Some people should never meet. Two of those include Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell. Lori was an attractive woman who was on her fourth marriage. She had three children, a son and daughter by her third husband and an adopted son with her fourth husband, a millionaire named Charles Vallow. Charles also had two biological sons from a prior marriage who spent summers and holidays with the couple. Chad Daybell had made a name for himself as an author and publisher specializing in Mormon literature. He held conferences where he was the keynote speaker and had a following for his teachings and prophecies about the end times that he saw coming. He had married his childhood sweetheart, Tammy, and they had five children.

Both Chad and Lori were members of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Both were interested in radical prophecies. And once they met each other, each was interested in the other and saw themselves as slated to be together. Before they managed to make that vision come true with their marriage, death surrounded them. Both Lori's husband and Chad's wife were murdered as was her two children, Tylee from her fourth marriage and JJ, the son that she and Charles had adopted. Lori's brother was also dead from natural causes and he was suspected of doing most of the murders to protect his sister. He had gone to jail for tasering her third husband who Lori had accused of being a pedophile. He shot Charles Vallow and claimed self-defense and is suspected of killing both of Lori's children.

The trials of this couple are still ongoing. Lori has already been convicted of conspiracy in the deaths of her children and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Chad's trial is upcoming for six charges of murder conspiracy. Many are convinced that Lori fell under Chad's spell and would never had done the crimes she did without being convinced that the end of the world was coming and that her children were possessed and could only be cleansed by killing them. Regardless of whether that is true, what is true is that if this couple had never met, at least four people would probably be alive.

John Glatt was born in London and moved to the United States after working on newspapers there. He is known for his books about true crime and his five biographies. In addition to this book, he has written about the murders of Alex Murdaugh in South Carolina and Chris Watts, a family annihilator. This work clearly lays out the early lives of both of the couple and establishes a timeline of the crimes that are so hard to believe. I listened to this book and the narrator read in a direct, no nonsense, lay out the facts tone. This book is recommended for true crime readers.

I loved this book! Thank you for the ARC. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that I wasn’t leaving reviews on netgalley and was solely sharing on Instagram. My apologies. Huge fan of this author! I actually received the tangible copy. Trying to clean up my netgally account.

As a true crime junkie I knew about this case. However there were several things I didn’t. The narrator did a great job!

Thank you to the publisher, Tantor audio and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. This is my honest review.

Glad I watched the Netflix documentary before listening to this audiobook, however this book definitely had a few more details in it than the documentary had, so it really helped put some of the missing pieces of the puzzle together for me. Would LOVE to hear Lori’s side of the story without all her barriers up. John Glatt is simply great at what he does, hence why he’s such a successful writer. Really interesting read. Would recommend to anyone who enjoys true crime, or even some lovers of memoirs. A-

(ALC received from NetGalley in exchange for honest review. Thank you.)

I followed this Vallow case when it was happening and thought I knew it all.

This is the second book I've read on this topic and every bit of information I learn is even more horrifying. As a mother, I cannot imagine the things this woman his done, let alone to her own children.

This book was written in such a way that you find yourself engrossed in the back stories of Lori and Chad. And the details of what happened and the aftermath are absolutely chilling.

It's a bizarre, heartbreaking story. And if I didn't know it was actually true crime, I'd say it's almost too far fetched to be real.

I like many others around the world was captivated but this story. What type of mother was Lori that she could just be vacationing in Hawaii with her new husband having no concerns for her missing children. A cold heartless mother as evident in the data presented in the case. It was such a sad feeling when Tylee and JJ's bodies were finally discovered but at the same time at least the discovery of their bodies were able to help find justice for them.

I don't remember some of the details in this book being in the media. Reading this book is in its own way a horror story. Just because of how heinous the murders were carried out. What I did really like about this book is the way that Mr. Glatt found that right balance of providing facts but not giving so much that reading this book I got bogged down by too many details.

Thank you NetGalley and John Glatt for this audiobook copy of The Doomsday Mother. This is the terrible true story of a small group of people that used their beliefs to murder people, including two children. They were very manipulative, knew how to sidestep authorities, and got away with it for a long time. I was slightly familiar with the case and learned a lot about the people involved and how they managed to continue in their fantasy. Parts of the audiobook were dry and a little boring but overall was well done. The narrator did a nice job.

One of the perks of being a librarian is access to @netgalley for advance copies of upcoming releases. For whatever reason I have never used this site until now. Their audiobook selection is a bit limited, but I decided to give The Doomsday Mother: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and The End of an American Family by John Glatt a try. I hadn’t followed this sad story too closely at the time it was unfolding so I was glad to get such a thorough examination of the case as well as the histories of all involved. The narrative struck me as a tad sensationalist (Lori used to dress provocatively and draw attention to herself as a young woman! The horror!) but probably not more so than other books of this genre, and not especially lurid in its laying out of events. Some of the details in the events that led to five (by my count) deaths are shocking and some are almost comical - Chad Daybell was brought down because he sent a text claiming to have seen a raccoon during the daytime when the detective knew they’re nocturnal animals - but the evidence of mental illness is strong and heartbreaking. I think this book was released today so pick it up if you like cult-adjacent true crime. 4 out of 5 zombies.

A hard listen. An horrific story about some gruesome people. The book reads like a longform podcast which made it easy to get through in good time. It's reasonably well constructed, keeps the pace up, is suspenseful without being overly sensational. Narrator is good, does the job well. Thanks!

I was interested in giving this book a try since I followed the story a little bit. I became familiar with the significant events and watched videos on interviews and other members of the True Crime community on this case. Having said that, I liked that the book did give me some more insight into Lori's life, and I can say it had some information I had never heard before. The research is great, but I can't give it more than three stars because I found it really dry and kind of boring. It may be since I was familiar with the case, or maybe I prefer watching true crime over reading or listening to a book. If you are very interested in a little more insight I would say go for it, but for the regular person (not that into true crime) you may just want to stick to a youtube video explaining the whole story.
#TheDoomsdayMother #NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advanced copy of this audiobook! So before reading this, I was pretty knowledgable about Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell, from some podcasts and TV specials. However, I learned sooo much more from this book. And it made the case seem even more wild and of course more sad. The author was given access to texts and emails sent by Lori and Chad, which helped explain some things. There is still so much that's not known with Alex Cox also dead and that neither of their trials have happened yet. Also, the narrator is British and great with just a neutral tone for the audiobook.

Thank you Netgalley and Tantor Audio for this advance listener copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book wasn't bad. It's a very interesting true crime story and is a very quick listen, but the presentation was a bit dry. It felt like there were too many people talked about that didn't need to be. It was difficult to keep the names straight. It would have also been much better if it was not the audiobook. I actually prefer audiobooks to print books, except for in a rare instance and this is that instance. I just didn't like the narrator. He was very bland.

All in all, I give this 3 stars. Good story, poor audio. Quick read. I finished it in less than a day.

This was a really good read and a very shocking true crime book. I just couldn't believe that there is people out there that could do such a thing. I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator did a brilliant job at creating such a tense atmosphere. In fact there was so much atmosphere I was rather spooked by thus true story. Which has never happened to me. It shocked me so much I just couldn't get my head around how weird people in our world can be. How people can be brainwashed so easily. This book had obviously been brilliantly researched and all the information delivered in such a superb way I just kept thinking it was a thriller then it would hit oh my gosh its a true story. It was that shocking I wished it was a work of fiction. This would definitely be a brilliant book for all those who love shocking true crime cases.

Many thanks to the author and publishers for bringing such a horrific and shocking true crime case for us all the read. I will definitely be looking out for more books by this author as the flow of this book just made me become so engrossed in the story. 

The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/the-doomsday-mother-by-john-glatt-tantor-audio-4-stars either under my name or ladyreading365 or lady Reading365 or ladyc reading

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Doomsday Mother by John Glatt.

Like so many people, I was terrified and fascinated by this story, particularly because it was so slow to unfold. We remember when the children went missing. We remember when this, seemingly normal and attractive couple, were finally picked up in Hawaii. And we remember being devastated with the children's remains were finally found. It took forever for the couple to get charged with their murders and we still wait today for sentencing.

This book does a great job diving into the backgrounds of this couple, where they began, and how they ended up spiraling so hard in their culty religious philosophies, that they were willing to take the lives of people who loved and trusted them. I appreciated how clearly the author pieced the story together, it was easy to follow from beginning to end. It was infuriating to read without the author having to interject any personal opinion or speculation.

I love all true crime, but this one was heavily detailed which drew away from the story. Too many details or history made me get bored of it and not want to pick it up anymore.

I'd heard about this case before, but I had no idea how deep it ran... Glatt provides us with an extensive backstory on Vallow and Daybell as well as a variety of other players in this crime. That being said, it did get a little confusing at times since there was just so much information dumped on me at once. Not that this is Glatt's fault since this is non-fiction, but I felt that all the names were so similar so I kept forgetting who was who.
Also, I knew Mormonism was a cult and generated many spin-off cults of it's own, but jfc the delusions perpetuated by Vallow and Daybell were truly disturbing. In my opinion, I think Daybell was the dominant partner in this and manipulated Vallow into participating in his crimes. This isn't me saying that Vallow is innocent, she isn't, but I believe that if she never met Daybell, Tylee and JJ would still be alive.
That being said, I'm not sure why Glatt chose the title "The Doomsday Mother" when it was clearly Daybell who held the strongest doomsday delusions and clearly called the shots.
**My rating is based solely on Glatt's ability to convey the story and keep my attention.**

This was one crazy story, the narrator did a great job id never heard this story before and it was well written and executed so that one could follow and understand what happened

I have to confess that I am usually not into true crime but woooow this one was a chiller.
Sometimes while listening to this story I was not sure if this was fiction or real life.
The Doomsday Mother follows the story of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell.
Lori's children JJ and Tylee went missing and what follows is a disturbing and terrifying story of what has happened... Unbelievable!
Thanks a lot #NetGalley #Tantor Audio for the Audiobook of the Doomsday Mother

The Doomsday Mother is a well researched book about the tragic murder of two children at the hands of Lori Vallow and her husband Chad Daybell. The book is well researched and the abundance of details are easy to follow. This couple has been on many news shows and podcasts but this book gives you the sweeping history of these two doomsday fanatics and 'how we got here'. These two are in jail awaiting trial but have been indicted on murder charges, both of the children and of their former spouses.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars

If you haven't heard of The Doomsday Mother, let me fill ya in real quick! Meet J.J., a 7 year old autistic boy and Tylee, a 16 year old girl, who disappear without a trace in the world. Now meet Lori, their mother, who goes from an amazing doting mother, who honestly should get mother of the year, to an extreme believer of the world coming to an end and there will only be 144,000 survivors, and refusing to answer Where Her Children are!

The Doomsday Mother delves into the lives of Lori Vallows and her most recent husband Chad Daybell, and their extreme beliefs, that led to a series of murders. This story swept the news and went national when her 2 children went missing and she refused to answer any questions or give any information about the whereabouts of J.J. and Tylee.

I am completely fascinated with this story. I first heard about it on a Dateline episode and became obsessed. What could make a mother do such horrible things? Why did she go from this perfect woman, to this obsessed and deranged woman? What was she thinking?

You learn a lot in this book about Lori and Chad's background. What they were like when they were kids, how their relationships were with their siblings, how they came about this religious belief, and the most recent of the charges. I did find it fascinating and honestly a little disturbing, when they dwelled into Lori and her brother, Alex's relationship.

The reason I only gave it 3.5 stars was honestly there was nothing that i didn't really know about already from watching the Dateline episodes. Yes, you get more background details but I honestly wished they would have focused a little more on the crimes and waited to write a book until they were prosecuted. Being a true crime book, I wish more effort was put there.