Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer

74 reviews

librarymouse's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Blood, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Violence, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Racism, Racial slurs, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual violence

kelsie_s's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, and Trafficking

barbarella85's review against another edition

dark informative sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Child abuse

Moderate: Rape, Violence, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Incest, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Domestic abuse

monsterofidaho's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

So often it seems that people approach events like these wondering how someone could possibly do something so terrible. Jon Krakauer bypasses the 'how' and goes immediately for the 'why.' With a keen eye for discrepancies and Scott Brick's intense narration for the audiobook, Krakauer leaves no stone unturned when it comes to detailing what led to the Lafferty murders through historical, social, and familial contexts. Under the Banner of Heaven is a severe breakdown of how religious fervor works, how zealotry can build up speed a lot faster than you think it will, and what environments serve to make or break any grassroots religion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Pedophilia and Physical abuse

mirificmoxie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Murder, and Child death

Moderate: Rape, Incest, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, and Violence

Minor: Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Racism, Child abuse, and Suicide attempt

opalchainsaw's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

5.0

The Book of Mormon is riddled with egregious anachronisms and irreconcilable inconsistencies. For instance, it makes many references to horses and wheeled carts, neither of which existed in the Western Hemisphere during the pre-Columbian era. It inserts such inventions as steel and the seven-day week into ancient history long before such things were in fact invented.

Brigham Young was an unapologetic racist whose interpretations of scripture institutionalized racism within the LDS church. Under his leadership, Utah became a slave territory, and the Mormon church supported the aims of the Confederacy during the Civil War.

MIC DROP

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Domestic abuse

daishaspencer's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

This book captured my attention right away as someone with family ties to the Mormon church. John’s writing isn’t linear, but that of a season journalist which he is. If you have a fascination with Mormonism, religious extremes, and the domino effect that it has this is the book for you. It can be challenging to follow the timeline and different people this book follows, so don’t pick this up as casual read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, and Violence

mmccombs's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

4.0

Woof. I think I probably should have read a physical copy of this rather than listening to it while being slightly distracted, cause there were really interesting discussions about religion and the US that expanded well beyond Mormonism. I enjoyed the way he organized the book, it was historical but stayed clearly relevant to issues happening today. I wish there weren’t so many weird racist terms/ideas thrown in there, especially about Indigenous women, like I get that a lot of these people suck but we don’t need to replicate that in the book every time. It was good reading this after watching the dramatized show (I didn’t love the show but I really liked this!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Pedophilia, Violence, Murder, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, and Sexual assault

bituinthepages's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Incest

knunderb's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.5

Krakaur has some clear bias against religion, but he keeps it in check and provides an in-depth account of not only the murders of Brenda and Erica Lafferty, but also of the history of the Mormon church. This book could have been extremely dry, but it was easy to read. Krakaur does a good job of drawing the reader into the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Racism