I read this as part of a history book club otherwise I might never have seen it. I remember the story in its finale and my parents discussing it. Reading the details as an adult and parent was stunning. the fraud, deception and finally murder is a stark reminder of how delicate real trust is. ( )

"I feel that as long as there's life, there's hope. That's my faith....I look about at the babies and I think they deserve to live, you know?...I think we all have a right to our own destiny as individuals."
--Christine Miller, the only dissenting voice heard on a tape recorded during mass-murder suicide in Jonestown.

How could the Holocaust have happened? Why did people kill one another so easily during the reign of the Khmer Rouge? Why would someone blindly follow a person or an ideology enough to want to kill or die for the cause?

Jonestown is an important lesson in how how groups of humans can start down a very slippery slope which leads them to places unimagined. Jim Jones, faith healer and cult leader, grew a group of followers and lead them down to Guyana to start a new socialist society and in the process convinces close to a thousand people to murder their own children and babies and then kill themselves.

This book by Julia Scheeres focuses on materials released by the FBI and on the stories of a few of the survivors at Jonestown. They include a young African-American man who was taken off the streets by the cult, a father and son who joined and then was torn apart by the cult, and an elderly woman who along with her sister had been followers of Jim Jones for years. Not everyone profiled here makes it out--a good deal of information about what happened was from Edith Roller, a secretary and recorder of events. Scheeres did an outstanding job of blending story and hard research.

This book will break your heart. You'll see how people's hope and community which started out with big ideals could be twisted by a leader. You learn how families turned against one another and how Jones kept people in line through intimidation, punishment and lies. How he manipulated people towards his ultimate goal of "revolutionary suicide." You'll learn about the failed and successful escapes from Jonestown.

I grew up in Northern California and remember the events from the news. The cult--the People's Temple was not that far away in San Francisco. I learned in this book how many politicians in San Francisco turned a blind eye to Jones because of what he could do for them. He was even given a political appointment in the city. No one at the time could fathom what ultimately unfolded.

By the way, while the People's Temple started as a Holy Roller Faith Healing Christian cult--Jones himself saw contradictions in the Bible and while he claimed to be God on Earth, he later tied his cult to Socialism. I find it interesting to wonder if this Cult were around today if it would lean more towards a Tea Party agenda as at the time it sort of grew up out of the sixties. Either way--the lesson here is to watch your step lest you find yourself with a cup of koolaid in your hand wondering how you got there.

One of the best books I've read this year.
( )

Wow, what a heartbreaking story. I have read articles and watched documentaries about Jonestown, but for some reason this book really brought the tragedy to the forefront of the mind. I don't understand how this type mind control happens but was truly fascinating reading about it. Scheeres had a hit with Jesus Land and this one follows in those footsteps. Very well researched and written. ( )

I heard about this book in an article calling people out for using the phrase "drinking the Kool-aid" without knowing the full story of its origins. The article must have been convincing because I put this book on my to-read list and it ended up being a part of my Fenner fundraiser shopping spree.

This book broke my heart in a thousand ways. It made me angry. It made me despair. It made me swear threats and epithets as I slammed the book down on the table, as if my bargaining could still somehow influence the outcome of events. To the point where for a while my husband avoided me while I was reading, because if I talked about it, he would get too angry.

Well written, sympathetic characters (not including Jim Jones, of course, whose head you never get into). My only complaint about the book is that I wish it were footnoted, and not just endnoted. This book was incredibly well researched, and when I got to the end and saw the notes I finally realized to what extent. But while I was reading, I kept wondering, "How does she know that?" It probably should have occurred to me to check for endnotes, but it didn't, and I would have appreciated footnotes, okay? ( )

The untold story of hope, deception, and survival at Jonestown