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Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'
Koresh: The True Story of David Koresh and the Tragedy at Waco by Stephan Talty
2 reviews
fromtheyellowchair's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Murder, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury
glennarochelle's review against another edition
dark
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Overall a solid biography of Koresh with a lot of insight into his life as Vernon Wayne Howell, and his early days as David Koresh - the kinds of things that didn’t cement themselves in the public consciousness in the aftermath of Waco - but at times the style was a bit too colloquial for me. There was also one glaring factual error that I spotted during reading (Kiri Jewell, Koresh’s youngest and perhaps best known SA victim, was 10 when she was assaulted by him, not 13 as written) that makes me wonder which other facts may have been misrepresented accidentally or otherwise.
But, based on what I know of Waco it was a fair account that accurately portrays the carelessness and cruelty of some of the decision makers in the ATF and FBI that led to the completely botched raid while also not giving the Davidians the pass that so many people who blame the government tend to. Talty recognizes there is a lot of nuance in this situation - both sides can actually be wrong, and in the conflict between the Davidians and the government, they both were.
I wish the epilogue about the boom in far right militia activity were a bit more in-depth, but there are other Waco books that cover that aspect more thoroughly, so it’s hard to blame Talty for giving those consequences more of a passing mention.
But, based on what I know of Waco it was a fair account that accurately portrays the carelessness and cruelty of some of the decision makers in the ATF and FBI that led to the completely botched raid while also not giving the Davidians the pass that so many people who blame the government tend to. Talty recognizes there is a lot of nuance in this situation - both sides can actually be wrong, and in the conflict between the Davidians and the government, they both were.
I wish the epilogue about the boom in far right militia activity were a bit more in-depth, but there are other Waco books that cover that aspect more thoroughly, so it’s hard to blame Talty for giving those consequences more of a passing mention.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Fire/Fire injury
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