Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple by Deborah Layton

May 03, 2013 Maciek rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, memoirs, religion-atheism, read-in-2013, true-crime, reviewed

Even though the horror of Jonestown happened more than three decades ago, it will not fade into oblivion. Over 900 Americans - almost a third of them young children - perished in foreign jungle of distant Guyana, in what was to be one of the largest mass suicides in history - though for many it was a mass murder, one which left a tragic stain on lives of hundreds of people across the nation, some of them mourning their loss to this day. Jonestown remains one of the most gruesome cult tragedies i...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Sharon rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book should be required reading. Those who remember the horror of Jonestown remember mostly the bloated bodies piled upon each other, the stories of murder and mayhem that followed in the wake of the media hullabaloo. ALl too often I have heard the Jonestown cult members referred to as "crazies" or "mindless zombies". This book shows the slow and in many cases understandable development: how the initially benevolent aims and dreams of Jones' followers slowly turn to dependency on their lead...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was the second book I read about Jonestown, an autobiography from a survivor of Jonestown who was in the upper ranks of Jim Jones' organization, and whose brother is still in jail for killing the Congressman on the day Jonestown "drank the kool-aid." While "A Thousand Lives" offered a comprehensive view of how the church came to be, this book offers insight into how one individual came to be a believer and the effects it has had on every aspect of her life since then. She provides great det...more

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Feb 14, 2010 Hava rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: autobiographical, christianity, depressing-books, nonfiction-books, personal-memoirs, psychopaths

I was born a couple of years after the Jonestown massacre, so my knowledge of what happened there was extraordinarily sketchy. I saw a documentary on it come through check-in at the library (I work at the local library) so I checked it out and watched it. I was fascinated by it. I saw that one of the people being interviewed, Deborah Layton, had a book out called Seductive Poison. So of course, I had to check that out of the library and read that too.

I couldn't put it down, literally. I started...more

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Jan 20, 2010 Bren rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

With a decisive bent toward the dramatic, Deborah Layton-Blakely pens her memoirs of time spent in Jonestown, and under the influence of the leader of the People's Temple church.

Seductive Poison begins in a somewhat autobiographical tone, containing Layton-Blakely's early family history – that of her German grandmother meeting her American husband, escaping Nazi Germany, and her sad final days of paranoia and despair. Layton-Blakely's earliest memories are related to the reader, seemingly innocu...more With a decisive bent toward the dramatic, Deborah Layton-Blakely pens her memoirs of time spent in Jonestown, and under the influence of the leader of the People's Temple church.

Seductive Poison begins in a somewhat autobiographical tone, containing Layton-Blakely's early family history – that of her German grandmother meeting her American husband, escaping Nazi Germany, and her sad final days of paranoia and despair. Layton-Blakely's earliest memories are related to the reader, seemingly innocuous and All-American, with her parents treating her magnificently throughout her childhood. There is nothing which differentiates the youngster from any other American child in a loving, compassionate environment save for one critical detail: Young Debbie's rebellion lead her into the use of hard drugs (LSD and Speed, amongst others), leading her beleaguered parents to send her off to a boarding school in England, to live with her unknown aunt.

All of this detail seems superfluous, but it actually serves to set up the sequence of events to follow. As a child “sent away” from her family, the teenaged girl becomes a friend to the so-called “underlings” of society, the poor and overlooked. She feels akin to them, despite her background, because of her unstable emotions and behaviours.

So when she is introduced to the secretly Socialist cause, the People's Temple, in California, she becomes enamoured with the principles involved, and soon becomes inextricably intertwined within the inner workings of the group. Her family members (a brother, Larry, as well as her ailing mother) firmly establish themselves within the organization, leaving her father and two other siblings to wonder about the real purpose of the Church.

Seductive Poison never presents leader Jim Jones as a “normal” man who went astray, but as a raving self-proclaimed “prophet” who sinks progressively into a deepening madness. Since Jones had always seemed somewhat on the periphery of normality, it was his deeds and persuasive indoctrination which spoke for him – not his obtrusive, grotesque personality. Soon, too, even these assets gave way to the deepening chasm of paranoia within the man (and, as a result, his followers). Of course, by the time this became obvious to many, they had already become trapped themselves within the smothering jungle foundation of the Jonestown “concentration camp.”

