Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple by Deborah Layton

4.07 AVERAGE

ellraye's profile picture

ellraye's review

4.0
Interesting and captivating book written by Deborah Layton, one of the members of the Jonestown cult, or People Temple. After years of brainwashing and assimilating to what the Reverend Jim Jones wants her to do and be, Deborah somehow finds the wherewithal to escape the cult before the mass suicide occurs.

havenraven23's review against another edition

3.5
dark informative sad tense medium-paced
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p3achykeane's review

2.0
how did she manage to make a story like this so boring. i simply don’t care about your high school boyfriend or how you’re doing your hair everyday. every single person is reading this book to hear about the cult you joined. it is so obnoxiously dramatized at points, she writes what happened like it’s a sitcom show
tytrack99's profile picture

tytrack99's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced
No rating, obviously. Very well written. Grateful for her telling the story of so many who couldnt. so so devastating. an absolutely needed insight from someone who was not only on the inside, but one of Jones’ right hand man.

holli92's review

2.0
The idea behind this story interested me more than the actual book and unfortunately it is a bit too dry for me.

evawhite's review against another edition

3.0
challenging dark informative slow-paced
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essence_lott's profile picture

essence_lott's review

5.0
dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced
I would give this book 20 stars if I could. My heart is absolutely broken for the author and all the victims of this horrible tragedy. The way she wrote this book as perfect cross between thriller and memoir is incredible and really does do her goal I believe of showing that anyone can get sucked up into a situation as such while also pointing out all the red flags she saw along the way to inform others. This book was an incredible read and I will recommend it anyone that will listen. I cannot say it enough this was an INCREDIBLE read! 

rpaull_13's review against another edition

5.0
dark sad tense fast-paced
ant116's profile picture

ant116's review

5.0
emotional informative tense fast-paced

kate41348's review

5.0
Heartbreaking and very well written. I wondered how she escaped and I am so glad she was able to get out of Jonestown.