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

First, this is not purely a true crime book. If you are looking for a book that focuses entirely on the murders of Brenda & Erica Lafferty in detail, this isn't it. Their story, and the stories of the people who took their lives, appear in ~30% of this book. This book is mostly an exhaustive account of the history of Mormonism, the beliefs of the religion and it's various sects, and how some of it's followers have used the religion to justify numerous heinous acts of violence, murder, abuse, and pedophilia in a relatively short time span. It uses the murders of Brenda & Erica as a jumping off point for this and then weaves in the history.

While I learned a lot from reading this, this book was a victim of it's length and the sheer amount of information and characters. The first 30% had me riveted, by 50% I was still interested but fading fast, and by 70% I was begging for it to end. At 85%, I basically skimmed through to the end, even though it was interesting, I was simply done. My head was spinning with names, dates, and town names - it was hard to keep everything straight. I wish Krakauer had pared this one down a bit. There were pages and pages of speculations that did not add to my understanding of Mormonism, nor did it tie into the "modern day" crimes. There were also pages and pages dedicated to the daily meanderings of some of Mormonism's main figures which, again, did not add anything to the bigger picture. Eliminating some of this probably would have helped with the "information fatigue".

I do recommended this book, especially if you, like me, live in a place where Mormonism is not prevalent. I knew next to nothing about the religion, aside from what I've seen on TV and some minor exposure while traveling through Utah. This book taught me a lot and gave me a solid jumping off point to continue my own research. Definitely plan to go through this slowly!

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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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challenging dark informative sad slow-paced

4.0

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_emma_rose_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

I want to warn anyone interested in reading this book that it can get very graphic. I enjoyed all of the information it had to offer, both about this particular murder and the darker side of Mormon history as a whole, but it was definitely not easy to read at times.
I don't know much about Mormonism, which I think was a deficit walking into this book. Its purpose is to show how Mormon history led to the murders in 1984, so it highlights all of the worst bits of the religion, and I don't have any context for the better parts. I would recommend gathering more information and potentially reading a different Mormon history book before passing judgment on the entire religion, should this book inspire you to do so.
In conclusion: very well-written and informative, but keep in mind the point it is trying to make.

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hubes's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

4.0

Appreciated learning the history of the church

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mollywill's review against another edition

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dark informative fast-paced

4.25

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stephalopuff's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative slow-paced

3.75

This isn't necessarily so much of a true crime book as it is a history of an American-grown religion, the Mormon Church. A violent history.

Perhaps it would've been better reading it physically rather than an audiobook, as there were times where I zoned out and missed what was said. But I found the in-depth rundown of the history of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Mormonism and the FLDS church pretty fascinating.

And while I've always been aware of violence within the history of nearly every religion, my goodness is the history of Mormonism littered with horrid acts of extreme violence. Be aware that this violence included the sexual assault of and sexual violence against children.

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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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