Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

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

74 reviews

rupanjali's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Murder

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Pedophilia

Minor: Racism and Miscarriage

apworden's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, Gore, Sexism, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Blood, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Alcohol, Pregnancy, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Death, Child abuse, Racism, Violence, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, and Racial slurs

lu_debord's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.25

Krakauer's book is an informative deep dive into the history of Mormonism and the culture that resulted from its unique formation. He weaves in this history with a run-down of the murder case of Brenda Lafferty and her daughter Erica, themselves Mormon, and how this culture could have lead to their deaths. If you are reading this book solely for the true crime aspect, I would say that you've come to the wrong place, as this is mostly a history text. It's told in a circuitous way that could be difficult to keep track of if you are a slow reader, since it's easy to forget how the names connect. Additionally, more focus could've been given to the victims of this crime rather than the perpetrators, but I understand why that decision was made. I don't necessarily agree with the thesis of this work and I find that certain assertions likely wouldn't hold up to a rigorous historical review. However, I enjoyed Krakauer's frank discussions of abuse, and his open-mindedness when interviewing subjects. Overall, this book was enjoyable and pretty informative. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, and Racism

madelinekramer2021's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Incest, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Gore, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Rape, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Death, Child death, Racism, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, and Rape

allisonwatkins's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Pedophilia, Incest, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Religious bigotry

orireading's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

1.5

I decided to read Under the Banner of Heaven before watching the new show, and I had a few qualms with this book. Krakauer leans on quotes from other writers (imo) an embarrassing amount, to the point where it’s like… did you write this book or did you collect these quotes huh Jon?? This is very much a right-after-9/11 book. That’s ok. 

Besides the quotes, the biggest issue I had was the book’s organization/structure — Krakauer bounced around as if he didn’t have an editor. Maybe he didn’t have an editor! I think there was definitely a way to rearrange the book structure to make it 10x more enjoyable and clearer for readers. I feel like I can say this because I wrote a big ole thesis on a specific American far-right/religious movement which was… CLEAR AND ENJOYABLE TO READ. 

Ultimately, Krakauer took what could have been a really intriguing topic and drained the life out of it (maybe that’s a bad descriptor for this book) which was disappointing as a reader. But I still finished it for whatever reason. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Blood, Rape, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Murder, Hate crime, Domestic abuse, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse

dayo321pru's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

3.5

it took me about 3 weeks to read through it. it's sort of dense and most of it is historical (80-20, historical to true crime). it is very well written but i didn't like it too much.
also there are a lot of parts that were hard to read (disturbing content, examples in content warnings).  
regardless, it was good to see a new perspective and learn a new bit of history. i just couldn't empathize with anyone in the book and that's my favorite part of reading; i like understanding a character and feeling what they feel and that didn't happen here for me. this is the first non-fiction i've really read through and maybe it's just not my thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Violence, Child death, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Rape, Misogyny, Pedophilia, and Racism

Minor: Islamophobia, Miscarriage, Homophobia, and Kidnapping

lily1304's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.25

I definitely learned a lot about the history of Mormonism - although I'm curious how a Mormon would tell the story differently, since Krakauer's version is unflattering to say the least. There's some true crime drama.

I was really interested in a section about the insanity defense for one of the murderers - Krakauer reflects on what separates a completely normal religious belief from a pathological delusion - in particular, the belief that one can talk to God. Here and in Into the Wild, I really admire Krakauer's ability to explore a true story as a parable about the peculiarities of American culture.

There were definitely slow sections that I skipped though, and Krakauer is so harsh on the wackiness of Mormon beliefs and history that I found myself feeling defensive and I'm not even Mormon. The LDS Church as a global institution has PLENTY of issues, but I assume that most Mormons don't really believe that the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants are literally true and binding, just like most Christians don't see the Bible that way. I think the reality that most Mormons are pretty normal people is not a factor in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Hate crime, Gun violence, Incest, Xenophobia, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Rape, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Violence, Sexual violence, and Misogyny

If I were Mormon I imagine I would take serious issue with Krakauer's characterization of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young

lqne's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Sexual assault

Moderate: Incest, Trafficking, and Pedophilia