“In madness,” writes Layton-Blakely, “there is no way to think logically.” Such practices as all-night militant vigils (known as “white nights” to the occupants of Jonestown), food deprivation, and intense, extended punishments for such transgressions as laughing or whispering amongst ranks, dissolved all sense of individuality, safety, and self-preservation. The followers merely followed, despite all evidence that nothing was as it seemed in this pretend “Paradise.”

Layton-Blakely successfully engages the reader throughout the middle and latter portions of her memoir by way of re-creating conversations and encounters, with tension mounting greatly toward the conclusion f her story. As a result, this non-fiction book reads like a novel, relying heavily on the histrionic effects of such a writing style. As with any memoir, there is little by way of verifying the accuracy in what the writer asserts, though in this case the historical significance of the events portrayed stand as sufficient testament to her words.

The book, now over a decade old, contains several outdated “updates” including the fate of her incarcerated brother Larry (who has since been paroled from his prison life), though as a document from a bona fide Peoples Temple / Jonestown survivor, the book itself is of great importance.(less)

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Oct 14, 2011 Faith Benshoof rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book Seductive Poison by Deborah Layton was a truly moving book. This story told about her young childhood to her partial adulthood as a survivor of Jonestown- a Peoples Temple Agricultural Project which was a somewhat kind of a cult. This is her story about how she had to do what she was told in the fields of the town and if she did not then she would be sent to the Learning Crew or the Box for an entire day of torture. This book starts in Toole, Utah, her hometown then was moved to Jonesto...more The book Seductive Poison by Deborah Layton was a truly moving book. This story told about her young childhood to her partial adulthood as a survivor of Jonestown- a Peoples Temple Agricultural Project which was a somewhat kind of a cult. This is her story about how she had to do what she was told in the fields of the town and if she did not then she would be sent to the Learning Crew or the Box for an entire day of torture. This book starts in Toole, Utah, her hometown then was moved to Jonestown in Guyana.
The overall theme of this book is the decision of what you think is best for yourself. This ties in with the book because Deborah had the decision to stay in Jonestown and work, be punished, and be under attack from the Concerned Relatives and possibly be killed. In the all out end, she decided to escape into the jungle nearby. Unfortunately, she had to leave her mother, father, older brother, and all of her friends. On the good side, she would get to see her sister Annalisa.
To begin with, Deborah lived with her mother and father who later divorced when Deborah was a little kid. Later, during her teenage years, she became a very rude and liked to argue with her parents, so she went and lived with her brother Larry and his wife Carolyn in Davis, California. Later on her mother, her older brother, and herself left and went to Jonestown, Guyana. She worked for seven years in the owner, Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple for seven long years while working in his fields in the brutal heat and rainy days. After those long seven years, she escaped and went back to the United States as a mission with warnings of disaster. Shortly after arriving in the United States, in November of 1978, the Jonestown Massacre happened where a ton of people were murdered. Her mother died a little over a week before the massacre and Debbie’s’ older brother never left his mother’s side. She tried her hardest to help her family left in Jonestown but she never succeeded.
I enjoyed this book after she got to Jonestown. In the beginning it gave details of her young childhood and about her mother’s life where there was hardly enough action to spark my interest. However, when she got to Jonestown and she had to work brutal days and a lot of fighting, war, and action was taken place this got me to keep reading the book as the suspense of what was going to happen next widened for me. For anyone who enjoys action and fighting with some mystery then I would recommend this to them because this is the book for them. Even though this was not my favorite book or genre of book, this was an interesting book.(less)

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May 17, 2011 Suzi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wow, this book was a great inside look of what it was like to be a part of the Peoples Temple and Jonestown. It kept my attention the entire time, and for the last 100 pages or so, the events got so intense that I could not put the book down. From this book I take away a heightened awareness of how people can be deceived into doing certain things and then trapped from escaping the deceiving party. I believe that this type of deception and entrapment can happen at a less severe level, such as in...more

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May 07, 2011 Sharon Buchbinder rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cults

A riveting read written by one of the few survivors of the Jonestown/People's Temple cult, this book describes the beginning, middle and final unhinging of a cult and its charismatic leader. At the end the question that will run through the reader's mind over and over again is: What would I have done? Thanks to Ms. Layton for her courage in surviving and writing this harrowing and chilling cautionary tale.

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Jan 14, 2010 Randy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think it's a good idea to start the year with a cult book. Get's one grounded so one can't be hoodwinked by some silver tongued devil who wants you to sign over your social security check, proceeds from the sale of your house and who then convinces you that safety lies in the steamy jungles of Guyana where he will harangue you day and night via a loud speaker and keep you protein deficient and sleep deprived and rehearse you in drinking the Kool-aid. The horrific mass suicide in Jonestown adde...more

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Dec 01, 2008 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Jonestown tragedy happened a few years before I was born, so prior to reading this book I knew very little about the People's Temple and Jim Jones. I saw a news story one day that marked the twentieth anniversary of the mass suicide, and I poked around online until I came across Deborah Layton's book.

Layton was a privileged, rebellious teenager when she was introduced to the People's Temple and the world of its charismatic leader, Jim Jones. She is a talented and passionate storyteller, trac...more

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Jun 24, 2009 Tori rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, cocktail-party-discussions

Possible Spoilers...for anyone who didn't know how it ended:

This book was absolutely creepy, amazing, and so emotional, I wanted to throw it across the room or at least punch some of the characters in the face.

I have long been fascinated about Jonestown everytime it was discussed, but I never realized why I have been fascinated. I finally thought about picking up a book about it after a work lunch conversation about it early last week.

As I read this, I slowly realized the cause of my fascinatio...more Possible Spoilers...for anyone who didn't know how it ended:

This book was absolutely creepy, amazing, and so emotional, I wanted to throw it across the room or at least punch some of the characters in the face.

I have long been fascinated about Jonestown everytime it was discussed, but I never realized why I have been fascinated. I finally thought about picking up a book about it after a work lunch conversation about it early last week.

As I read this, I slowly realized the cause of my fascination. Simple misunderstanding. Normal members of society cannot wrap their heads around the thoughts of Jonestown followers. Period.

It's unbelievable and appalling that people actually believed the words coming out of their mouths in defense of Jim Jones and his whack nuts ideas. Even more amazing to me is that there were almost 1k people that lived with torture, prison camp labor, and the dread of white nights. Why didn't someone start a revolt? If one person would have just taken the step of saying, "This is wrong. Let's go", there are so many of the characters in the book that I believe would have gone with him/her. At some point, most were looking for a way to survive.

How can any human being, when faced with death, say "We'll drink the flavoraid. Sure. Everyone form a nice neat line and try to keep the kids calm." I don't care if there were men with guns in the woods. I just can't understand why they didn't run. They all ended up dead anyway (from a very agonizing death and not nearly as nice as being shot) and they couldn't have all been shot. Surely, some of them must have realized this! Hell, the security people probably would have seen everyone bolt and ran right along with them.
I'm actually stunned that not a soul in Jonestown "took care of the situation" themselves when they realized the danger to the community and especially to the innocent children. Actually, anyone that held a gun in Jonestown had a chance at one time to stop this at some point. The fact that they did nothing, even when they themselves were disgusted with Jim Jones, is inconceivable.

Normal, functioning members of society would have acted different or have been willing to die trying to help themselves and others, especially to help the children. THAT is human nature. Layton gives her reasoning for following, but some of Jim Jones's ideas were so against every moral and right thing in the world that I don't understand why so many chose to follow him even when it wasn't a life/death situation.

In a nutshell, this book makes me doubt the human spirit and makes me realize that maybe, just maybe, the human spirit isn't what we thought is was.

Maybe that's why Jonestown fascinated the world.

Regarding Layton's writing, I certainly understand why she wrote this and at the end of the day, I'm glad she did. Her writing is choppy in places at the beginning, but this woman knows how to tell the story of the hell she lived for so long. The reader is on the edge of their seat, even though we know how it turns out.
(less)

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Jun 04, 2012 Old_airman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: public-library, religious-theme, non-fiction, autobiography, 2012

A must read book for all who are students of power and abuse of power.

Just prior to reading Seductive Poison, I finished Unbroken, http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/86..., a story of an American service man in Japanese POW camps. Although the stories were quite different, the central characters were demoralized and reduced to living for today. Both lives were controlled and ultimately could have been ended at the hands of the protagonist.

I remember going to college in San Francisco during this...more

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Feb 07, 2008 Lesley Harvey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Even if you are not the extreme Jonestown obsessive that I am, this autobiography of a woman who escaped Guyana is fucking badass. You can't not be interested, as far as I'm concerned.

