Rating: 
Summary: Very engrossing, highly recommended
Review: I was pleasantly surprised that Krakauer's book was very engrossing and hard to put down, even as a beach read. The subject of religion was a bit off-putting to me at first, but as a fan of Krakauer's previous books, I took a chance.For me, the real draw here was the fascinating story of the Mormon religion, which is a strange outpost of American history that I had never read about before. People who already know the stories of Joseph Smith and Mountain Meadows, etc, will probably find the book redundent and should skip it since long sections of it recount 19th century Mormon history -- less than half of it discusses the tale of the Lafferty murders and the current-day fundamentalist sects. Krakauer is a very clean and fluid writer and does an excllent job of bringing in the voices of his sources. He keeps the various narrative threads going and the book is never confusing or obtuse. My biggest problem with the book is that he dwells on a lot of sensational tales of incest and rape in the polygamist fundamentalist sects which, while shocking and sad, didn't really have much to do with the main story. It felt like he uncovered these things and forced them into the book just for shock value, especially the puzzling "Evangeline"-Mexico digression near the end. A few examples of depravity would have sufficed to make his point about hypocrisies in the sects instead of pounding it into us over and over again. The other problem, which could hopefully be corrected in a future edition, is the lack of reaction to the Lafferty murders from the rest of Dan and Ron Lafferty's family, who are a big part of the story. It seemed odd to me that it's not even mentioned anywhere in the book how Dan's brother Allen reacted to the murder of his wife and child -- and whether he ever reestablished a relationship with his brothers. Perhaps the trial transcripts could have given us more context about the aftermath of the murders and how other "believers" reacted to the violent extension of their faith (which after all is the stated purpose of the book....) But overall, an engrossing, fast-moving and highly recommended book.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent and disturbing look at religion
Review: Jon Krakauer has written a timely, thoughtful, balanced and intelligent book about the effects of a religion and the culture it has created on a group of people (with focus on two individuals in particular). He approached the sensitive subject of religion (a religion that, like other religions, seeks to write its own story (and rewrite its history)) very gracefully.
Rating:
Summary: You have to read this book!!!!
Review: When you're done reading this book you'll know why 9-11 happened, and you will discover the real enemy. He isn't necessarily a turbin-wearing brown-skinned fellow speaking with an accent. He isn't even necessarily foreign. In fact, he hides among us even occupying the highest offices of the land. This book exposes him and if enough people read it, the World will be a safer place.
Perhaps Dan Lafferty was right. Perhaps he was doing God's work by committing one of the most heinous, hidious crimes of this century. Perhaps God's design was to create a compelling story that a genius like Krakauer could use to expose the true enemy--religious fundamentalism.
Rating:
Summary: well written, well researched
Review: Jon Krakauer has long been a literary hero of mine. As a fellow agnostic, I have found his works to be a fecundity of insight and self-examination that result in an acute, if not critical understanding of the human spirit. This book reads incredibly well and weaves the stupefying history of the latter day saints with the horrifying murders of Brenda and Erica Lafferty. Ultimately, Krakauer makes the tacit polemic that the legacy of the LDS church, which is replete with both violence and polygamy, should not be underestimated when trying to understand the motives of the murderers--Ron and Don Lafferty. Although the LDS church is quick to distance itself from fundamentalist Mormon groups, which happily embrace polygamy, the history is undeniable. Both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were devout polygamists, and believed polygamy to be the most sacred of God's commandments. Many from the LDS church (and reviewers on this site) decry the book as being one-sided. It most certainly is not. Rather ironically, it seems that the ruling patriarchy of the church is the one in fact that is bent on presenting a dubiously researched and one-sided view of its history. To be sure, Krakauer treats all parties mentioned in the book with respect and dignity, remaining an objective narrator throughout the text. This is definitely a recommended read.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and discomfiting
Review: It's intriguing to read the reviews of those who paint Krakauer's book as misguided or poorly researched. This book is a well-written, well-documented overview of the current Mormon and Fundamentalist Mormon faith. He beautifully relays the history of the Mormon church, and then explains the schism(s) that have erupted, resulting in various sects of Fundamental Mormonism. This book wasn't written with the purpose of bashing Mormons; rather, it illustrates the bastardization of any religion that comes about when twisted minds utilize the religion to justify all their actions (ever heard of the Crusades?). To read about Dan Lafferty (a self-described Fundamentalist Mormon who beat his wife) guiltlessly explaining that God had told him to murder his sister-in-law and 15-month old niece is shattering. How can anyone reason with a nut like that? If you wish to stretch your mind, learn a great deal, and recognize that America's religious roots aren't nearly as flawless as most like to believe, then this is a great book. If you prefer to wallow in ignorant bliss, leave it on the shelf.
