Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

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

2 reviews

gwynian's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0


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orireading's review against another edition

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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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