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Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People

Tim Reiterman

4.31 · Rating details · 2,108 ratings · 249 reviews

The basis for the upcoming HBO miniseries and the "definitive account of the Jonestown massacre" (Rolling Stone) -- now available for the first time in paperback.
Tim Reiterman s Raven provides the seminal history of the Rev. Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and the murderous ordeal at Jonestown in 1978.
This PEN Award winning work explores the ideals-gone-wrong, the intrig ...more

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Hardcover, 622 pages

Published 1982 by Dutton Adult

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May 09, 2017 Jaidee rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: five-stars-books

5 "unfathomable, horrifying, despondent" stars !!

2017 Silver Award (Tie) (2nd Favorite Read)

I sit here and am uncertain on how to proceed. I feel numb, terrified, bewildered and yes shell-shocked. Since the end of March I carefully read this book with dark fascination and within the last week experienced nightmares, day terrors and profound disillusionment. My mood was dropping, my sleep suffered and at times I experienced heart palpitations. This morning my partner asked me to "please stop re 5 "unfathomable, horrifying, despondent" stars !!

2017 Silver Award (Tie) (2nd Favorite Read)

I sit here and am uncertain on how to proceed. I feel numb, terrified, bewildered and yes shell-shocked. Since the end of March I carefully read this book with dark fascination and within the last week experienced nightmares, day terrors and profound disillusionment. My mood was dropping, my sleep suffered and at times I experienced heart palpitations. This morning my partner asked me to "please stop reading this book" as he noticed these changes in me as well. I talked incessantly to him about what I was reading and searching for meaning and understanding around these historical events.

I decided I must finish this book today as this demon had to be expelled. I look over what I have written and am a bit ashamed for what happened in this book is not my history, my fate, my demise. This is the story of the deaths of 912 or so people at the hands of the most despicable of monsters the Rev. Jim Jones. Many of these people had difficult enough lives before meeting this dark savior but afterwards experienced a kind of hell that is unimaginable to most of us. Many of these people suffered this torment for many years before submitting to, of all things, killer kool-aid.

I, initially was going to write a brief piece on how the malignant narcissist is much more dangerous to society than a brilliant sociopath and then realized I was distancing myself from the horrendous suffering that took place to my fellow human beings. These events occurred before my birth up until I reached third grade where I vaguely recall hearing on the news about these atrocities. Luckily, for me, my parents and family shielded me from this and yet the story permeated society for a number of years and friends used to joke about poisoned fruit juices not really understanding what transpired.

I went into this book wanting comprehension of the personality make-up of Jim Jones and how events could transpire to a type of massacre. Alas, this did not occur, instead I am more perplexed and frightened of the world at large.

TIm Reiterman is a journalist that was in Guyana at the time of the mass suicide and in fact was shot and hurt by some of Jones' henchmen. He had been following this religious group for a number of years. His experience in Guyana is harrowing and yet he lived not only to tell the tale but to tell the story in a coherent, balanced and yes, believe it or not, an immensely respectful way. His writing is clear, logical, exhaustive. He starts with Jim's developmental and family history and moves forward to starting an important religious and social movement, to his incarnation as a self-made messiah to a tyrannical dictator to finally a deluded annihalator. We start in Indiana, move to California and ultimately end up in Guyana. I was at the edge of my seat for the entire time and although often wanting to escape I knew I had to stay for the ride out of respect for the many hundreds of victims. Jim Jones is one of the most complex and sadistic men I have ever read about. He humiliated, raped and ultimately murdered many hundreds of women, men and children. A bisexual monster so evil that a human mind could not have created him in the most twisted of fictions.

Mr. Reiterman writes:

But despite any culpability of government bureaucrats, investigators or politicians, blame for the Jonestown tragedy must ultimately come to rest in the deranged person of Jim Jones. His ends-justifies-the-means philosophy, paranoia, megalomania and charismatic personality must weigh much more heavily in the balance than any oversight, ineptitude, weakness or political exploitation by those outside the church. It was not the Temple's enemies that brought down the Temple, but Jones's destructive personality. The prophecy of doom had become an end in itself.

