reasons. The brutality of killing emigrants because they weren't of the same faith, the manner in which they did it (pretending to be friendly), and then blaming the entirety of it on the Paiute Tribe while swearing to hide away the truth....(blaming indigenous people is a common theme for any religiously motivated murders). There was also a footnote that I hate-loved: the Mormons left only very young children alive, took them into their own homes and raised them. When the federal government finally located the missing children to be reunited with blood relations, the families who abducted them demanded payment for housing and feed the children. Like, DAMN.
Also, another similarity - all the folks who left the main church to go into fundamentalist sects after black men were allowed to enter the priesthood but claim that's not why they left are like the white people who claim that they voted for Trump because ofxenophobiaeconomics.
In addition to the awfulness towards anyone not white, I was incredibly disturbed to learn that everyone, including Brenda's husband, was aware of the intent of ending her and her daughter's life. Like, the whole family except for her knew, and did absolutely NOTHING. That really fucked me up. I'm still trying to process this fact as it relates to how women are viewed and treated (within both the LDS church and FLDS sects).
The amount of rape and incest that happens within these fundamentalist sects abhorrent, especially as it appears to be an open secret. That's something I need to chew on more and also read more about.
Quite a few readers decry this book's anti-religious tone, but I honestly didn't sense that at all. I know that I likely subtle biases I am not aware of, so I tried to read with a heightened sense of awareness. I honestly felt that Krakauer was too kind, not in regards to the LDS as a faith, but to the practitioners who abuse, rape, and murder because of specific tenets or 'revelations'. I suppose, as a journalist, biases shouldn't come out in your writing, but at the same time, with a self-proclaimed pussy-grabber for president, I would have liked less neutrality towards men who either murder women for asserting their personhood or marry and rape children because they need to increase their brood.
This is mostly incoherent but it's got so much to chew on, I'll be thinking on it for a while.
This is a fairly comprehensive history of the Mormon Church that splinters off into true crime, with the Lafferty murders, and philosophical and theological discussion. It's frustrating that Joseph Smith's polygamy is mostly brushed aside by the church and practitioners when he was very much into it. I have to admit I laughed out loud reading his revelations on the subject. It struck me as way too similar to the current POTUS, especially when the revelations specifies that Joseph NEEDS to have these marriages, if Emma stops him she will be damned, and also if Emma takes multiple husbands she will be damned, byeeeee.
Although I had heard of it, reading the bits of revelations regarding PoC was horrifying. Especially as the Lafferty brothers consistently fought with cops and other authority figures about speeding and traffic laws. The contrast between how their sense of self-righteousness allowed them to argue with cops without being shot left me feeling quite cold, emphasizing the importance of #blacklivesmatter.
A good few chapters is devoted to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, which was horrifying to read for a number of reasons. The brutality of killing emigrants because they weren't of the same faith, the manner in which they did it (pretending to be friendly), and then blaming the entirety of it on the Paiute Tribe while swearing to hide away the truth....(blaming indigenous people is a common theme for any religiously motivated murders). There was also a footnote that I hate-loved: the Mormons left only very young children alive, took them into their own homes and raised them. When the federal government finally located the missing children to be reunited with blood relations, the families who abducted them demanded payment for housing and feed the children. Like, DAMN.
Also, another similarity - all the folks who left the main church to go into fundamentalist sects after black men were allowed to enter the priesthood but claim that's not why they left are like the white people who claim that they voted for Trump because of
In addition to the awfulness towards anyone not white, I was incredibly disturbed to learn that everyone, including Brenda's husband, was aware of the intent of ending her and her daughter's life. Like, the whole family except for her knew, and did absolutely NOTHING. That really fucked me up. I'm still trying to process this fact as it relates to how women are viewed and treated (within both the LDS church and FLDS sects).
The amount of rape and incest that happens within these fundamentalist sects abhorrent, especially as it appears to be an open secret. That's something I need to chew on more and also read more about.
Quite a few readers decry this book's anti-religious tone, but I honestly didn't sense that at all. I know that I likely subtle biases I am not aware of, so I tried to read with a heightened sense of awareness. I honestly felt that Krakauer was too kind, not in regards to the LDS as a faith, but to the practitioners who abuse, rape, and murder because of specific tenets or 'revelations'. I suppose, as a journalist, biases shouldn't come out in your writing, but at the same time, with a self-proclaimed pussy-grabber for president, I would have liked less neutrality towards men who either murder women for asserting their personhood or marry and rape children because they need to increase their brood.
This is mostly incoherent but it's got so much to chew on, I'll be thinking on it for a while.
Probably 3.5 but I'm rounding down because I feel this book could have been a lot tighter.
The story on what led up to the crime and the aftermath was gripping. The many chapters on the full history on how fundamentalism formed and branched off while also still being part of the main branch was also fascinating but almost could have been a separate book. There were some chapters I felt didn't need to be included no matter how interesting they were.
Still- this is an amazing topic and story and needed to be told
The story on what led up to the crime and the aftermath was gripping. The many chapters on the full history on how fundamentalism formed and branched off while also still being part of the main branch was also fascinating but almost could have been a separate book. There were some chapters I felt didn't need to be included no matter how interesting they were.
Still- this is an amazing topic and story and needed to be told
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced