Faith is a really powerful thing. It can make us do some crazy things like watch the second Wonder Woman movie because we have faith in Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman (it was not good). It can make us choose to marry someone because we believe they are the one person for us. But for Dan and Ron Lafferty, their faith in the fundamentalist Mormon religion drove them to murder.
In our next read, Under the Banner of Heaven, author Jon Krakauer deep dives the world of fundamentalist Mormonism. Krakauer tells the story of the brutal murder of Brenda Lafferty and her infant daughter, while also telling the reader about the history of how Mormonism and its fundamentalist branch came to be.
The lovely and very talented, Ella Kopeikin, joins me to discuss why this book made us take us a pause and ask ourselves, "What the F***?"
In this episode we cover:
- Why Jenna couldn't finish this book.
- Why Ella made us read this really tough hang of a book. Yes, it's ridiculously well-researched and an important topic, but do I really want to read about a man marrying his stepdaughters with my morning coffee? Not really.
- What faith looks like in all of it forms from religion to pop culture.
Grab a drink, open the book, and press play on the saddest and roughest book review that we have ever done.
Mentioned in the Pairings section of the podcast:
- The Handmaid's Tale (Book and TV Show)
- Educated by Tara Westover (Book)
- Unorthodox (TV Show)
- Spotlight (Movie)
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Once you're done listening, hop onto our Instagram and TikTok @rwreadspodcast to give us your thoughts on the discussion and the book. We look forward to hearing from you!