Picked this up immediately after blasting through the Hulu serialized version of the book, and w o w am I still very much blown away by this narrative.

Having read a few Jon Krakauer books before, I definitely expected his trademark mix of exposition and adventure. I was not disappointed, though I was (not in a bad way) introduced to a bit more history than I expected. The show focuses on the awful (true) crime that drives the plot—the murder of Brenda Lafferty and her daughter Erica—and the Lafferty family that sits at the center of the horror. But the book's approach is actually a little opposite, feeling more like a detailed account of the development of the Mormon religion and especially the fundamentalist sects that captured the minds of Ron and Dan Lafferty with the murder case sprinkled throughout. It might interest you to know, however, that the Mormon history outlined in the book is every bit as captivating as the ways in which the Lafferty brothers used it to justify brutal murder and more. There were a few slower chapters and a bit too much detail about various polygamist families for my liking, but all in all I was totally engrossed in the story set out here.

One of the most interesting parts of the book came toward the end, when Krakauer dove into the central question of Ron's retrial (and really of the entire book)—does believing wholly in religion, which is by nature unscientific and not fact-based, make one "crazy" or mentally unstable? Where is the line between devoted and deranged, if one even exists, and what can be justified in the name of faith? Though Ron's defense team tried to plead insanity, Ron and his brother Dan both refused this label and also refused to concede they'd done anything wrong, even as they acknowledged the murders they'd plotted and committed. To reconcile these positions, and to refrain from simply labeling them insane and moving on, one must do what Krakauer does here—understand the religion that shaped them, as well as the fundamentalist perversions of it that led them astray. They aren't "crazy" in the legal sense of not knowing right from wrong; but they don't ascribe to the legal or societal definitions of right and wrong, instead leaning on religious ~inspiration~ and the voice of God to command them and ignoring the laws and norms of the country they reside in. Herein lies the problem: you can't expect to live in any (non-religious) society and disobey its rules without consequence.

Now, Ron and Dan (and most of the Laffertys) didn't WANT to live in modern society, but envisioned a state in which religious order would trump all laws and regulations. They ignore the foundational American tenet of free religious practice for all (including freedom from the influence of OTHER religions) and exalt their own beliefs as law. But without their own literal country, this could never work out for them. And sadly, their ambitions and rage against the transgressions of modern Mormonism brought about the demise of innocent individuals as well.

So if you're at all interested in the intersection of faith and secular society, and how things can go very very wrong when there is no balance between the two, you should definitely pick up "Under the Banner of Heaven"—it's a frightening, bleak journey at times, but also a fascinating one that'll open your eyes and teach you a ton about the first "American" religion.