This book was very difficult to read and finish. ( )

Not rating this because it's not really that kind of book but I did find it very informative.
This is not a book about the process of reporting this story for the Boston Globe but it about the story itself so don't go in expecting a book like [b:All the President's Men|96123|All the President's Men|Carl Bernstein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347805228l/96123._SY75_.jpg|2486632]. This was written in 2002 and there is some language I would consider a bit outdated. This is a very upsetting story presented in the style of a newspaper piece. This reads as an amalgamation of many articles. This meant at times I found the story a bit repetitive or circular but overall I found this very well done. This story is what spawned the movie Spotlight but the actual stories are quite difference since this, again, is a book about the crisis not the process of reporting. I would recommend this to anyone who is aware of this scandal but maybe wants to understand it better. ( )

I live near Boston, so I thought it was important that I learn this history.
This book is direct and hits hard without getting into sentimentality. The most compelling evidence is the documents they provide at the end.
I don't think this book pretends to know what will happen to the Boston Irish community going forward or what should happen. No prescriptives here. Just clear reporting. ( )

My god. You want to read the most terrifying book? Read this. The only horror story that comes close to this is [a:Jack Ketchum|90070|Jack Ketchum|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1398128441p2/90070.jpg]'s criminally under-read [b:The Girl Next Door|179735|The Girl Next Door|Jack Ketchum|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1298460378s/179735.jpg|1109091].

Both made me uneasy and angry. The difference is, Ketchum based his fictional novel on a real-life event. Betrayal can't hide behind fiction.

I had to take this book in small sips, because I became enraged with something virtually every page.

Betrayal is the perfect title for this. How else could you describe a 2000-year-old religious institution that holds incredibly strong beliefs on what constitutes sin, from eating meat on a Friday, to gays, to birth control, and also holds to antiquated notions such as only male priests, celibacy, and the fact that they are above the laws of men?

And yet...for all these beliefs, when their so-called "men of god" commit an act that, personally, I believe is worse than murder: The destruction of a child's innocence and the terrorism that occurs during the act, and the guilt and pain that follow that child through the rest of their lives. And those that oversee them, the ones that should be holding them to the high values they are expected to uphold, instead look the other way, send them back into the same opportunities, often with glowing recommendations. And also to place blame with the victims. Or the families.

That is evil. And, for me, offers incontrovertible proof that if there truly is a god, then they are an evil and twisted force that has no right to be venerated and worshipped.

This is a horrifying book to read. Yet, it should be read...especially by those that claim the Catholic faith. Because this shows that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

If there was any justice, the church would fall. I hated this book. I'm glad I read it.

I now know the true face of evil. ( )

This book is heartrending and sickening in its exposure of a major coverup by administration of the Catholic Church over abuses of adolescent boys by priests. The Boston Globe has done a masterful job setting the stage and explaining the problems of tracking down this series of atrocities and tracing them to their roots. An eye-opening read. As a person of faith (though not Catholic) who also seeks to pursue social justice, I was especially struck by the people who stayed in the church but sought to reform and improve it. ( )