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1.09k reviews for:
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties
Tom O'Neill, Dan Piepenbring
1.09k reviews for:
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties
Tom O'Neill, Dan Piepenbring
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
"old school true crime, that will be fun!" I thought. no. this book is for people who are already intimately familiar with and deeply invested in this story. I'm so proud of myself for not finishing a book I am not having fun reading.
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
dark
informative
fast-paced
I don’t buy all of the connections that O’Neill makes here. But, to be fair, neither does he. He says at one point something along the lines of having lost interest in the answers a long time ago, finding the questions to be much more illuminating. What is certain is that there was some sort of legal and ethical malpractice in how the Manson case was pursued, both by lawyers and by cops. There’s a lot of inconsistencies, a lot of questions, a lot of coincidences that don’t make sense. And a lot of powerful and famous people are implicated in those gaps in the official record, people who wouldn’t want their names attached to the most notorious murders in American history. I think the CIA and FBI stuff is especially farfetched, even if it is fascinating (and infuriating) to read about COINTELPRO and CHAOS and MKULTRA.
A really fascinating read. It offers no answers, only questions. But those questions illuminate so much about policing and the justice system in America. A fascinating read that feels more like a novel than a non-fiction book.
A really fascinating read. It offers no answers, only questions. But those questions illuminate so much about policing and the justice system in America. A fascinating read that feels more like a novel than a non-fiction book.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
Interesting story. He's a good writer, it's engaging all the way through. The last part got pretty disorganized, with the author's troubles more prominent than a thru line narrative. But, it was an interesting look at some fairly recent history.
4.75. This is an insanely fun reading experience. Part history, part conspiracy, part memoir(??). O’Neill makes some incredible discoveries that beg a lot of questions about the Manson Family killings (I won’t spoil it for you- go read it). And on top of it being incredibly informative- it’s just a fun read! With each new piece of information O’Neill gives, you just want to keep turning pages. I also think O’Neill giving his own personal thoughts and experiences of gathering this information is a nice touch as it made it that much more engaging.
Only thing that takes off any points for me is the way he cites sources. It’s kinda hard to tell how much of a paragraph is derived from one source. Sometimes it seems like there’s no citation at all, but not for anything crazy. Just minor things that I’m sure are fact checkable if you aren’t lazy like me. But if you’re planning on writing a book, for the love of god use numeric citation or something normal.
Only thing that takes off any points for me is the way he cites sources. It’s kinda hard to tell how much of a paragraph is derived from one source. Sometimes it seems like there’s no citation at all, but not for anything crazy. Just minor things that I’m sure are fact checkable if you aren’t lazy like me. But if you’re planning on writing a book, for the love of god use numeric citation or something normal.
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced