I have to keep buying copies of this book because I keep giving mine away in my zeal to get people to read it. Wholesalers, call me. ( )

I have to keep buying copies of this book because I keep giving mine away in my zeal to get people to read it. Wholesalers, call me. ( )

I have to keep buying copies of this book because I keep giving mine away in my zeal to get people to read it. Wholesalers, call me. ( )

I was somewhat disappointed in this book but I'm not sure it was the author's fault or my own misplaced expectations. I expected the book to read with the adventurous, intrigue that "Into the Wild" had but with a true to life murder mystery. As I read, I felt the history of the Mormon church kept bogging down the story of the murders and kept wishing he would stick to the present until I realized that the author was trying to build a case as to why perhaps the murders had occurred and that perhaps the murderous and lawless past of some prominent members had much to contribute to the mentality of the murderers in the present day situation. A friend asked me if the church would take this as a book that it felt was against them and I said most emphatically yes. And, sure enough, at the end there is a section the author gives room to a member to respond. But, oddly, in the summarizing chapter, parts of which would have been better placed at the beginning so that the reader had a better understanding of where the author was going with the story, the author seems to have a sympathetic view of the religion. Either way, it was quite enlightening and a bit scary even. ( )

This is the haunting story of Dan and Ron Lafferty, why they killed their sister-in-law and niece and how they gave their religion as motivation. The often disturbing story that unfolds reads more like a horror story than a work of nonfiction.

Karkauer uses the Lafferty story as a way to delve into the Mormon religion as a whole. He gives fascinating details about how the religion started and the road that brought it to the religion it is today. Krakauer’s research explains the reasons behind many of the various sects of the Latter-day Saints as well as the Mormon Fundamentalists.

With so many details and stories Krakauer often seems to be going off on a random tangent, but his tangents always link back to the main story in some surprising way.

The details behind the Lafferty murders are both horrifying and fascinating. Krakauer does a wonderful job of explaining the events that unfolded as well as the history of the religion with as unbiased an opinion as seems possible. So much of the history is filled with violence by and against the church. In response to an exaggerated report, Lilburn Boggs, Governor of Missouri, stated:

“The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state, if necessary for the public peace. Their outrages are beyond all description.”
-page 103

I was fascinated by the history of the religion, how it came to exist and the various factors that played a part in molding it. For example, the US government is a huge reason the church eventually prohibited polygamy.

“Although LDS leaders were originally loath to abandon plural marriage, eventually they adopted a more pragmatic approach to American politics, emphatically rejected the practice, and actually began urging government agencies to prosecute polygamists. It was this single change in ecclesiastical policy, more than anything else, that transformed the LDS Church into its astonishingly successful present-day iteration. Having jettisoned polygamy, Mormons gradually ceased to be regarded as a crackpot sect.”
-page 7

This brilliantly researched and well written book is a thought-provoking read that had me constantly pausing so I could read a passage to my husband. I was fascinated the entire time. ( )