This is a very well researched book where the author did numerous interviews and compiled detailed information about Jim Jones and his life prior to founding The Peoples Temple. This amount of research lead to a very dense and heavy read. It’s not something you can breeze through, although with the amount of fascinating facts, why would you want to.

I’ve listened to several true crime podcasts, so I knew general details surrounding the events that occurred at Jonestown, but I knew very little about Jim Jones.The book delves into his past growing up in Indiana and his activity in the civil rights movement. It sheds light on how Jones began as a decent humanitarian but then turns into a mass murderer, convincing over 900 of his followers to die for him.

My only complaint is at times it seemed like there was too much detail and the cast of characters was so larger, it became difficult to keep track of everyone and their importance to the story. Specifically, there were individuals that so much detail was given and then they didn’t appear in the story again. Overall, it’s a great book and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the topic of Jones, or cult leaders, or true crime in general.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for my gifted digital advance review copy.

I have had a somewhat morbid fascination with Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple after watching a documentary in high school. For most, Jim Jones and Jonestown call to mind Kool-Aid (even though it was Flavor-Aid), mass suicide, and a jungle settlement. This book offers a deep dive into Jim Jones’ formative years and how the Peoples Temple came to be.

This was well-researched, thoroughly engaging, and very readable despite its length. I will definitely be looking into Guinn’s other works!

It was interesting to read about how it all began with Jim Jone's background, and the beginning days of the Peoples Temple.

"Don't drink the Kool-Aid" was the motto of my generation, which originated in 1978, when cult leader Jim Jones conned his worshippers into drinking a cyanide-laced drink in the worst mass suicide ever recorded in history. It meant, use your brain, question authority, question cultural norms. It was even hind-sightedly applied to Richard Nixon's "I am not a Crook" speech several years earlier.

Jim Jones is the subject of The Road to Jonestown. Starting with his childhood,, his humble start, his friends along the way. Jones was a touchstone in the Civil Rights Movement, encouraging all believers, black or white, to meet freely. "He seemed like a good guy." Isn't that what people say about serial killers?

You honestly have to read this book. After reading it, Jim Jones became less than a Mastermind Egotist than we have been taught in school. Mr Guinn did unassailable research to bring to us the full picture of this boogeyman that I grew up on. Still, question authority, use common sense, don't believe everything you hear... These are lessons that have informed my life and which I have passed down to my kids, and their kids.

Jim Jones and the Jonestown tragedy are worth learning about, but mostly it's important to learn FROM that whole tragedy. Please read it. But, more importantly, don't drink the Kool-Aid!

A truly fascinating history of Jones and the dark path he went down. The end of Jim Jones's road has become a cliche, a throwaway line, "don't drink the Kool-Aid," but Guinn digs deep and tells the full story. Well worth a read, especially for folks interested in the Midwest, as it spends considerable time with Jones as he fought to bring integration to Indianapolis before everything went sideways,

This book feels like the most comprehensive look you'd ever want or need about Jim Jones and his followers. It's a really deep dive into every aspect of Jones' life and the path his life took to end up where it did.

What I really loved about this book was how much of a grounded view of Jones it was. It was able to showcase all the good things he encouraged through his church but didn't talk about them in a way that was made to feel admirable. Guinn always made sure to highlight the less favourable things Jones was also doing at the time. He also did a good job at never belittling Jones' followers. Those who followed him were not 'stupid' or 'foolish', they were normal decent people who were manipulated by a very charming preacher.

Once you know the Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple story in full, the tragic events that took place in Guyana become even more tragic than you initially think.

Jones started his preaching from a very young age and his belief system was one of equality. In his early childhood years, he stood nothing to gain but torment and bullying from his peers on what he spoke about, and in the early years of his church Jones set about and succeeded in making actual changes to how Black people were treated by local businesses. He also set up support systems that genuinely helped people in need. But as time went on, Jones became increasingly paranoid and developed a grandiose sense of self that ultimately became his downfall.

At the end of the day, Jones' lifelong message was that all people were equal and all people mattered, but, in the end, he manipulated hundreds of Black and poverty stricken people to the point of convincing them that taking their own lives was the only option left for them. And for those who weren't quite convinced, he murdered them instead.

This book is a really difficult read, especially when paired with the pictures of the massacre, but if you're at all interested in this topic, this feels like the best book to pick up.

A stunning and riveting account of the Jom Jones horror story. Well written and full of fascinating social details.

