Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

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

68 reviews

abeeni's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

3.0

Krakauer presents a narrative that contrasts the murders of Brenda and Erica Lafferty with the history of Mormonism itself, drawing on Mormon, non-mormon, and former mormon scholars and witnesses to events he describes. Krakauer presents a balanced view of religion as something natural to humans and even fanatics as perhaps not mental illness, but a natural extension of beliefs one is raised on. He further emphasizes the power of religion to create both kind, warm peoples - as many Mormons are - and violent fanatics. In a sense he reveals that religion is like any human creation, bound to be used for “good” or “evil”. However the organization of the text is sometimes hard to follow and I would have appreciated some sort of list of names at the beginning of the book. There are dozens of names, often from large families which isn’t Krakauer’s fault, but a reference point would have provided clarity. I would have also appreciated some sort of timeline for events, I understand the choice to jump between the Lafferty’s and Mormonism’s history, but it often made the order of events jumbled in my head.

If you’re looking for intrigue and a more true crime focus, I’d recommend skipping the book and watching the mini-series. The series isn’t perfect in its portrayal of events, but does represent the power of faith and focus on the true crime aspect.

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andmingmingtoo's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.75

This book sets itself apart from most other "true crime" by going beyond the who+what+where+when to ask why-- instead of just focusing on one tragedy, this book asks how the setting and history surrounding what happened led to it occurring.
(Also bonus points to this book for making me hyperfixate on mormonism. It's so hard to explain to my friends that I'm having a mormon phase but not in a religious way, it's in a learning about neat history way)

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lmsokol18's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative fast-paced

5.0

Fascinating book that tells the story of the Lafferty murders and Mormon fundamentalism alongside the history of the Mormon religion. This book is enraging and devastating.

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gwynian's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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knachknachjoke's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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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