Rating:
Summary: Believe it...ignore the mormon skeptics
Review: This book is right on target and absolutely fascinating. Having been raised and active in the LDS faith for over 40 years and having been well tutored in it's history (from the LDS perspective I should add), I can tell you that the errors referred to by mormon reviewers on this site are minor and irrelevent to the body of work and the story Krakauer weaves together. It is an outside and balanced look into mormonism and Krakauer NAILS it. The naysayers that have already, and in the future, will continue to dispute and rail against this book are mormon (big surprise). The persecution complex inside mormondom still exists and they will immediately discredit anything that paints them in a negative light. If you are looking for fascinating reading and a peek inside the history of one of the most secret religions in the US, then this book is for you. As stated in this book, the doctrine of polygamy is no longer practiced in the religion, it is only actively practiced by fundamentalist splinter groups. HOWEVER, the doctrine of polygamy is still alive and is still taught in the current mainstream mormon scriptures as sacred and necessary to achieve Godhood in the next life. And contrary to the happy faces painted on the faces of mainstream mormon women, they are treated as lesser objects than men and bound to their husbands. Utah is the highest state in the nation in per-capita use of antidepressants...most of those using them are women. It is high in teen sucide. It is in the top 5 for bankruptcy. Child abuse (sexual and otherwise) is rampant in Utah (yes...by the mormon faithful) and only a fraction of it is reported. Don't let the happy faces fool you, there are some genuine ones there but there is still an undercurrent of darkness and disturbing problems in the mormon faith.
Rating:
Summary: Great Summer Reading
Review: This is an interesting title which is highly relevant to anyone who lives in the Western U.S.. The content is well researched and the writing excellent. Anyone who has ever wondered about the actual private beliefs of the Mormons (as opposed to the nonsense that's endlessly spewed in their ridiculous television promos) will find this book a worthwhile read. Why only four stars? While I can't really criticize the content of Krakauer's research or writing, the books themselves are not indexed well and the quality of the paper and binding is very poor.
Rating:
Summary: A Fantastic Study
Review: First off, I found this to be a fascinating book. Having gone to law school with several persons of the Mormon faith, I have always found followers of this religion to be an interesting blend of devote traditional religious devotion and modern society (for example on e friend who was very devout loved death metal music such as Slayer, Opeth, Messugah, etc.). Krakauer does a fantastic job with the subject. In most cases, he presents the information in a logical manner, and makes an honest effort to present both sides of the story. Although he is not always successful in presenting both sides, whether is be because the religious leaders or primary individuals would talk with him, he never condemns his subject matter because of their beliefs. This book has prompted be to find Juanita Brooks book about the Meadows Massacre and investigate the writing of Dr. Michael Quinn. My only complaint with this book is the sub-title "History of a Violent Faith." If one were to study almost every religion in the world, one common theme would be violence. All religions have been persecuted against (Catholics in Ireland, Buddhists in Tibet, the Mormons in Illinois and Missouri, Muslims in America, and the Jews just about everywhere in the world). In my personal opinion, the Mormon faiths persecution is nothing spectacular, nor is their violence against gentiles and other particularly shocking.... ...Krakauer's only criticism of the mainline LDS Church is why they feel compelled to ignore their past (such as Brigham Young's fanatical racism, the Mountain Meadows massacre, the unwritten church policy of blood atonement, and of course the blind eye towards the polygamist sects). Krakauer correctly and consistently mentions that these people have been excommunicated from the church, but members of these sects have so much identity with traditional Mormon beliefs that one would be hard pressed to tell the difference, particularly since Doctrine and Covenant 132 (plural marriages)still remains part of the official church text, while up until 1978 blacks were permitted from entering the priesthood (in addition to early Mormon beliefs that blacks were not of the human race). Many who read this book should understand that this book about sects and offshoots of the LDS Church, and his historical analysis of the church is done to explain why many of these sects have the views that they do. having read this book, and critically talked about this with friends of mine who are followers of the Mormon faith, I will take Krakauer's objective study of the church over the biased analysis of those who would hide the warts that are inevitably in the histories of all religions.
