Reviews

Interesting Perspective

The author did a great job of communicating why and how she and her family ended up in the nightmare of Jonestown. She didn't attempt to make excuses, just explained her point of view.

linneamo's review against another edition

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5.0

Chilling and facinating... something you know you have no right to see but can't help peeking at btw your fingers

chelhet's review against another edition

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4.0

“People do not knowingly join “cults” that will ultimately destroy and kill them. People join self-help groups, churches, political movements, college campus dinner socials, and the like, in an effort to be a part of something larger than themselves… In their openhearted endeavor to find meaning in their lives, they walk blindly into the promise of ultimate answers and a higher purpose. It is usually only gradually that a group turns into or reveals itself as a cult, becomes malignant, but by then it is often too late.”

I won’t lie to you: “Seductive Poison” is an INTENSE book! This memoir was written by Deborah Layton, who is one of the few people to have survived the People’s Temple/Jonestown cult. If you’re not familiar, The People’s Temple was a cult lead by Jim Jones in the 1970s. After a mass exodus of the cult members to a settlement in Guyana, he forced the group to commit mass suicide at their compound (a.k.a. Jonestown). The author escaped the compound several months before the group perished, sadly leaving her mother behind. She gives an inside perspective into how people get sucked into cults, as well as the moments she realized the magnitude of the situation she was in. This is a really intense read, but it’s a good one. There are a lot of interesting parallels to the NXVIM cult as well: it’s scary to see how easily history can repeat itself.