A review by freewaygods
Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream by David McGowan

dark mysterious fast-paced

2.0

McGowan here is at his sloppiest and most smug. While I’m inclined to believe his thesis— that, as they have many times in the past and most assuredly continue to do, the US state and intelligence apparatus used and manipulated mass culture through media, music, and money— McGowan doesn’t help himself with how he chose to write his final book. Unfortunately less rigorous than Programmed to Kill, this book brings up many interesting and worthwhile questions and connections, but smugly let’s them sit idly by while it breaks the fourth wall and looks at the reader knowingly. I wish he had composed this in a more scholarly manner. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child death, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, War