I cannot explain how moved I was while reading Ms. Layton's beautifully written memoir of life inside a prison world. I am astonished and relieved that someone could live through such pain and escape with their sanity then, twenty years later, re-enter such a fightening place and recapture all of it so vividly. I hope Ms. Layton's young daughter will be proud when she grows old enough to understand just how courageous her mother was to tell this frightening, ominous and yet heartening tale.

What a wonderful gift of enlightenment Ms Layton's readers receive in her rivting retelling of her youthful, innocent and terrifying experiences inside Jim Jones'strange world. I finished the book in two days with goosebumps covering my arms and back. Truly, Ms. Layton remains one very brave woman.

Sedutive Poison is haunting, beautiful, tragic and, as base as this may sound, Thrilling. I was riveted from the beginning Introduction by the Washington Post journalist and occasional corresponedent of the NPR NewsHour, Charles Krause, who WAS THERE at the END of the massacre. He sets the tone and historical importance of this autobiography by Layton who joined Jim Jones' group as a young girl.

Deborah Layton's memory and ability to tell this story in such a AS IT IS HAPPENEING intensity is both transcending, thrilling and breath-taking. Our children, who are the targets of groups like the Jonestown Cult, should be required to read this. Seducitve Poison gave me insights I never thought possible into one of the strangest and frightening groups of the 20th Century. Much like the theme of the academic work, "Hitler's Willing Executioners", Layton shows how ultimate power and peer pressure can consume even the best of us and turn us into blind, god-fearing savages. It took great courage for Layton to tell her horrendous story without ever asking for pity or forgiveness. Unlike so many Tell All books, this memoir is not self serving nor does she point the finger at everyone else, and try to excuse herself. Layton's life story is an educational, heartrendering and refreshing breath of frigid air.

Writing a review of Deborah Layton's "Seductive Poison" is not easy for me, because I can't think of any words that will be superlative enough to do justice to this book and to compliment the author on being so courageous and for so eloquently sharing intimate details of her experience of life in and her escape from a destructive cult.

I didn't know *anything* about cults or anything about Jonestown for that matter (I was not only too young at the time these events took place but also literally on the other side of the world) till a few weeks ago when I feared that someone who I loved and still love dearly may be in a cultic group. A search on Amazon led me to Deborah Layton's book and reading Seductive Poison combined with the events happening concurrently in my life can only be described as a life-changing experience.

Deborah Layton's account of life in and her escape from Jonestown is the most moving of any personal accounts I have ever read and I will admit that there were parts of the book that had me in tears... which says a lot. When I first read this book I was convinced that the book is just that... it's *a story which happened to someone else* and things like this don't happen today...until I started experiencing the effect of a mind-control group first hand -- happening to someone very close to me. If you ever do the mistake of thinking that this cannot happen to you... be sure to catch yourself, because 23 years later, after Jonestown, after Waco, after Heaven's Gate and numerous others... it's the same mind-control techniques and the same deceit and debauchery that is just as much prevalent today as it was then and potentially even more refined than it used to be.

Seductive Poison helped me understand what a cult is and made me realize that I cannot try and deal with the situation I was faced with using the rules I knew so far. The rationalism and logic that you would expect to always be present and help a person make their own informed decisions and judgments are sometimes suspended - and always suspended when an individual is under a situation of being under the control of a destructive mind-control group or even an the influence of an individual. I never realized that until I read Deborah Layton's experience.

Seductive Poison should be required reading in high-schools / colleges, just so more people are aware of the dangers lurking about them. I have personally bought over a dozen copies of this book to hand out to friends and family (Amazon must really love me by now!) and I don't think I'm done handing it out to people yet, because in my opinion, this book is a vaccine for the human mind and it is critical for *any* person living in today's society - in any country, in any environment - to develop some level of immunity which allows them to recognize a destructive situation before they get sucked in too deep.

I'll end with a quote from an email I sent shortly after reading Seductive Poison and co-relating events in my life: "The mind is a very fragile thing, and I strongly believe that no stimulus and no words can go by without affecting a person -- I don't claim to know more or less about what is true or not, but I do believe in being pragmatic and using ones own judgment and critical thinking to set the boundaries for our actions."

And last but not least, to Deborah Layton - thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your experience with all of us and thank you for being the amazing person I know you are.

Yee, along with various members of the Layton family unravel a tale of ultimate deception by an ultimate deciever. This was the very first book I read in regards to Jonestown. Hands down, this book is among the best, since it was told my several different people, but not THE best. An easy read, but you do not get the full temple story which leaves you wondering (especially if you weren't even born in 1978!) ...