This will be among the very best books I read this year but unlike the others where I will have much desire to revisit them....this story will hopefully lay dormant deep within my psyche.

You lovely and poor people of Jonestown I sincerely hope that wherever you are after death that you have everlasting peace. ...more

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Jan 12, 2010 Brenna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites

“To me, if we never got further than this, it would be heaven.”

Reverend Jim Jones sat on his throne at the pavilion before a thousand or so displaced people – people he had lured away from their homes and families to live in a dense, predator-infested Guyanese jungle which he had told them was “Paradise.” The swath torn out of the thick brush and trees was done by the members of Jones' People's Temple movement, primarily a group of people not accustomed to such labours. In fact, they had moved f ...more

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Dec 20, 2017 Beata rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I came across the story many years ago but in fact it's the first time I've read a book on this tragedy. One can treat it as a warning on how easy it's to manipulate people who can't find their place on this planet and thus are terribly vulnerable. A very detailed research into the mind of a real monster and ordinary people's tragedy ... ...more

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Dec 29, 2009 Stefani rated it really liked it

Shelves: reasons-not-to-join-a-cult, charismatic-preachers-are-often-cra

In case you weren't aware, Jim Jones was one crazy televangelist motherf****, who led over 900 members of his People's Temple Church to commit mass suicide by drinking cyanide laced Flavor-Aid (yes, that's right, it was generic Kool-Aid)in the late 70's. Yes, this happened a long, long time ago, but yet it still gives me chills when I think about the mindfuck that Jones was perpetuating and that lots of people actually bought into it. Jones, according to the book, was apparently the Rico Suave o ...more

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Jan 14, 2009 Nancy Oakes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

Tim Reiterman was one of the journalists who accompanied Congressman Leo Ryan to Jonestown in November of 1978. His book not only examines what happened there, but goes back to the childhood of Jim Jones and the beginnings of the movement known as the Peoples Temple so as to "capture the lure of the Temple, to convey the thinking and personalities of not just disgruntled defectors but also of the heartbroken loyalists with something positive to preserve and remember -- and to unmask the real Jim Tim Reiterman was one of the journalists who accompanied Congressman Leo Ryan to Jonestown in November of 1978. His book not only examines what happened there, but goes back to the childhood of Jim Jones and the beginnings of the movement known as the Peoples Temple so as to "capture the lure of the Temple, to convey the thinking and personalities of not just disgruntled defectors but also of the heartbroken loyalists with something positive to preserve and remember -- and to unmask the real Jim Jones. And I wanted to humanize them all to get at the truth, to make the ending comprehensible" (5). To achieve this goal, he and his co-author John Jacobs did 800+ interviews, reviewed tens of thousands of pages of documents, tape recordings, video, and film. The result is a phenomenal book.

What really interested me the most, I think, was Reiterman's examination, starting with Jones' boyhood, of how exactly Jones learned to get others to do exactly what he wanted them to do. The people who came to the Peoples Temple and who became followers of Jones early on weren't coerced or forced into it -- they all had various reasons for being there and for embracing Jones' message. However, it was what happened once they were inside that matters, as little by little Jones began to isolate them from the rest of the world so that they came to depend solely on him and the movement. Reiterman shows clearly how this occurred, and how Jones, along with his top tier of chosen people, manipulated things from inside.

He also shows how when there were attacks on the movement (from the media, "defectors", etc.), Jones' paranoia only made things worse, causing him to do and say things that only heightened their attackers' interests in the Peoples Temple. It was this type of paranoia that led Jones to Guyana and Jonestown and ultimately to the horrifying events of November 1978.

The narrative is at times chilling, but very clear, based mostly on first-hand evidence and testimony. I very highly recommend this book to anyone even remotely interested in Jonestown, the Peoples Temple movement or in how otherwise intelligent people might find themselves in this sort of predicament.

