allys_shelf's review

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challenging informative slow-paced

4.0


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tiernanhunter's review

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challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.5


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sadiejericho's review against another edition

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dark informative sad tense medium-paced

3.5

Really disturbing and clearly deeply researched. Hard to stomach at times and also compelling. Took me years to finish but glad I read it. 

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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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daishaspencer's review against another edition

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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. 

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tinybluepixel's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

4.0


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