1.09k reviews for:

Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties

Tom O'Neill, Dan Piepenbring

3.88 AVERAGE

kimthroughbooks's review against another edition

4.0

informative slow-paced

seybolda's review against another edition

3.5

informative mysterious slow-paced

kmartineau's review against another edition

4.75

dark informative mysterious medium-paced

retrovertigo23's review against another edition

5.0

dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

ainsley_frederick's review against another edition

3.75

medium-paced

mollykfinn's review against another edition

1.0

challenging dark informative mysterious slow-paced

sophd1301's review against another edition

3.0

dark informative mysterious slow-paced

itsmaggadelic's review against another edition

3.0

informative sad slow-paced

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I have mixed feelings about this book. It was interesting to hear about the missing / misleading information that was carried out during the trials of Manson and his followers, and there was definitely a point that could have been made with some further digging. However, Tom O’Neill presents the information and then does nothing with it? Also, the first person narrative throughout the book is so weird. If you want to write a factual book, then do that. If you want to write a memoir, then do that. If you want to write both, you have to split it up, a la On Writing by Stephen King. He could easily have presented the evidence / information he found regarding a cover up in the first half, then written his memoir of how he got there in the second. But mixing them up leads to a lot of jumbled reading, and now I’ve forgotten most of the information he was trying to present because his personal feelings are so prominent in the story. Overall, great information to be found, but poorly executed.

chelsnovot's review against another edition

4.5

dark informative reflective medium-paced

tmhedgesjohnson's review against another edition

3.75

informative mysterious reflective medium-paced