gwynian's review against another edition

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4.0


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knachknachjoke's review against another edition

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4.5

A haunting, thorough exploration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, its history, and the dark implications of what actually investigating that history leads one to believe.

I would have considered myself somewhat knowledgeable on LDS church history before this read, but Krakhauer blew pretty much everything out of the water with how thorough his storytelling was. He discloses at the end his own perspective—that he hadn't intended for this to be anything other than an amicable exploration of Mormon history inspired by an admiration for his childhood friends' faiths—and the resonance I felt to his perspective was really startling.

I think my biggest takeaway from reading this, and I believe Krakhauer's from writing it, is just how frightening the two roads you can take after studying Mormonism's history are: either you discern it is one man's quest for sex and power, or you conclude that everything—polygamy, blood atonement, white supremacy, child abuse—is all true and all imperative to a right way of life.

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cinnaminskies's review against another edition

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4.0


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allys_shelf's review against another edition

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challenging informative slow-paced

4.0


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pearlisarobot's review against another edition

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4.0


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shelbfish5's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective tense slow-paced

3.5


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firstknight's review against another edition

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4.0


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librarymouse's review against another edition

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challenging informative fast-paced

4.0

The murders of Brenda and Erica Lafferty we're horrendous. This book does a lot of work to explain how religions like Mormonism, especially radicalized fundamentalist Mormonism, can warp the world views of it's followers, shaping some into devout followers who are used and abused in the name of God by those in power and to create powerful, often delusional believers who are willing to kill, rape, and defile anyone from family members to strangers for the sake of their personal perception of God's will.
In the author's notes at the end of this book, Jon Krakauer addresses the path his writing process took. While his end product was not what he initially intended it to be, it was enriched by the research he'd done on the history of Mormonism. Having grown up in an area with a few Mormons, but not enough for them to be the dominant social group, I'd just lumped them into the group of people from religions I was not a part of. This peek at their storied history, historic and continued racism, historic and continued sexual violence and pedophilia, and the lengths to which the current church goes to hide the past from followers gives a suspicious tilt to the religion's intentions.

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amsswim's review against another edition

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4.25

I was aware of much of the information in this book, but the author does a good job of collecting a lot of information and tying it back to his main topic. The whole book revolves around a murder in the 80s but we cover much of the history of the Latter Day Saints and the various branches (mostly fundementalist) of the church.

It always strikes me how incredibly American the Morman church and beliefs are, as well as the incredible violence within their history and beliefs. 

Anyone interested in religious fanaticism should read this one. Also there is a Hulu series out now, so maybe will watch that too. There have been some major developments since its publishing, so that also offered an interesting perspective.

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tinybluepixel's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

4.0


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