Meredith Livingston

This is a very well researched book where the author did numerous interviews and compiled detailed information about Jim Jones and his life prior to founding The Peoples Temple. This amount of research lead to a very dense and heavy read. It’s not something you can breeze through, although with the amount of fascinating facts, why would you want to. I’ve listened to several true crime podcasts, so I knew general details surrounding the events that occurred at Jonestown, but I knew very little about Jim Jones.The book delves into his past growing up in Indiana and his activity in the civil rights movement. It sheds light on how Jones began as a decent humanitarian but then turns into a mass murderer, convincing over 900 of his followers to die for him. My only complaint is at times it seemed like there was too much detail and the cast of characters was so larger, it became difficult to keep track of everyone and their importance to the story. Specifically, there were individuals that so much detail was given and then they didn’t appear in the story again. Overall, it’s a great book and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the topic of Jones, or cult leaders, or true crime in general. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.