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Apr 21, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

In 1994, Rwanda was the scene of the first acts since World War II to be legally defined as genocide. Two years later, Clea Koff, a twenty-three-year-old forensic anthropologist, left the safe confines of a lab in Berkeley, California, to serve as one of sixteen scientists chosen by the United Nations to unearth the physical evidence of the Rwandan genocide. Over the next four years, Koff’s grueling investigations took her across geography synonymous with some of the worst crimes of the twentiet...more

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Mar 04, 2009 Rena rated it 5 of 5 stars

Amazing! I could not put this book down. There are undoubtedly dozens of books out there dealing with Jonestown, but this one is written by a true insider. Layton chronicles her upbringing in order to contextualize how it was that she was lured into the People's Temple at the age of 17. As she chronicles her experiences within the cult, she speaks of her mindset and emotions as they were occuring at each very moment, not through hindsight's 20/20 vision. I'm sure that any book about Jonestown wo...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Donata rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: donne, saggi

Dopo essere capitata due volte per caso su trasmissioni tv che raccontavano le tragiche vicende del Tempio dei Popoli e di come il leader Jim Jones avesse convinto più di novecento persone a suicidarsi nel 1978, volevo approfondire, volevo sapere, avevo bisogno di una spiegazione. Cosa aveva spinto così tante persone a lasciare tutto e a sueguire Jim Jones in Guayana per fondare una sedicente terra promessa? Ci sarebbe stato un modo per impedire questo? è proprio vero che "A volte è la malvagità...more

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Sep 06, 2012 Bryce rated it 3 of 5 stars

Being caught up in a cult is one of those things that you assume "could never happen to you." Personally, I feel like I'm too independent, too smart, too questioning to ever be caught up with the likes of Jim Jones or David Koresh.

But Seductive Poison shows that everyone was caught up in Jim Jones' spell. Not just the poor and the minorities and the junkies with nowhere to turn, but influential congressmen, lawyers, politicians and business leaders. That's the point of this book, I feel: It cou...more

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Feb 18, 2009 TheSaint rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, non-fiction

They had to eat bug-infested rice. They had to use a communal outhouse with no privacy. They worked all day long, using hand tools clearing the jungle of Guyana for their “Paradise.” Why would the followers of Jim Jones subject themselves to such a horrible life? In Seductive Poison, Deborah Layton, a one-time member of The Peoples’ Temple, attempts to explain how so many people found themselves far from home, family and comfort and absolutely unable to escape -- even to the point of a forced ma...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Kathryn Bundy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, non-fiction

This first person account of the Jonestown tragedy read like fiction. I kept walking away from it, not because it wasn't good, but because I was afraid it would give me nightmares. The author's gradual descent into Jim Jones' cult, her determination to stay in his good graces and advance in the organization's structure, and the tenacity with which she clung to her beliefs, even when confronted with outside evidence, were very disturbing. Her own experience, once she arrived at "Paradise" in Jone...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Debbie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: true-crime, autobiography-memoir, nonfiction

I've been interested with the Jonestown massacre since it happened. I followed the coverage in the Orange County Register when I was an adolescent. In fact, I played a newspaper game where I checked every day to see if there was a story about the tragedy. I found one in the paper everyday for almost a year after it happened. I was shocked to learn that the church close to the apartment I later moved to, the one that had broken windows and a for sale sign on it, was the infamous San Francisco Peo...more

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Jun 17, 2011 Kristen Schrader (Wenke) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, religion

Much like watching Titanic, we all know the ending of the story of Jonestown. But in a story of no or few survivors, those left ask "Why?". I've been intrigued by the story of Jim Jones for a number of years, and like most people I'm always baffled at how normal people could have fallen for him. How could they not see that he was out of his mind? Why would anyone participate in a mass suicide?
Deborah Layton bravely recounts her story of how she went from a troubled out-of-place teenager to a te...more Much like watching Titanic, we all know the ending of the story of Jonestown. But in a story of no or few survivors, those left ask "Why?". I've been intrigued by the story of Jim Jones for a number of years, and like most people I'm always baffled at how normal people could have fallen for him. How could they not see that he was out of his mind? Why would anyone participate in a mass suicide?
Deborah Layton bravely recounts her story of how she went from a troubled out-of-place teenager to a terrified, paranoid follower of Jim Jones. Ms. Layton not only recounts the inside workings of the Temple, but also of her frame of mind and its arc as a result of Jones' manipulation.
I understand why people would have flocked to Jim Jones in the early years. Rather than judge you, he accepted and loved you (or so he said). He preached from the Bible lessons of tolerance and equality. The Temple provided a community of loving people who took you in - faults and all.
Layton details Jone's contagious paranoia, he sexual deviancy, and mostly his mind manipulation. He separated people from that community feeling, until they felt isolated and betrayed. He insisted on his followers tattling on each other and then berated or beating each other as a result. He divided and conquered. He weakened them until they lacked the strength to think for or stick up for themselves
Jonestown itself should be called what it was - a concentration camp. I was unaware of the physical and mental exhaustion that had put them into such a pliable state. It makes all the difference in understanding the end result.