Rating:
Summary: Not an academic work...
Review: But then again, it never claimed to be. It is well-researched and well ballenced. In a time when the focus is on Islamic fundamentalists it pays to remember that every monothesistic religion has their share of those willing to kill for the faith. American holds a strange position of wanting to both allow all citizens to practice their religions and protect all the other citizens from intimidation or harm from those practices. It is high time we faced up to the inherent conflict and had an open debate on the matter. This book is not an attack on modern LDS, no matter how hard the Mormon reviewers try and make it one. It does explore the roots of the Mormon church, which you get the feeling the modern church would rather not have people exposed to, rather like the Spanish Inquisition to the Catholics. I appreciate his agnostic viewpoint, but then, of course, unlike the reviewer below, I don't think that researching the history of the church of latter day saints will necessarily cause conversion:-) Read this book yourself, come to your own conclusions and don't be intimidated by those claiming it is an attack on the modern church.
Rating:
Summary: An introduction to the dilemmas of the "American religion"
Review: As a moderate scholar of LDS history (wrote my Master's Thesis on the texts of polygamy), I found nothing new in this latest book by Jon Krakauer. However, I enjoyed the straightforward journalistic style of his other books, and I expected, and received, the same here. Other books document the history of Mormon fundamentalism in great scholarly detail. Krakauer, on the other hand, uses that scholarship as well as his own research, to adroitly weave several stories of Mormonism and show the paradoxical pattern of this very American religion. Because of that American-ness, I recommend this book to all Americans, Mormon or Gentile, as a glimpse into the history and character of this nation. In many ways Mormonism (including polygamy) was and is the ecclesiastic incarnation of Manifest Destiny. Krakauer makes an occasional minor error, which I note that the LDS church seized upon in their press release preceding publication of the book. I hope that Krakauer will use such criticism to correct those details in future printings and thus thwart efforts to discredit his premise, which is sound and remains substantially unchallenged by the Mormon hierarchy. By niggling over minor details such as the percentage of Mormons who attend the Hill Cumorah pageant, church officials fail to address head-on the dilemmas that constitute the two main threads of Krakauer's book: polygamy and prophecy. Modern Mormonism has found no way to explain much of its history, so it tends to ignore inconvenient evididence or explain it away as an aberration. As Krakauer points out, Mormonism is no different from any other religion in this regard. Its relative youth and plethora of documentation, however, give seekers greater access to the winding road that the faith has followed from Joseph Smith's backwoods occult to its current middle American stability. The fact is that the founder of the religion, Joseph Smith, had sexual relations with dozens of "spiritual wives" many in their early teens. Such behavior is morally repugnant to most modern Mormons, who were shocked at the kidnapping and rape of Elizabeth Smart. What differentiates Smith from Brian David Mitchell, Smart's abductor? It's a hard question for a Mormon to answer. Ultimately, it comes down to prophecy. In American fashion, populist Smith taught that prophecy is given to all people who seek it. The challenge of the Book of Mormon, given by clean-cut missionaries every day, is that its veracity cannot be determined by logical analysis (archeological evidence does not support it), but through revelation from God through earnest prayer. But what if someone receives relevation that runs contrary to mainstream church doctrine? Joseph Smith certainly claimed to receive such revelation in his day. Krakauer's book is a brief but compelling look at the conundrum of the modern Mormon church, which has abandoned so much of its history (polygamy, racism, blood oaths) in order to survive--and even to "fill the earth", as modern Mormonism strives and succeeds in moving into the American (and global) mainstream. Does history matter to Mormonism, or is religion simply a corporate brand with only one goal: to expand its market?
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