A Thousand Lives

The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown

By: Julia Scheeres

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

They left America for the jungles of Guyana to start a better life. Yet what started as a Utopian dream soon devolved into a terrifying work camp run by a madman, ending in the mass murder-suicide of 914 members in November 1978.

In A Thousand Lives, the New York Times best-selling memoirist Julia Scheeres traces the fates of five individuals who followed Jim Jones to South America as they struggled to first build their paradise, and then survive it. Each went for different reasons - some were drawn to Jones for his progressive attitudes towards racial equality, others were dazzled by his claims to be a faith healer. But once in Guyana, Jones' drug addiction, mental decay, and sexual depredations quickly eroded the idealistic community.

For this groundbreaking book, Scheeres examined more than 50,000 pages of newly released documents that the FBI collected from the camp after the massacre - including diaries, crop reports, and letters that were never sent home - as well as hundreds of audiotapes of Jones addressing his group.

Scheeres's own experience at a religious boot camp in the Dominican Republic, detailed in her unforgettable debut memoir Jesus Land, gives her unique insight into this chilling tale.

Haunting and vividly written, A Thousand Lives is a story of blind loyalty and daring escapes, of corrupted ideals and senseless, searing loss.

©2011 Julia Scheeres (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Chilling and heart-wrenching, this is a brilliant testament to Jones's victims, so many of whom were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time." ( Publisher's Weekly)

"Scheeres shows great compassion and journalistic skill in reconstructing Jonestown’s last months and the lives of many Temple members (including a few survivors).... [A] well-written, disturbing tale of faith and evil." ( Kirkus)

"Julia Scheeres' A Thousand Lives... tells the tragic tale of Jonestown - in its way, a peculiarly American apocalypse." ( Los Angeles Times)

Haunting, must listen

A fascinating and tragic book that is very well written and researched. A Thousand Lives tells the haunting story of the rise and fall of The People's Temple, offering insight into how so many people could come to such an horrific end. This tale will stay with you long after it's ended. The narration is superb and the story unforgettable. You will not regret this listen!

super depressing but well written.

also read Jesus land. this story was heartbreaking. takes you to a very dark place

If You Like Books About Cults...

If you like books about cults, which I'm oddly fascinated by, you'll love this. It's a ton of info taken straight from primary documents, tapes, videos, and diary entries to paint a thorough, fair, presentation of the mass suicide at Jonestown.

The narrator's voice is lovely and soothing - providing a stark juxtaposition between subject matter and voice - but it really works. Plus, if you have to hear about poisoning babies with cyanid, at least this was its not as jarring. Or in a way it's MORE jarring - like when there's chaos all around, but one sane person stays removed and unmoving - and then, despite the fact that those moving are being destructive and crazy, we're still drawn back to the person who is NOT moving. This book allows listeners/readers to be that person standing-still, the witness to an event that continues to raise many unanswered questions.

Very thorough and insightful

The book gives a thorough history of the church and insight in to church members lives. Baffling and heartbreaking story.

Relevance....

Parralels between the Jonestown cult and the woke mob marxist cult of 2022 are striking and disturbing. In the end I expect both will reach the same fate. Extreme paranoia brought on by becoming a commie bootlocker will cause more suicidal tendencies. Fake hate crimes. Media fanning the flames of hate with their propagandist lies. Death is the end result for the woke mob. Be it then or now. Marxism is a cult of paranoia and death. Happy endings all.

Excellent, never boring.

The writer did an excellent job of weaving the material from the FBI into a great story. Never boring.

Excellent insight into the whole Jim Jones Temple of the People and Jonestown mass suicide. Worth going onto Youtube to hear what some of the survivors have to say and also actually hear the "Death Tape" which after reading the book really hits home.

Books like this are why I love nonfiction

The reason I prefer nonfiction to fiction is that I can learn something as I listen. In A Thousand Lives, the author did a fantastic job of telling the story in a way that made it super engaging. At times it was hard for me to turn it off and return to work.

In the same way I loved Helter Skelter, I just couldn't get over the way a guy could garner that much power and obedience from all his followers. I actually purchased this book because I knew I could use elements of it as I talk with my own kids about peer pressure, and standing up for what's right no matter what the crowd is doing. It worked too, my kids were amazed peer pressure could go that far.

When I finished this book I felt like I was now an expert on Jim Jones and the Jonestown massacre. I enjoyed every minute of the book, and am now smarter for having "read" it.

and on and on

The story leading up to the final mass suicide and what drove everyone to participate. I felt like the story just dragged on and on even after I got the point. Brainwashing, intimidation, blackmail. I get it.

Riveting - sad and scary that this could happen

I found this captivating and listened to it twice to get the full details and story. Very well researched, lots of detail about the people whose lives are followed. Writing style is detailed but not boring, and kept my interest. Initially it is hard to believe people could be conned like this but this book shows how it can happen. Explains the psychology behind cults and charismatic leaders like Jim Jones in a language that is understandable to the layperson. It should serve as a warning to us all. By the end of the book I felt I knew all the characters very well.

untold story?

This really isn't a bad book, but something about it just bothered me. If it hadn't begun with claims that this was all never-before-available information, I probably wouldn't have minded. The author writes in a style that assigns emotions, conclusions, etc. to the people she is telling the story about. It came across as being kind of "gossipy" or presumptuous to me. She never states that she actually interviewed these people to the extent that she can say what they were thinking or why they made the decisions they made. The story does get told, and it is interesting to hear the journey of these specific followers, but it left me wondering how she reached some of the conclusions she reached. It may deserve a rating higher than three, but because I liked other (first person) accounts about Jonestown better, that is where I placed it.