Through it all, I cannot stop pitying Ms. Layton's mother. After her troubled relationship with her daughter throughout her childhood and adolescence, Mama Layton joined People's Temple mostly to be close to her children. After terrible sickness, she followed her daughter to Jonestown where her medication was stolen and she lived in a setting completely unworthy of a woman who had survived the Holocaust and cancer. I understand that Deborah had to leave her behind in Jonestown, but it haunts me nonetheless.

A gripping story. Well written and a strong attention to detail. (less)

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Feb 17, 2011 Josh Stephens rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book because I wanted to learn more about the People's Temple and what led up to the mass suicide. I should have done my research beforehand, because this book was a very specific, personal account of the author's time as a member in the People's Temple. It definitely discussed a lot of the specifics, which is what I was looking for, but there was a good amount of personal history in this book, starting from when the author was a young child all the way up to her experiences with Jim...more

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Feb 28, 2011 Ana Mardoll rated it 5 of 5 stars

Seductive Poison / 0-385-48984-6

I purchased "Seductive Poison" after watching the intense "Jonestown" documentary. I was fascinated by the story, and hoped to learn more about it - and the memoirs of the intelligent ex-member Deborah Layton, interviewed in the documentary, seemed to be the best place to start.

"Seductive Poison" tells the story of Deborah's life, from her rebellious teenage years, her indoctrination into the church at a time when she needed guidance and stability, and her eventua...more Seductive Poison / 0-385-48984-6

I purchased "Seductive Poison" after watching the intense "Jonestown" documentary. I was fascinated by the story, and hoped to learn more about it - and the memoirs of the intelligent ex-member Deborah Layton, interviewed in the documentary, seemed to be the best place to start.

"Seductive Poison" tells the story of Deborah's life, from her rebellious teenage years, her indoctrination into the church at a time when she needed guidance and stability, and her eventual escape from Jonestown. Her attempts to warn the outside world of the terrible conditions of Jonestown - where back-breaking labor was mandatory, sleep was all but forbidden, and torture was a constant reality - and to try to rescue the inhabitants of Jonestown were the stimulus behind Congressman Ryan's ill-fated visit. Deborah speaks heart-breakingly of the mass suicides, explaining that suicide was preferable to being shot in an impossible escape attempt... and death was preferable to the living nightmare that Jonestown had become.

I am grateful to Layton for her unflinching account of her life inside Jim Jones' cult. There is a wealth of detail here, and it is frightening and fascinating to learn that Jones was not simply a 'good man' corrupted over time by power or madness; even from the beginning, he was controlling and domineering, insisting that members leave school, donate property, and break up families in order to be nearer to him. I was disappointed slightly to find that there is not a very good feel here for WHY some of Jones' more outrageous behavior was believed and condoned - we must accept that his followers were intelligent, normal people, and yet it seems odd that they should, on the face of things, appear so gullible. Case in point, when Jim's "second-in-command" Carolyn goes missing for a little over nine months and returns with an infant - blonde and pale-skinned, despite the fact that the baby was "supposedly" the product of a brutal rape in a Mexican prison. And what are we to make of the fact that Jones insisted that all men (except him) were homosexuals? Why did he have so many married male followers who chose to believe this? Deborah, unfortunately, cannot shed a great deal of light on why an intelligent adult would choose to believe such things - she was brought into the church as an inexperienced, bewildered seventeen year old. She does explain that the constant lack of sleep (even in the early days of the church), the admonitions to speak or think critically, and the fear of losing your friends and loved ones (people who left the church were shunned) helped pave the way to unthinkingly accepting all that Jones said or did.

