This book made me cry, mad, and wanted to throw the book across the room. I realize it is a true story and I normally like to read them and see how their minds think. This book, she was just pure evil. I would recommend this book.

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.

It would be interesting to see an updated book since the trial is over. I think it was too soon to release this version.

If there is ever a mother that would gain the hate of every person in the world - Lori Vallow is that person. While we have some terrible mothers in history, (I will not name them here), the hideous deceptions that Lori undertook, all under the guise of religion, brings the bile up in the throat of one.

As I read through this book, all I could think of was my sweet boys upstairs, and try and figure out what would cause any mother to want to kill their child - even if they were supposedly possessed by a demon. Chad Daybell worked his manipulative manner exceedingly well with Lori - and their respective spouses met untimely ends as their romance kindled.

While this is a tough topic to read about - the book itself is very well done. Each aspect of the case is examined, with the hide and seek game that the Daybells undertook to try and keep out of reach of the authorities. Those interested in true crime will like the book, but due to the horrific nature of the crimes, it is hard to just love it.

Thank you to the author for taking such a horrific crime, and working it into a book that we can read, try and understand, and mull over the case on our own time. And yes, I marked this book as "horror" on purpose, along with the other relevant tags.

Unfortunately this book read like a dry book report of a true crime novel. The writing was dull and at times overly detailed.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I remember when this story was all over the news. It was mind-boggling to me, as a mother, that this woman would not produce her children or keep them safe. I knew that they must be dead, and that she and her husband had done it. Chad Daybell’s ability to twist his religion into a way to get rid of people who didn’t fit his plan for his life and convince others of the validity of these plans is unbelievable. Evil perpetuated in the guise of religion is the worst kind.

The crazy thing is I remember watching the news and seeing people searching for these kids. I remember watching as they found Lori and Chad in Hawaii and her smug face every time she entered the courtroom. It is always crazy to me that people can do such horrid things and hold no remorse and see no wrong in what they do.
If you are a true crime fan or have followed this case I highly recommend this book. It covers way more then the media did with Lori's family and the craziness that follows this whole case.

This book was very well written. The author did a great job of providing the facts. This case is disturbing and I'm saddened by the details.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

It's a fast, very readable book about a terrible crime. If you're looking for answers, you won't find any, but you will get a good overview of the case and the people involved. Bonkers, absolutely bonkers.

Murder. Lies. Infidelity. Mormons. Cults. Mormon cults. This book jumped to the top of my reading pile as soon as I saw it.

John Glatt tells the story of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell, who any true crime reader will recognize as that couple who ran away to Hawaii like last year, didn't take their kids with them, then were super shocked when people started asking about the kids. Y'all, that was the big headline but it was almost the least crazy thing in this book. More murders, a bunch of marriages and affairs, trying to figure out which religious belief is the crazy cult theory and which is just normal Mormon crazy.

My main gripe is that there's not much about the trials, because the book was written before the trials took place. The trials are taking place TODAY. The author couldn't have waited a year to publish, I guess. This book is missing its third act. All of the information that will probably come out in court (how they knew the murderer had done the murdering when nobody was confessing, whether it was Lori or Chad really instigating things) is lost to us. On the other hand, that makes it shorter than most true crime books so I guess that's a plus.

The latest gripping true crime text from prolific crime writer John Glatt, The Doomsday Mother: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and the End of an American Family (St. Martin’s Press, 2022), is the absolutely gripping account of the Vallow/Daybell murder case. The first book published on the very recent crimes, Glatt brings his research expertise and precise writing to the twists and turns of this case, aspects of which defy expectation and belief.

Many people interested in true crime—and, indeed, others who were simply shocked and saddened by the events—followed the extensive news coverage of this case. Throughout 2019 and 2020, the media covered the bizarre circumstances surrounding the life of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell, two radicalised religious fanatics who were convinced that the end of the world was imminent. Such a belief is not that interesting or that notable, but what concerned the media—and police—was that Lori’s two children, her teenage daughter Tylee and her young autistic son J.J., hadn’t been seen in months, with Lori telling various stories about where they were located. Furthermore, police discovered that Lori’s husband Charles, and Chad’s wife Tammy, had both recently died under deeply mysterious circumstances.

Glatt recounts the haunting circumstances of Lori’s move from devoted mother and wife, deeply connected to her Mormon faith, to a radical doomsday prepper convinced that her children had become zombies controlled by dark spirits. Her obsession and eventual relationship with Chad Daybell seem to have pushed Lori over the edge, and the two attempted to evade police and the media for months while law enforcement searched for her children. Lori refused to cooperate or to produce Tylee and J.J. It wasn’t until June 2020, when the mutilated remains of both of her children were discovered buried in Chad Daybell’s backyard, that family members and the public learned what truly happened to the two helpless siblings at the hands of their mother, her brother, and Daybell.

I am a huge fan of John Glatt’s writing, and I was more than eager to read his take on the Vallow/Daybell case. Following this case as it developed, the story of Vallow and Daybell and what may have happened to Lori’s children seemed to reveal itself maddeningly slowly. Glatt does an excellent job of underscoring just how confusing and frustrating this case was. He is also able to carve a clear path through the chronology of events and reveal new facets of the case that were not available at the time. His extensive interviews with family members and others close to the case add a vivid dimension to the text and I found myself unable to put it down. This is an extremely definitive account of the case, and it is worth reading for those who would like a clearer picture of the Vallow/Daybell atrocities, as well as true crime readers in general.

Because the case is so recent, Glatt has a wealth of media and archival material to work from, including primary sources in the form of Chad Daybell’s numerous books. I’d like to particularly acknowledge the metal fortitude Glatt must have had to access to wade through those texts. The abundance of material seems to be a blessing and a curse in this case, as Glatt must carefully select what to include in his own book. The resulting narrative is expertly conveyed and well-paced. I truly could not believe how shocking this case is. From the early years of Vallow’s life to its conclusion, the intensity never stops.

The Doomsday Mother is undoubtedly one of the best true crime books published this year, and it is certainly one of my favourites. Glatt never disappoints. I highly recommend this one finds its way to the reading lists of true crime readers.

Please follow John Glatt on Twitter and add The Doomsday Mother to your Goodreads shelf.

Don’t forget to follow True Crime Index on Twitter and please visit our Goodreads for updates on what we’re reading! You can find Rachel on her personal @RachelMFriars or on Goodreads @Rachel Friars.

About the Writer:

Rachel M. Friars (she/her) is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of English Language and Literature at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. She holds a BA and an MA in English Literature with a focus on neo-Victorianism and adaptations of Jane Eyre. Her current work centers on neo-Victorianism and nineteenth-century lesbian literature and history, with secondary research interests in life writing, historical fiction, true crime, popular culture, and the Gothic. Her academic writing has been published with Palgrave Macmillan and in The Journal of Neo-Victorian Studies. She is a reviewer for The Lesbrary, the co-creator of True Crime Index, and an Associate Editor and Social Media Coordinator for PopMeC Research Collective. Rachel is co-editor-in-chief of the international literary journal, The Lamp, and regularly publishes her own short fiction and poetry. Find her on Twitter and Goodreads.

This was a great true crime novel, though incredibly hard to read at times! Unfortunately the cases are still ongoing, so hopefully John Glatt will write more about the story once it's concluded. I'll have my full review up here and on my blog soon!

The amazing, puzzling, and disturbing thing about the story is the number of people who seem to have been deceived by Lori and Chad Daybell. Their target audience -- LDS members and preppers/end-timers -- would likely be more predisposed to believe or more amenable to be persuaded to believe the claims of Lori and Chad about prophecies, the end-times, past lives, etc. However, even that audience should have been skeptical of some of their claims, especially when those claims were so specific as to seem to justify (and be used to justify) taking harmful, or even criminal, action against individuals who were obstacles to the personal desires of Lori and/or Chad. It will be interesting to see how their trials turn out.

I think I’ll read whatever John G writes. I find this case so beyond bizarre. I am sad for the children and disappointed that no other adults in their life were able to protect them. It’s very scary what extremist religions can cause people to do. Book started a little slow but the last 50% was goood.

True Crime is one of those darkly fascinating genres that I like to visit every so often. I previous read John Glatt's The Perfect Father about Chris Watts, so I was interested to read The Doomsday Mother.

Prior to reading this book, I didn't know a lot of the details of the case. I vaguely remember it happening back in 2020, but as it was during the Covid Pandemic, I didn't follow the details as they unraveled.

I think Glatt does a fantastic job with his true crime books. He includes a lot of details while laying out the timeline and provides a lot of information about the case. The aspect that kept the book from getting the 5th star is that the book felt premature. Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow have been indicted, but as of July 2022, have not had their trial. I would have preferred the book cover the ENTIRE case, from start to end. But as the court case has not happened yet, the book lacks a feeling of a wrapped up conclusion.

This is a story that will continue to haunt me. I knew some of the details going into this book but learned so much from it. Emotional and sad I shed a lot of tears on this one.

Sending a sincere thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an early realize of this book for an honest review.

The Doomsday Mother by John Glatt is a true crime novel which followed Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell, and Lori's missing children.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher St. Martin’s Press, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.


My Synopsis:   (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)
Lori Cox was born in 1973 in California, one of six kids.  Although raised Mormon, the family was not really devout, and the parents often took off for Hawaii for weeks at a time, leaving the kids to fend for themselves.  Lori, however, eventually became a strong believer in the Mormon faith, although perhaps it was more her own version of it.  She grew up craving attention, and getting it, becoming somewhat narcissistic after losing childhood weight.  She married Nelson when she was just 19, and divorced a year later. At 22, she married Wiliam LaGolia, had her first child Colby, and divorced shortly after. At 29, she married Joe Ryan, and later that year gave birth to Tylee.   At 32, she was again divorced.  At 33, she married Charles Vallow.  They adopted Joshua (JJ), who was the child of Charles drug-addict sister.

Lori's Mormon beliefs started to take on some sinister undertones.  They got worse when she met Chad Daybell, a Mormon doomsday prepper, whose ideas were also off the Mormon charts. Lori swapped everything she had for Chad, a religious zealot who preached end of days doctrine to all who would listen.   The pair planned on leading the chosen ones on a path to survive the end of the world.  He and Lori believed they were gods, and Chad received messages from his spirit guides on the other side which enabled him to identify and rid the world of evil zombies.

Apparently their current spouses were not "chosen", and neither were Lori's children.  Both Charles (Lori's husband) and Tammy (Chad's wife) ended up dead, as did others that stood in the way of Lori and Chad Daybell.

When it finally came to light that JJ and Tylee were missing, Lori and Chad were in Hawaii, celebrating their marriage (two weeks after the death of Chad's wife).  7 year old JJ, who was autistic, and Tylee, who was now around 17, had not been seen for 5 months,  and they made headlines across the continent, yet Lori and Chad did not return, and offered the police no assistance.

The bodies of the children were eventually found on Chad's property, and Lori and Chad arrested.


My Opinions:
First, I knew nothing about these people, and had no recollection of the case (maybe it's because I'm in Canada).  The children's bodies were just found in 2021, so this is a really current story.

My biggest complaint....I wish the book had not been written until a final verdict had been rendered, because at this point, both Chad and Lori are in jail, but their trials are not scheduled until 2023.  When I read a true story, I expect it to be relatively "over", but there is no closure to this story yet.  It's one thing to read a book of fiction and have to draw your own conclusion at the end (which I don't really like either), but having to "guess" what is going to happen next in a true-crime novel is not acceptable.  Does this mean that Glatt is going to have a "book 2"????  Not impressed.

Anyway, moving on, the writing was good, if a little repetitive, and perhaps a little long.

Heads up....Many of the characters were repulsive.  Chad, Lori and Alex were beyond reprehensible, and some of their "friends" who lied for them were not much better. I felt so sorry for JJ's grandparents.

The book seemed, at times, to lay all the blame on "Chad", as he was the cult leader, and swayed everyone his way, including Lori.  I disagree.  Lori's beliefs and actions were bizarre even before Chad entered the picture.  It looks like they are trying to say she is mentally unstable.  However, Lori came up with some interesting lies all on her own, that showed she knew exactly what she was doing.

Anyway, although I really think the book should not have been published until the full story is told, it was still an okay read.  I will probably follow the news on this one, but I would not read a second book on this topic, as I already feel a little cheated.

This book was very well written. This case is so insane, and the author did a great job of providing the facts. It's easy to get confused with all the people involved. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

Let me start out by saying I am a huge fan of True Crime and John Glatt. As a mother, I can not imagine how a mother could do what she did. I also followed this case as it was happening so I’m very familiar with the the story. John Glatt, as always did an amazing job.

When I saw this book I knew I had to have it. I live in Utah so I followed this case. I remember being at home when there was breaking news that law enforcement was digging at Chad's house. At that moment my heart sank knowing the outcome probably wasn't good. I had hoped that they would be found alive. It is truly so sad what happened to those kids.

Reading this book I realized I didn't follow the case as much as I thought. I knew Lori's husband and brother were dead, I also knew Chad's wife had died but I didn't know much about their deaths. I knew Lori and Chad had ran off to Hawaii. It seemed like everything happened in such a short period of time where that isn't the case. Reading the book I also found out I own one of the books Chad published. It is so weird to me.

I thought some of the book seemed a little long, but overall it was so informative. There was more to the story than I could even imagine. This book made me so mad and I even got tears when they talked about the state of the kids. It was worth the read. The author did such a great job at explaining what was going on and all the players. I hope once the case is finally over he writes a second book that picks up where he left off.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my copy of the book, the review is my own.