Classic Ronson style. This was a facinating dive into the militarys attempt to employ the use of psychic powers in the Iraq war. Bizzare and amazing in its scope, I did find it a bit rambling and perhaps overextended. But then again, the man is investigating a highly classified sect of govt. sanctioned psychic warrior-priests. That’s hardly going to adhere to a linear plot.

I bought this because I loved the movie, but gave up half-way through.

It's too matter of fact to be effectively satirical, and too silly to be taken seriously. I found myself getting bored. Time to move on to one of the many other titles on my TBR list.

For anyone else who is considering this based on having seen the film - the book is very different structurally, though it deals with the same basic themes.

This title peaked my interest primarily because of the movie. The movie was a more continuous narrative ark that brought together the different pieces of the book. Characters got changed up a little and I think it's because of that that I had a slightly harder time following the book because there were so many characters.
I will say, I think I'm going to become a Jon Ronson follower. His style has just the right amount of snark to make me laugh but take him seriously. His ability to ferret out the so-bizarre-it-must-be-real stuff has me enthralled.
For some the shadier side of the Shrub Administration, read the book. For a narrative ark, watch the movie. Both are funny and engaging.

PS 2018 Challenge: A book made into a movie I've already seen

The incredibly strange but (possibly) true story of how top Pentagon officers became enamored with New Age beliefs as a ticket to creating psychic super-powered soldiers who can walk through walls and kill goats just by staring at them. It starts off twisted and hilarious, then gets more grim as Ronson starts drawing lines between the infamous MK-ULTRA experiments and Abu Ghraib. The details and reliance on mostly anecdotal evidence make it easy for Bush apologists to write Ronson off as another batshit conspiracy theorist, but as Ronson himself alludes in the book, the real point may be that we DON’T know the full extent of the truth of what the US intelligence community does, and that history is written by the people who put the first spin on a story. Recommended if only to get an argument going.