Excellent reading; long, but well worth every second. ...more

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Jul 28, 2020 J.H. Moncrieff rated it it was amazing

I've read probably close to a dozen books on Jonestown, and this was the best (and by far the most thorough).

Tim Reiterman, one of the reporters shot during the ambush at the Guyana airstrip that triggered the Jonestown tragedy, is an excellent writer who told the story of the Peoples Temple through multiple points of view and personal histories. It's not just a book about Jim Jones and his depravities, though there were plenty of those, starting in Jones' childhood.

Since Reiterman did such a ph I've read probably close to a dozen books on Jonestown, and this was the best (and by far the most thorough).

Tim Reiterman, one of the reporters shot during the ambush at the Guyana airstrip that triggered the Jonestown tragedy, is an excellent writer who told the story of the Peoples Temple through multiple points of view and personal histories. It's not just a book about Jim Jones and his depravities, though there were plenty of those, starting in Jones' childhood.

Since Reiterman did such a phenomenal job humanizing the victims (too many other accounts have dismissed them as a "brainwashed cult" and survivors' stories tend to be very defensive--understandably), it was a very difficult book to read. It brought me to tears several times, and often I'd feel depressed after reading it. When I reached the final chapters, I couldn't put it down, but otherwise, I found I needed to take breaks from it. The world of Jonestown was a dark one indeed.

There are still so many questions left unanswered. Marceline Jones emerges as a tragic, heroic figure, but why didn't she use her influence to stop the tragedy before it started? After her disillusionment with Jones, his infidelities, and their separation, how could her "love" for him still trump the death of the children she loved? Why didn't Stephen Jones tell authorities what was happening at Jonestown, in the hopes of stopping it? And did Jones really believe in socialism and communalism at all, or was it just the answer to achieving ultimate control over a large group of people? Why didn't more people oppose the killing of the children on the day of the "suicide," since so many were disillusioned with Jones and unhappy?

Perhaps one of the saddest aspects of this tragedy is that Jonestown WAS working...until Jones moved there full time and ruined it. One wonders what would have happened if the community members had banded together and ousted him once it became obvious his paranoia and mental illness were out of control.

If you're interested in Jonestown and the Peoples Temple, this is the definitive book on the subject. ...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Debbie rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, autobiography-memoir, politics, true-crime

Tim Reiterman was a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner who was in Jonestown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 when the infamous massacre occurred. This book gives a very detailed chronology of the People's Temple, starting with Jim Jones childhood and finishing with the reporter's evacuation after the tragic events.

For the most part the account is dry and surprisingly boring considering all the prurient happenings around the People's Temple. I found that I really had to force myself to slog thro ...more

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Nov 26, 2018 Zella Kate rated it it was amazing

Shelves: crime, nonfiction, 20th-century-american-history, 20th-century-american-literature, cults

Reading this book over the Thanksgiving weekend made me eternally thankful for never having met Jim Jones.

Reiterman does excellent research and is an engaging writer. Jeff Guinn's Road to Jonestown still gets my vote for most fascinating Jonestown book, but Reiterman includes a lot of details I don't remember in Guinn's book. I also liked that Reiterman (despite his own involvement in investigative reporting on Jones and being wounded at the airstrip) doesn't keep needlessly inserting himself i ...more

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Sep 05, 2017 SAM rated it liked it

Shelves: biography-etc, 2017

I've never used the word 'Tome' to describe a book but it's an apt description for Raven. It's 600 pages but the physical size of the book is huge! When the zombie apocalypse arrives i'll be using this as a weapon.

At times this was a brilliant and unbelievable read. Exceptionally researched and well written, it was epic. Every other page i was asking out loud 'How and Why!!'. I could never imagine dedicating my life to one man but luckily I've never met anyone as manipulative as Jim Jones.

This ...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Marissa rated it it was amazing

Yes this book is long, but it is oh-so-worth the investment. I've always had a tremendous interest in cult leadership, and Jim Jones is probably the sickest and one of the most evil of them all. Reading this book, you really come to understand how one man, who clearly resides somewhere well outside of his right mind and is strung out on drugs (Hitler, anyone?) can get hundreds and hundreds of people to follow him not only to a remote island, but to willingly sacrifice their lives and the lives o ...more

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Apr 13, 2016 Annie Booker rated it it was amazing

I think is probably the best book written about Jim Jones and his People's Temple. I reread it on average once a year because the narrative is so tight, the scenes and people so well-drawn, the criticism fair and well-balanced, and probably because I keep thinking that maybe one day it will help me understand why this happened. ...more

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May 06, 2020 britt_brooke rated it it was amazing

Shelves: memoir-biography, nonfiction, religion-cults, best-of-2020

Reiterman, a journalist with the San Francisco Examiner, was injured during the Port Kaituma airstrip ambush. Four years after the Jonestown mass-murder/suicide, he published this detailed account of the childhood, rise, and demise of Jim Jones. As with all cults, the Peoples Temple followers intrigue me most. Fascinating and truly devastating.

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Dec 31, 2020 Katherine Addison rated it really liked it

Shelves: 20th-century, jones-jim, jonestown-guyana-1978

This is a massive biography of Jim Jones and Peoples Temple. (Yes, "Peoples Temple" is correct. No apostrophe, no definite article.) Reiterman was one of the reporters who went with Congressman Leo Ryan to visit Jonestown, which was the precipitating incident for the mass murder-suicide that, tragically, made Jonestown famous. So Reiterman actually MET Jim Jones and was nearly killed by his followers, which gives the biography a certain authority.

Reiterman has also done his homework through inte This is a massive biography of Jim Jones and Peoples Temple. (Yes, "Peoples Temple" is correct. No apostrophe, no definite article.) Reiterman was one of the reporters who went with Congressman Leo Ryan to visit Jonestown, which was the precipitating incident for the mass murder-suicide that, tragically, made Jonestown famous. So Reiterman actually MET Jim Jones and was nearly killed by his followers, which gives the biography a certain authority.

Reiterman has also done his homework through interviews and FOIA and digging in newspaper archives, so really presents the best and most rounded picture possible of a secretive paranoid megalomaniac.

I find Jim Jones fascinating in a trainwreck sort of way, because his ideals seem to have been genuine---he DID work for racial equality, although PT itself reinscribed the same old racial hierarchy, and he did passionately believe in socialism (which for me counts in the plus column when it's practical boots on the ground everybody-has-enough-food-and-a-place-to-sleep socialism)---and yet he is one of the most evil people of the 20th century. He twisted everything he touched---and was doing so basically from the beginning of his career as a preacher---until it turned into the horrifically egalitarian massacre at Jonestown. The people who committed the murders followed through and killed themselves. SOMEONE killed Jim Jones, which Reiterman speculates was not his actual plan. Jones talked about mass suicide a lot before he made it happen, and he always said that someone had to stay alive to explain, and who better than Jones himself? And there are some weird things about what he did at the end---sending a couple of guys off with briefcases full of money and guns, his murderous goons leaving the Cessna untouched although they shot out one of the engines of the larger plane (Jones had at least one person in his inner circle who could fly a Cessna), and although Jones died of a contact gunshot wound to the temple, the gun was found twenty feet away from his body, as if someone else made sure he carried through with the master plan.

That's one of the many unknowable things about Jonestown, including exactly how many people died and who they were. The US government and the legal system did a terrible job with the aftermath: "The authors had intended to include a complete list of the Jonestown dead but discovered that no such roster had been compiled. A list supplied by the court-appointed Peoples Temple receiver in February 1982 contained only 883 names---those 660 people whose bodies were positively identified and 223 who were presumed to have died at Jonestown. Receiver Robert Fabian said there was no way to account for the other 30 bodies found at Jonestown but suggested that many were children who had been born there. The authors decided against using the list, however, because it contained many omissions, some inaccurate entries, and other errors in the case of adult membership" (592).

The massacre at Jonestown is horrific and tragic all on its own, but it's also a sad fact that it eclipses the good that Peoples Temple did. The evil in Jim Jones ultimately overwhelmed the good.

This is a good, solidly written biography. Reiterman does his best to explain the unexplainable. ...more

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Jun 22, 2017 Chris rated it it was amazing

This is a very in depth book on Jim Jones and the People's Temple. A story so incredible it's hard to believe it actually happened. A very good read. ...more

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Oct 31, 2018 BunTheDestroyer rated it liked it

Very very dense and hard to get through. But it made me have a better understanding of the whole situation - I wasn't born when this happened - and the only thing I knew about was the Kool-Aid poison. I feel way more educated about this and very sad for all those people that were involved. ...more

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Jul 01, 2021 Tom rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction-challenge-2021, true-crime

For the bulk of its 600-plus pages, Tim Reiterman's Raven presents a somewhat spotty version of the Peoples Temple story that smacks of several degrees of hindsight and endorses a handful of "born bad" fallacies, inviting unflattering comparisons to Jeff Guinn's superior (and much more coherent) The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple. What salvages the book is the first-hand account of the murders of Congressman Leo Ryan and four others that precipitated the subsequent massacre at J ...more

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Aug 10, 2009 lp rated it really liked it

The tragedy in Jonestown (remember... the Kool-Aid Suicide Gang?) in 1978 is a story about a lot of things, and though Tim Reiterman did a great job telling the story in his book Raven, I felt there were things he was leaving out. How did the government not catch on to Jones' brainwashing and illegal activity? The beatings? The stealing? Not paying taxes? How is it possible that the families of more than 900 people weren't objecting to the sudden, FUCKING BIZARRE behavior of their loved ones? So The tragedy in Jonestown (remember... the Kool-Aid Suicide Gang?) in 1978 is a story about a lot of things, and though Tim Reiterman did a great job telling the story in his book Raven, I felt there were things he was leaving out. How did the government not catch on to Jones' brainwashing and illegal activity? The beatings? The stealing? Not paying taxes? How is it possible that the families of more than 900 people weren't objecting to the sudden, FUCKING BIZARRE behavior of their loved ones? Some of them did, but none of them who had members deeply entrenched in the Temple were able to pull them away. I'd like to think that if I was talking about suicide, miraculous (and obviously fake) healings, and claiming this random guy from Indiana was my Savior, my mother would fucking snap me out of it. If I thought she had joined a suicidal cult, I would drug her and bring her to Antarctica, lock her in my bathroom, or do whatever was necessary to keep her away. That's right, mamma. That's how much I love you. Lots of people dropped the ball, and Reiterman does not say who, exactly.

I picked Raven up in the first place because Helter Skelter is one of my favorite books of all time, and I figured this story would be equally thrilling. In some ways, it's creepier. Manson brainwashed some aimless teenagers to murder for him. Jim Jones convinced almost a thousand children and educated, settled adults that he was their savior and they needed to kill themselves in the name of socialism. (The two crazies had very similar childhoods, though. Both were pretty much abandoned losers who were looking for attention.)

So please. I beg of you. If I display the following behavior, please sit down with me and let's have a conversation. Smack me if you must. Let's be safe and expect the worst.

* I start studying Russian. Words on my vocab list: socialism, guerilla warfare, Hail Chairman Mao.
* I start shopping for warm-weather clothing and express interest in vacationing in South America.
* I start sleeping with an image of Jim Jones over my heart to protect myself from death.
* I adopt fourteen children and let them live in my studio apartment.
* I work for 21 hours a day and turn all my money over to a church. ("It's cool -- the end justifies the means.")
* I lose 40 pounds and my skin turns grey.
* I start referring to a human being as my savior.
* When you ask me what I did last Friday night, I say "Suicidal Ritual Drill".
* I've been deathly afraid of airplanes my entire life but I suddenly get my pilots license so I can start shipping cargo to South America for the guy I'm sleeping with.
* And oh yea, the guy I'm sleeping with is a "preacher" 40 years older than me, and he has a wife, ten mistresses, and fucks guys just to make them think they're gay.
* I move into a Co-op and will not receive your phone calls.
* Every time I see you, I am recording our conversation with an old tape recorder from the 70's.
* I burn a cross into my forehead. Oh, wait. That was the Manson Family. But look out for shit like this, as well. ...more

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Sep 19, 2015 Christine rated it liked it

I recently watched Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple on Netflix and found myself wanting to know more about Jim Jones and the cult he established. This book, written by surviving newsman Tim Reiterman, is the culmination of years of research of documents, tapes, and interviews with survivors of Jim Jones. It is incredibly thorough and can serve as a reference to all researchers of cults or the PT.

For all of the good points of the book, it is bogged down by a shifting timeline. ...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Bogdan rated it it was amazing

A gripping read about the story of Jim Jones and the People's Temple, this book is probably THE book you want to read if you want to know what happened in Guyana in 1978 and all the events that lead to the mass suicide. I would recommend it to anybody interested in cults, psychology and the general failure of socialism, top-down governance of people and the western/Christian ideology. The book is well written and well researched by somebody who was closely involved with the cult and it presents ...more

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Mar 12, 2019 Shannyn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, especially-appreciated, nonfiction, journalism-journalists

I have tremendous respect for Tim Reiterman and his co-writer, John Jacobs, after reading this. I've seen others describe the book as dense and, indeed, it is immensely detailed and, in my judgement, it covers just about every relevant nuance of the Peoples' Temple/Jonestown story. Given that the story of Peoples' Temple spans more than two decades- and this book was published in 1982, 4 years after the mass murder/suicide- "Raven" is all the more an extraordinary feat. Add to that the fact that ...more

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Aug 27, 2013 Will Ludwigsen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: true-crime, psych, sociology

Even without the fascinating subject matter, this book is a staggering work of journalism, digging into the life and church of a sick and secretive man with the help of terrified witnesses. As one of the victims wounded on the Port Kaituma airstrip, Reiterman also brings his own perspectives to the work as well -- perspectives that are unusually fair for someone almost murdered by the subject of his writing.

It's easy -- as any reader or viewer can discover in many of the other works "covering" ...more

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Nov 20, 2008 dianne (off seeking immunity) rated it liked it · review of another edition

thoughtful and careful - written by a journalist, not necessarily a storyteller; but it made me think about what precursors are necessary for an absolute belief, no matter how absurd, to swallow a normal person.
what precedes someone becoming a member of a cult, or falling into Mormon "obedience", or allowing domestic violence to succeed? is there a special vulnerability? a need, maybe to seek outside completion of an internal void? maybe just a thirst for community or acceptance?
repeatedly-- s ...more

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May 19, 2009 Eric_W is currently reading it

Interesting interview with Reiterman and Deborah Layton, author of Seductive Poison A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple on KQED. Reminded me of a very important book I read several years ago by John Hall Gone from the Promised Land Jonestown in American Cultural History, an excellent book. ...more

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May 14, 2019 Giulia rated it really liked it

I remember learning about this when it happened-The massacre happened the day before my 10th birthday and I will never forget it. The sadness that fell over the country was immense. I hope these kind of tragedies cease to exist someday. This book was full of specifics and details beginning from Jim Jones childhood to the deadly end. Excellent book for anyone who wants to know what really happened to the Peoples Temple. In addition, I loathe Jim Jones.

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Apr 02, 2017 Greg Fanoe rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

Probably a bit more 'exhaustive' (boring) than it needed to be, but overall it gave me a good understanding of the People's Temple. Fun fact, it was actually poisoned Flavor-aid they drank, not Kool Aid. ...more

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May 16, 2020 Rokiisun rated it really liked it

Oh wow. This book took me so long to finally get through after purchasing it in 2015 and deciding to read the whole thing cover to cover instead of just for reference.

I actually started the book somewhere around the end of March 2020 but it was only between the 16th of April and the 16th of May I really put the effort into finishing this one. In all the book took me anywhere from 4-6 weeks to finish.

For starters this is a huge book. At 623 odd pages it’s thick enough to be closer to 1240 pages Oh wow. This book took me so long to finally get through after purchasing it in 2015 and deciding to read the whole thing cover to cover instead of just for reference.

I actually started the book somewhere around the end of March 2020 but it was only between the 16th of April and the 16th of May I really put the effort into finishing this one. In all the book took me anywhere from 4-6 weeks to finish.

For starters this is a huge book. At 623 odd pages it’s thick enough to be closer to 1240 pages if it was condensed into a smaller book. It also reads like a massive newspaper article and goes into literally every single tiny detail, nothing is missed out in this book from the birth and early childhood life of Jim jones right up to the events (and after) of November 18, 1978.

It doesn’t primarily just cover Jim Jones’ life like other books (‘road to jonestown’) it covers other temple members lives too and their families and goes into great detail of the movement at different parts in its journey. From a Christian church in Indiana to a socialist movement in San Francisco right up to what some would term a ‘cult’ in Jonestown, Guyana.

The author was also present during the airstrip shootings and the media lead up to the final day in Jonestown and he goes into detail of his own experiences in the final part of the book breaking away from a third person narrative to more of a first person narrative where we can relate more to the author, his experiences and the experiences of those caught up in the events.

Whilst I enjoyed the research into Jim jones life as well as the research done into the temple, interviews (and first-hand accounts of those who knew temple members and aides well) my only criticisms are how it goes into far too much detail which drags parts of the book on a little, it’s still interesting details but there were parts which felt completely too descriptive for my concentration and how despite going right down into the tiniest of details, the author still gets some key things wrong (especially in the final part of the book such as Mike Prokes last statement to the press) and that was a minor annoyance given the book prides itself on getting the tiniest of details correct but for reference this book still holds up very well and shows how a number of factors lead to the events of November 18, 1978. It’s also best to bear in mind this was written in the eighties whilst events were still raw and before the FOIA where we can now have access online to documents through the Jonestown institute as well as listen to audio tapes made by the temple.

I think that the sensitive nature of interviews with both survivors, temple members and those who defected as well (as those who were became victims of the tragedy) was handled very well and sensitively too.

Another good book which is still a solid read, but nowhere near as hard as this one is Jeff Guinn’s road to Jonestown which I read this time 16 months ago and reviewed too. ...more

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May 24, 2018 Shannon rated it it was amazing

Excellent, thoroughly comprehensive account of Jim Jones and his cult. This book is often chilling and terrifying. Jim Jones was a total psychopath and, if one is inclined to believe in such concepts, truly evil. The book really makes you think about why and how people are psychologically brainwashed. I highly recommend this book.

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Jun 12, 2020 Tianna Moxley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Excellent and by far the most detail account of Jim Jones and the People’s Temple. Very heavy read, took three years on and off to finish (while reading other books in between). Must-read if you’re interested in Jonestown.

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Jan 29, 2018 Shelly Deluigi Coburn rated it it was amazing

one of the best history of jim jones and the story os jonestown

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Feb 07, 2018 Steve Kohn rated it it was amazing

After hearing Jeff Guinn on Fresh Air a couple months ago, I read his "Road to Jonestown." Didn't think "Road" could be improved on (please see my 5-star review), but "Raven," even with minor faults, is the book to read if reading only one.

That said, "Road" is better in some ways. It gives us much more than "Raven" about Lynetta Jones, Jim Jones's mother, who must have been influential in Jones's twisted mind. "Road" helps us better appreciate the influence Jones had with San Francisco political After hearing Jeff Guinn on Fresh Air a couple months ago, I read his "Road to Jonestown." Didn't think "Road" could be improved on (please see my 5-star review), but "Raven," even with minor faults, is the book to read if reading only one.

That said, "Road" is better in some ways. It gives us much more than "Raven" about Lynetta Jones, Jim Jones's mother, who must have been influential in Jones's twisted mind. "Road" helps us better appreciate the influence Jones had with San Francisco political leaders. "Road" is more concise, condensing paragraphs of "Raven" into a well-phrased sentence or two; indeed, Guinn is an excellent writer, and his book the better read.

In addition to "Road," another book to read would be Debbie Layton's "Seductive Poison." This lets us see Jones and Jonestown from inside the belly of the beast, from the perspective of a Temple member, and a highly placed one at that. Layton gives us many pages detailing her escape from Jonestown, showing us how hard, how dangerous, it was. She helps us see why so few succeeded.

The fourth book on Jonestown I've read in the past couple months is Timothy Stoen's "Love Them to Death: At War with the Devil at Jonestown," but I can't recommend it. Please see my 2-star review for reasons why.

And the most recent book I've read -- indeed the last, as I now think I've come to understand what happened and why -- is "A Thousand Lives," by Julia Scheeres. Maybe the best book of the five about Jonestown itself, so go to "Road" and "Raven" for Jim Jones, but "Lives" for the catastrophe of Jonestown.

My minor complaints about "Raven" mostly have to do with the author's description of November 18th (the day of the murders in Guyana). He gives us more detail than we (OK, I) want. But he was there, in fact, was shot by the same guns that killed Congressman Ryan and four others. It's understandable for him to tell us everything about his escape and the nervous night waiting for help. But another author -- as Guinn in fact did -- would have condensed the report and put the attention to what was happening around Jim Jones at that time -- as Scheeres did.

So the fault of "Raven" -- too much detail -- is in the end why it's better than "Road." (If nothing else, it's about 150 pages longer, has nine more lines per page, and uses smaller font.) Some benighted reviewers have complained that "Raven" is too long. Not me. Even when I might complain about it, I'm grateful to the author as he lets us sieve out what's not important.

Not addressed by Guinn in his 2016 "Road" was what later happened to those who swallowed Jim Jones's figurative koolaid, those committed socialists and integrationists who thought Jones almost a god, but who didn't die at Jonestown. Reiterman does give us a little of this, but his book was published in 1982, just a few years after November 18, 1978. I'm so curious what happened to those, both the small number of defectors and the hundreds still loyal to Peoples Temple in California, after the catastrophe of Jonestown. How did people deprogram? Are there some who never did? (Like Michael Prokes, who committed suicide four months after November 18th.) Do some feel guilt over their actions, and if so, are they perhaps involved in stopping other cults like Scientology? Question after question on the after-effects of this evil madman's power over so many.

Again, all we need to read is Reiterman. If we're obsessed, as I might be, we read Guinn, Layton, Scheeres and Reiterman, probably in that order.

We should also go to the website "Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple." It's one we can stay lost in for months (at the risk of madness, I fear), but should be visited at least once.

Also necessary -- to putting faces to names if nothing else, but more, to grasp a sense of the loss of life on November 18, 1978 -- is the documentary "Jonestown: the Life and Death of Peoples Temple" (PBS, American Experience, 2007). In only a couple hours, to include the valuable additional features, it cannot possibly include all the facts in the books, but it is imperative viewing, reminding us that a picture can indeed be worth a thousand words.

Tim Reiterman was a journalist at a San Francisco newspaper. It was his job to be at Jonestown on November 18, his job to write this book about Jim Jones. Still, he deserves our gratitude and kudos for doing it so well. ...more

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