Ever heard the phrase "Don't drink the kool-aid"? It is a common phrase that is often said in reference to people who blindly follow someone else. As the years' pass, the younger generations don't know where the phrase comes from, as I recently found out. I knew that it was in reference to Jim Jones and his cult of followers that died after drinking cyanide-laced Flavor-Aid (a knock-off of Kool-Aid because the cult could not afford the real stuff). The Road to Jonestown is exactly as it sounds, author Jeff Guinn goes back to the beginning and examines the life of Jim Jones and how he was able to lead a group of nearly a thousand people to kill themselves in the jungle of South America.

Jim Jones got his start in Indiana and from the sounds of it was always an odd little dude obsessed with religion. No, I think he was obsessed with the adoration that people thrust upon their religious leaders. For being such an odd duck, he had very progressive views in regards to civil rights and equality. Whether it was because he truly believed in equal rights or he thought that minorities were "easy targets" I don't know. The author alludes to several instances of inequality within his own church. The author follows Jim Jones to California, where they were seeking a sanctuary away from the promised nuclear annihilation. It is in California where things get really weird. Jones stopped referring to God and the bible and even praying unless there were people in attendance not from his church. Jones turned into a sexual deviant not to mention a drug addict. Using corporal punishment on the members of his church, rather than bring in the authorities for serious infractions. He made his followers turn over everything from 25% of their income to their children and property. All in the name of living a socialist lifestyle. When Jones felt things closing in on them he led his followers to the jungles of Guyana, in the hopes of escaping scrutiny from the US authorities. Guinn gives such a detailed account of those final days, weeks, and months in Jonestown that I was captivated. I just couldn't stop. In fact, I went right to my friend, Google, and was led to the actual recording of that final day. You see, Jones always recorded his sermons and even that last day, you can listen as he encouraged his followers to their death, you can listen to it all. Warning: Explicit Content

Bottom Line - You know me, I love to read a good psychological thriller. Even though I knew with 100% certainty how The Road to Jonestown was going to end, I just couldn't stop. Jeff Guinn has written a book that can only be defined as a page-turner. You don't want to miss it, really.

Details:
The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn
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Pages:544
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date:4/11/17
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A horrifying and tragic take on a real-life tragedy. It is thoroughly researched and feels complete -- you will feel like an expert on the event at the end. Its horrors parallel that of modern society, and it will stick with you long after you put it down.

The Road to Jonestown is the biographical account of mass-murder cult leader Jim Jones. This is an in-depth view of the man and the largest murder-suicide in American history.
This book was an excellent view into the life of a horrible man that caused a horrible tragedy. The author takes you on a journey that makes you feel as if you’re watching everything as it happens. I highly recommend for anyone that likes true crime.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

On a road trip starting from the Keys and ending in Michigan, my family and I used all 20-some hours to listen to Jeff Guinn's The Road to Jonestown. We had plans to take shifts sleeping but I'm not sure any of us did.

For those who are unfamiliar, Jim Jones was a socialist disguising himself as a religious figurehead who ultimately led his congregation to participate in what became the largest murder-suicide in American history.

Part of what makes this book so compelling is the build-up to the massacre. When hearing about Jonestown, you wonder how so many people could go through with ending their lives, and the lives of their children. Guinn helps us understand. Following Jones from his early life as a minister, you get a sense for the good that he did. For instance, I had no idea about the role he played in advancing race relations in Indianapolis. You can see why people would want to follow this man who preached about equality and offered solutions to their problems beyond prayer. His progression into madness was seemingly slow - hindsight is 20/20, after all.

Like Columbine, The Road to Jonestown was painstakingly researched. Guinn read FBI files, visited Jones's Indiana hometown, spoke with survivors, and even traveled to the site of the massacre in Guyana. There are so many components to this story and so many conflicting emotions, but Guinn brought it all together in a way that did justice to the people of The People's Temple.

Book received from NetGalley.

This was, in many ways, a hard book to read. I vaguely remember the photos on the evening news of the rows and rows of dead, and that has always stuck with me once I realized what I was seeing. The other problem was, I know many of the areas mentioned in the book extremely well. I've been through Lynn, Indiana. I've been in Reid hospital, where he worked, many times. My Dad talked about driving by The Peoples Temple on his way to work after the massacre happened, and mentioning that he had talked with some of the people there occasionally. When you know you've walked the same streets, that a monster has walked a book about that person takes on a whole new meaning. The only thing new that I learned was that Jim Jones had always had some issues, the drugs he used, the control over the people, and his need for power may have had some impact on what happened in the end, but he was just as manipulative as a child. The book also tries to show just how normal he tried to be, but something in his mind kept him from achieving that.