Possibly the most infuriating aspect of this book is not the actions of Jones, but rather the actions and inactions of the American officials charged with protecting Layton and her fellow members. US consul Dick McCoy stands out in particular, as if even half of Layton's narrative is true, the man comes off as being either criminally stupid or just plain criminal. The consulate does the absolute bare minimum to help Layton escape back to America, completely fails to visit Jonestown on their regularly scheduled basis - including failing to return to Jonestown for MONTHS after Layton's statement of the terrible conditions there, and steadfastly urges Layton to refrain from going to the press. Layton is surprisingly kind to the consulate, willing to chalk their behavior up to sheer idiocy and incompetence, but considering that the consulate was apparently aware of the fact that Jones was smuggling in guns and thought it was a joking matter, I'm more apt to wonder if some money wasn't changing hands. Even so, bribery can't explain the sheer apathy Deborah faces back in the states, with congressmen lazily asking her "why didn't you just leave" and apparently not grasping the fact that one cannot "just leave" a madman armed with guns, brainwashed guards, and the ability to torture and kill all your loved ones. Even brave Congressman Ryan fails to understand the depth of the situation and apparently does not genuinely believe Layton's concerns - that if anyone goes to Jonestown, they will be killed by Jim Jones and his terrified guards.

The lesson of "Seductive Poison" is that friends and family do not join 'cults' - they join organizations, churches, and peace movements that draw them in with lofty ideals, allow them to make friends and bonds within the group, and then prey upon them by making them feel that leaving the group will entail leaving all their loved ones within the group behind. I would also add that any organization that feels it knows better for you that YOU do and wishes to pressure and order you to conform (like when Jones urges students to drop out of high school in order to be closer to the church) is an organization that is using you for its own means, rather than allowing you to flourish with their support and advice.

~ Ana Mardoll(less)

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May 26, 2008 Terri rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Deborah was a rebellious 16 year old when she met Jim Jones and The Peoples Temple. As time went by she became a trusted member of his inner circle. But as he grew more paranoid and erratic, things started to change. After being in Guyana a while and seeing the overwork, malnutrition and harsh conditions, she bagan to question his message. Eventually fleeing at risk of her life. Only hardly enyone belived her stories. Jim Joens was charismatic and the could not believe he did what she was saying...more

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Jun 24, 2008 Rhonda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Rhonda by: Marisa

Deborah Layton was very corageous and thorough in writing this very interesting book about the Jonestown mass suicide. She was only a young woman when she first got in touch with Jim Jones's temple and got involved deeply with it.

The book is written in a way that the reader can follow each step of a member joining the cult, so we can track every single decision made and question it. It is interesting to note, following her narrative, that there seemed to be no highly unreasonable decisions, jus...more

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Jun 26, 2007 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

After watching the newest documentary on the Jonestown massacre, I had to read this and it seemed the best first hand source (since Layton was a close confidante of Jones and played a huge part in the investigation that led to the mass suicide in Guyana).

Naturally you would assume that Layton was one of the poor uneducated victims of Jim Jones' so-called charisma and promises of a utopian society where race, class, and inequality did not exist. But she was actually a privileged kid who was trou...more

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Feb 19, 2008 melissa rated it 5 of 5 stars

oh so fantastic was this book that I held off reading the last 80 or so pages because I didn't want it to end. I've long been fascinated by Jim Jones and Jonestown (I think this has something to do with not having been allowed to watch the movie as a kid. See, parents? If you forbid your kids to do something they will end up knee-deep in strange cult fascination) but this book revealed so many things that I never knew before. Like, Peoples Temple was actually socialist organization? And Jonestow...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Annie McCall rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookclub, non-fiction

HOLY CRAP. I cannot believe how tragic this is and I also am disgusted by the judgement of Larry who took the blame for it all and is still imprisoned to this day! He didn't even kill anyone! The people he wounded even fought for his sentence to be light. I can only shake my head at the "justice".

Everyone should read this book, it helps you get perspective and be more grateful of what you have and take for granted.

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Dec 21, 2009 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars

In the afterword, the author says that no one joins a cult, which I suppose is true. They join self-help movements, churches, whatever. She stops short of suggesting that it could happen to anyone, and I think it takes a special kind of desperation to hear someone described on the first meeting as the reincarnation of Jesus and NOT immediately say "Hey, wait. What?"

Regardless, gripping and well-written.

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Mar 17, 2013 Lisa Llamrei rated it 5 of 5 stars

Beautifully written narrative non-fiction. It reads more like a novel than an accounting of events, yet it's all true. The author does not shy away from that scary place, and she takes the reader along with her. A remarkable story of benevolence turned to tyrany. I f you've ever wondered how intelligent, compassionate people can be sucked into a cult, read this book.

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/345220.Seductive_Poison?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320432713l/345220.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/345220.Seductive_Poison?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple by Deborah Layton[/url]

Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple

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Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple

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