Reviews tagging 'Death'

Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage by Jeff Guinn

10 reviews

alexisgarcia's review

dark informative tense slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Death, Death of parent, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Rape, Child abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Alcohol, Suicide, Grief, Gun violence, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Violence, Child death, and Emotional abuse

effortlesslybookishbre_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

This book takes everything you thought you knew about Waco, and flips it on its head. 

Waco is an historical event where wether you sat beside a tv screen or radio and heard these events unfold, or as you grew up you learned of this tragedy in history books, Waco is still an event that remains relevant in todays society. This was by far one of the best books I’ve read on this tragedy. Jeff Guinn effortlessly pulls you into the world of David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, so much backstory was given from the first moments this offshoot was created, the  suspicion surrounding their activity, and finally the raid and demise of this group. 

Wether you believe the ATF, and FBI botched the raid on the Davidian’s compound, one thing that remains true is this tragedy forever altered the landscape of peoples opinions on the FBI and ATF, along with sparking the uprising of similar militia movements. 

While you may think Waco is a distant event prominent figures such as Timmothy McVeigh and Alex Jones, had links to Waco and sparked movements that would too make headlines for years to come. This book brilliantly connects these ideas, while still keeping the reader enthralled with David Koresh and The Branch Davidians. Up until the final moments of this book you have such a deep scope of these events it feels as though you are reliving, and witnessing the broadcast of the raid all over again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death, Pedophilia, and Injury/Injury detail

librarymouse's review

dark informative medium-paced

3.0

This is an interesting and rather neutral telling of the events of April 19, 1985, in thst it blames both the FBI/ATF and the Branch Davidians for the massacre in the Mount Carmel compound. David Koresh was a deeply sick individual for his sexual abuse of young girls and his knowingly putting his followers in harms way. The US government massively mishandled the initial siege and continued to mishandle the situation until the eventual catastrophe. This book was a fast, informative, and well written read.

Content warning for Christian Zionism and American colonialism in Palestine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Body horror, Child death, Colonisation, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Pedophilia, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, and Medical content

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicide, and Pregnancy

Minor: Alcohol and Antisemitism

abby_can_read's review

dark informative tense medium-paced

3.0

🎧
I think this was a well researched book and it was written in a way that I thought was easy to read. I like that Guinn had information about the beginning of the religion and some background on Koresh as well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Child death

Moderate: Pedophilia and Child abuse

mtferal's review

dark informative tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Police brutality, Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, and Death

oceanwriter's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced

4.75

The psychology behind cults fascinates me to no end. I was moderately familiar with the Waco incident but I never could have imagined its lengthy history. 

 

Beginning with the roots of the Branch Davidians, the book goes through different phases of David Koresh’s life. Told primarily in chronological order, it almost reads like a novel without feeling fictionalized. 

 

The entire incident was heartbreaking, especially when the tragic ending could have likely been avoided. As I mentioned already, the psychology element was the biggest draw for me. I expected the exploration into the mind of David Koresh, but there was a different realm of psychology involving the FBI. All around, the book kept a good momentum and remained engaging and empathetic toward the victims. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Child abuse, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, and Pedophilia

kaiciemesser's review

informative slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Child abuse, and Child death

samwescott's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This was really informative and interesting. I have previously read A Place Called Waco: A Survivor's Story by David Thibodeau and Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator by Gary Noesner which were both interesting in different ways (although the Thibodeau one is also infuriating), but obviously they each had an agenda to sell and very different perspectives. This one felt a little more balanced. It was very thorough about the history of the Branch Davidians and didn't gloss over them as just particularly devout Christians like Thibodeau does and is sure to point out the sexual abuse and "marriage" of minors by Koresh. But it also doesn't couch the many foul ups by the ATF and FBI and reveals some of the coverups that they tried to pull in the aftermath with a level of skepticism and critique that Noesner couldn't quite manage.

I think this is the most detailed account I have ever read and I really appreciated the play-by-play of the siege, and the effort applied to making sure all the background context was included, all the way from the religious roots of Seventh Day Adventists to the budget cuts and bad publicity of the ATF. There was so much going on that helped to drive these events to their tragic conclusion, but the context building is so important to set the stage for WHY the dominoes fell where they did.

I did think it was weird that towards the conclusion, the author doesn't bring back up the abused teen girls. I think it's hard to report on the devastation at Waco without making the cultists sound like victims because they WERE victims. But they were victims of Koresh too. Since Koresh died during the attack and was never put on trial, we never really got any closure for the sexual abuse and it just felt weird that the book ended without it really coming back up at all. Nobody deserves to be tortured and exploded by the government, but Michelle was twelve when Koresh got her pregnant. There is no one to root for in this story. I think that's part of why I find it so fascinating. It's such a weird intersection of so many different incendiary (sorry) topics and I can really feel another rabbit hole settling in. This is gonna be all I think about for weeks.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Rape, Child abuse, and Death

florapants84's review

dark informative sad tense medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Bullying, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Violence, Rape, and Police brutality

alittlebitheather's review against another edition

dark informative tense medium-paced

4.0

Informative and accessible, Waco really delves into the history of the Branch Davidians and how they and their enigmatic leader, David Koresh, came to be. Jeff Guinn pinpoints all the causes of the now infamous siege - and how poorly it was ultimately handled by government agencies. While fans of books like Under the Banner of Heaven will devour it, Waco is sure to appeal to a wide range of history buffs and true crime aficionados alike.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Gun violence, Child abuse, and Death