August 2022 Bonus Review: When The Moon Turns To Blood
the true crime that's worth your time
The crime
The case is sufficiently complex, and opaque, that it’s nearly impossible to present an orderly summary of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell’s swath of destruction — but authorities have focused on the 2019 disappearances, and subsequent murders, of Vallow’s children Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow.
The story
I didn’t rate Leah Sottile’s When The Moon Turns To Blood: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, And A Story Of Murder, Wild Faith, And End Times on GoodReads. It’s not a “GR needs a ten-star system, not five” problem, like I often have; this time, the issues I have with the book defy quantification, because I think very highly of Sottile’s work and bona fides, I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to write When The Moon…the problem isn’t Sottile. It’s that — in my opinion, and what I don’t know is a lot, but this is my sense — the story wasn’t ready to become a book yet.