Jeff Guinn has gone where no author has dared to go before in his 2017 biography of religious zealot and notorious cult leader Jim Jones, head of his self-founded Peoples Temple Church, and the mastermind behind the infamous "Jonestown Massacre" that left some 918 devout followers dead in the fields of North Guyana.

What Guinn has done is expose the life of the down-trodden Reverend, from his days as a lonesome, neglected youth who was forced to roam the streets looking for food after school hours, his mother refusing to let the boy into the family home until such time as she was present; to his interest in the ministry, his love of children (he adopted quite a few of them), to his exploitation of African-Americans, who were, by all measures, still enslaved in the deep south: <i>wherever the white man won't let you in, I will,</i> he promised, at times breaking down doors to demand change and acceptance between the races.

Guinn approaches each phase of Jones' life, weaving a complex tapestry of self loathing, a genuine interest in helping mankind overcome their differences, to his final breakdown into violent paranoia. Written entirely from a neutral perspective, what Guinn has done is lay the framework for the advanced psychoanalyst. It was a brave approach: at times tender and, to this reader, maddening, as I, consumed by my <i>own</i> guilt of judgement (especially after hearing the alleged audio of the massacre at Jonestown online), found myself sympathizing - nay, <i>emphasizing</i> with the once troubled youth who would later become known as a villain.

I don't know what to make of Jim Jones - especially after this informative reading. Perhaps that is a good thing. There is a part of me that says the man was an out-and-out con who preyed on those in need; an egotist who had fantastical dreams of becoming a Messiah - and then there is the other, more human side, that reminds me of the old adage "those who do not learn from their mistakes (or the mistakes of their forebearers) are doomed to repeat them." Many times during the reading of this fascinating book I found myself feeling an innate sorrow for a man so clearly mentally ill, who wanted to right the wrongs of his immediate and past ancestors by trying - as best as he knew how - to mend fences and start anew - only to become, as most do when presented with feelings of adoration or idolatry, a self-appointed Savior of mankind - one who would, and could, expertly manipulate and, in a "God-like" fashion, choose the day of Armageddon at his own free will.

I would highly recommend this book to those familiar only with the tragedy but not with the boy or the man, and to any present psychoanalysts, or psychoanalysts-in-training looking for a neutrally written, entirely unbiased account of the man who would become a monster.

wasn't what I thought it would be. I was more interested in the Jonestown incident--I didn't read carefully. My mistake! Thank you NetGalley!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishing house and especially, the author, for the opportunity to read this book in return for my honest opinion.

I have just finished reading this book and I have to say, the author did an excellent job retelling such an in depth tale. I was riveted by this story when I was younger, I couldn't understand how people, seemingly normal people could be led to their deaths by one man. Reading this book, I understand a little better what led these people and this man to be what they became and to commit such an act. Jim Jones, was portrayed brilliantly in this book, he did not start out a mad-man, as we have always heard; these people, the people of the Peoples Temple, they were just like everyone else, they all saw in him what they needed and he was that for them. I am suspect of some of the recollections that some of the survivors gave, I feel that some of them have exaggerated their part of the story. But the author, did a great job. I was totally engrossed and read this book slowly, taking in all there was to know about these people who just wanted a better world for all of us.

I never knew of all the good the Peoples Temple did, especially in the beginning, you never hear this part of the story. There is no doubt in my mind, that these people, (including Jim Jones), changed the world for the better but somehow, the old story of absolute power corrupting absolutely, this is the tale, not a bunch of gullible sheep, but a bunch of would be revolutionaries whose leader lost his way with drugs and power and failed his people.

Excellent book. so detailed. five stars.

An exceptionally well researched and written effort. I learned a great deal of information that I'd never come across before. This ought to be considered THE source of all Jim Jones/town books.

A meticulously researched and detailed account of Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple, and the horrific massacre at Jonestown. Thoroughly accessible, although the exhaustive detail makes for a slow read, I found the book compelling, clearly written and balanced in its approach. Highly recommended.

very well written!! Totally my kind of read! I love love love true crimes!!!!.. I will definitely pass this on and get my friends to read it!!!

This book is simultaneously fascinating and horrifying. Guinn lays out the story of Jones' life and how he gained influence over so many people. It's sensational, yet also a cautionary tale of demagoguery, lies, and power.