Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

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

22 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.

---

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

hunkydory's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Racial slurs, and Incest

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. 

---

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

jacksonhager's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Racism, Domestic abuse, Rape, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Violence, and Misogyny

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!)

---

Content Warnings

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

laurenleigh's review against another edition

dark informative sad slow-paced

4.0

Thanks @greta.Humphrey for the rec! This book was wild. I knew the basic storyline of Joseph Smith and the birth of Mormonism, but there was SO much I didn’t know. Fair warning, there are a number of sad, bloody, gruesome details in this book. Krakauer is not just focused on the history of Mormonism, but on all the ways the religion has been used as a justification for violence, both past and present. I was most interested to learn about the differences between the current day mainstream LDS church and the fundamentalist offshoots. It might be easy to read this book and condemn or judge any current Mormons, but seemingly no religion is removed from violent pasts or present extremists. Not that any of that is excusable of course. My main problem with the text was its structure (too much chronological hopping for me), but I also understand Krakauer’s reasonings for writing it so.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, Death of parent, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Xenophobia, Rape, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Mental illness, Racism, Racial slurs, Incest, Homophobia, and Colonisation

Minor: Animal death and Animal cruelty

bituinthepages's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Incest

hallieknipp's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Rape, Racism, Sexual assault, Mental illness, and Kidnapping

bootsmom3's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad slow-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Medical content, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Gore, Gaslighting, Self harm, Death, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Child abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual violence, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child death, Incest, Infidelity, and Mental illness

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Miscarriage

samarakroeger's review

challenging dark informative slow-paced

4.75

read in conjunction with watching the show as it came out. It was interesting to see how the book was adapted to be told in a different format - and I’m glad they did adapt the narrative frame to suit the media style. The book includes a much more detailed history of the LDS Church than the show can cover, so I’m glad I read the book at the same time for context. The show’s “flashbacks” were not nearly as effective as the rest of the show, in my opinion. 

I am absolutely terrified of true crime and had previously read the prologue and been so freaked out I set the book aside. I’m so glad I came back to it because most of the book isn’t directly about that horrific double murder case, but instead dives into the history of the founding of the LDS Church and more recent history pertaining to Fundamentalist sects and their devotion to polygamy. All of it will make you uneasy, because violence, pedophilia, and child rape are difficult topics to read about. 

I think this is Krakauer at his best. He is a very consistently solid author for me throughout the four books of his I’ve read so far. 

If you are fascinated by how people can possibly believe in ludicrous-sounding religions, this is a great book for you. My fascination and curiosity with the LDS Church has been further nurtured by this book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Genocide, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Racial slurs, Gun violence, Homophobia, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexism