“[T]raverses the uneasy terrain between historical fiction and all that cannot be known about the inner lives of real people. History blends with mythology…[D]evastating…Weighty and disquieting.”
—Kirkus
“Woollett is considered Australia's foremost expert on Jonestown, and her novel is a riveting tale of love, obsession and devotion. If you loved The Girls or Netflix's Wild Wild Country, this one's for you.”
—Elle
“Woollett turns a dark chapter in U.S. history into a deeply human, satisfying read for fans of Emma Cline’s The Girls.”
—Booklist
“Woollett has wisely chosen to forgo the fetishism of death and Jim Jones that is so often the focus of this tragedy. With Beautiful Revolutionary, Woollett has created an utterly intoxicating portrait of the lives of those seeking to build something new in a world that seemed to be losing its mind. Although we know what awaits us, Woollett masterfully weaves a suspenseful and complex story about people—of their dreams, beliefs, ideals, and lives all coming to a horrific end—in a way that is uniquely hers. Woollett is electric.”
—Sarah Schmidt, author of See What I Have Done
“Laura Woollett’s imaginative retelling of the Jonestown tragedy does what only fiction can do—endows Jim Jones and his inner circle with a sense of humanity. She formulates answers to unknowable questions—how could otherwise sane people be pulled into Jones’s web of evil? What happened that last, tragic day? A lyrical and sharply rendered tale of innocence lost and ideals betrayed.”
—Julia Scheeres, author of A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown
“Beautiful Revolutionary is some of the most exciting fiction I’ve encountered. It fearlessly explores the human elements that attracted masses to the Peoples Temple and to Jim Jones—fear, lust, the need to be loved, and the urge to feel a part of something larger than the self. This story cuts close to the bone, unrelenting and irrefutably true, over and over. Laura Elizabeth Woollett is an immense talent, and this is a bracing—and necessary—read.”
—Kayla Rae Whitaker, author of The Animators
“[H]ypnotically written...Many parts of this book are as seductive as the cult.”
— A Bookish Type
“Beautiful Revolutionary has had me completely mesmerized—it has been so long since I’ve been so utterly engrossed and absorbed in a novel. The shifts in perspective are masterfully handled and offer a fascinating and nuanced portrait of Jim Jones' Peoples Temple. I do love cult novels and this is one of the best of them. The tension build to the inevitable conclusion is incredibly well done. I have nothing but love for this book, five beautiful stars. It's my number one Australian novel of the year.”
—Jaclyn Crupi (Hill of Content Bookseller)
“It’s a novel that benefits from deep research worn lightly, and from Laura Elizabeth Woollett’s sensitivity to the perversity of human character and behavior. Beautiful Revolutionary turns the stations of the cross, each visited in the hope of salvation, into a meticulously paved road to hell.”
—The Age
