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Storie di Culto: Le 30 sette più incredibili ed estreme del mondo
Quando sentiamo parlare di culti e sette, è facile immaginare rituali esoterici, sotterranei misteriosi e persone dal volto mascherato avvolte in tuniche color porpora. Ma la realtà è spesso molto diversa e molto più inquietante: i seguaci di questi movimenti sono persone normali, con vite più o meno normali, che però si sono unite a gruppi tutt’altro che normali. L’aspetto più sorprendente e disturbante è che il più delle volte è sufficiente un momento di debolezza, una crisi emotiva o una fase di fragilità nella propria vita per restare invischiati in queste compagnie da cui è difficile, se quasi non impossibile, uscire. Ed è così che si finisce per aderire a un culto che crede di poter diventare immortale bevendo il sangue dei propri nemici; o per cercare di dare vita all’anticristo tramite la procreazione tra i vari membri della setta; o ancora convincersi che si possa smettere di nutrirsi e vivere soltanto del proprio respiro.
J.W. Ocker racconta trenta delle sette più spaventose e assurde della storia moderna. Dal true crime al misticismo estremo, dal delirio spirituale al crimine organizzato, ogni capitolo è una discesa nelle zone d’ombra dell’animo umano. È un’esplorazione profonda della fragilità umana, tra bisogni spirituali, manipolazioni mentali e tragedie reali. L’autore, però, non si limita a elencare fatti e svelare segreti, ma esplora con empatia i meccanismi psicologici e sociali che portano individui normali a compiere scelte impensabili. Perché il confine che separa dalla follia è molto più sottile di quanto si possa pensare…
J.W. Ocker racconta trenta delle sette più spaventose e assurde della storia moderna. Dal true crime al misticismo estremo, dal delirio spirituale al crimine organizzato, ogni capitolo è una discesa nelle zone d’ombra dell’animo umano. È un’esplorazione profonda della fragilità umana, tra bisogni spirituali, manipolazioni mentali e tragedie reali. L’autore, però, non si limita a elencare fatti e svelare segreti, ma esplora con empatia i meccanismi psicologici e sociali che portano individui normali a compiere scelte impensabili. Perché il confine che separa dalla follia è molto più sottile di quanto si possa pensare…
256 pages, Paperback
First published September 10, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 269 reviews
September 3, 2024
ARC for review. To be published September 10, 2024.
It’s CULTS! My fave! Here we are promised some of the world’s most infamous cults and the morons who love them. How many? THIRTY, my loves, so buckle up!
“Cult is a scary word. Like terrorist. Or leprosy. Sharknado.” Oh, book, you and I are going to get along just fine!
“….from cults that believe extraterrestrials control our destiny, to cults that believe feet hold the secrets to our future to cults that believe eating is unnecessary.” Wait. What? Seriously, a cult based on dieting? Oh, yes, yes, yes. Thank you, Lord, for showing that you do love us sinners.
So, then, I feel terrible, because it’s all fun and games and then people die because of these assholes. Because, as this book reminds us, “people join communities, not cults”, and really, generally, the big problem is with the horrible cult leader, who plays on people’s weaknesses.
The book covers the usual suspects (Heaven’s Gate, People’s Tenple, NXIVM, though not Scientology…maybe because author didn’t want to get sued,) then also discusses things like Raelism (take “a volcano, aliens, sex with said aliens and claimed the first ever human clone [which] eventually goes on to snare Kanye West.” Oh, yes. Please come in. Because we would LOVE to hear more about your religion,) the Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven (great name) and I Am (started when a guy named Guy met an immortal on Mt. Shasta. Stuff happened. Lots of merch resulted. It’s all about the merch. And it had about 10K to 50K members.)
There’s so much to learn here, but again, I don’t want to lose sight of those who lose much, even their lives to cults (including Scientology.). That said, I was delighted to read about the foot fetish cult (called Ho No Hana Sanpogyo if you are looking for it in the phone book) and its founder who opened a store that sold electric massagers. The store prospered for three years before going bankrupt. Then the founder changed career. To become savior of the human race. THE MAN WENT FROM VIBRATORS TO THE MESSIAH. Take from this what you will.
It’s CULTS! My fave! Here we are promised some of the world’s most infamous cults and the morons who love them. How many? THIRTY, my loves, so buckle up!
“Cult is a scary word. Like terrorist. Or leprosy. Sharknado.” Oh, book, you and I are going to get along just fine!
“….from cults that believe extraterrestrials control our destiny, to cults that believe feet hold the secrets to our future to cults that believe eating is unnecessary.” Wait. What? Seriously, a cult based on dieting? Oh, yes, yes, yes. Thank you, Lord, for showing that you do love us sinners.
So, then, I feel terrible, because it’s all fun and games and then people die because of these assholes. Because, as this book reminds us, “people join communities, not cults”, and really, generally, the big problem is with the horrible cult leader, who plays on people’s weaknesses.
The book covers the usual suspects (Heaven’s Gate, People’s Tenple, NXIVM, though not Scientology…maybe because author didn’t want to get sued,) then also discusses things like Raelism (take “a volcano, aliens, sex with said aliens and claimed the first ever human clone [which] eventually goes on to snare Kanye West.” Oh, yes. Please come in. Because we would LOVE to hear more about your religion,) the Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven (great name) and I Am (started when a guy named Guy met an immortal on Mt. Shasta. Stuff happened. Lots of merch resulted. It’s all about the merch. And it had about 10K to 50K members.)
There’s so much to learn here, but again, I don’t want to lose sight of those who lose much, even their lives to cults (including Scientology.). That said, I was delighted to read about the foot fetish cult (called Ho No Hana Sanpogyo if you are looking for it in the phone book) and its founder who opened a store that sold electric massagers. The store prospered for three years before going bankrupt. Then the founder changed career. To become savior of the human race. THE MAN WENT FROM VIBRATORS TO THE MESSIAH. Take from this what you will.
December 1, 2024
learned a lot about various cults but Cultish by Amanda Montell was a much more engaging cult book
September 21, 2024
Pretty self-explanatory, this is a nonfiction book that talks about lots of different cults and what they were (and still are!) about.
The book covers SO MUCH ground. Thirty different cults are discussed in detail, and the author absolutely did the research but also condensed everything down pretty well. I’m sure that if any of these topics interest you enough, you could look into them in even more detail if you wanted. But I was pretty satisfied with the glimpse given into each one.
Having said that, it was also a lot of information and I read much of it while I was ill, so retaining it was a bit difficult. If you were to quiz me on the various groups covered I would probably fail miserably. (Not the book’s fault!)
The author does have a bit of a flippant tone, and sort of makes fun of the subject matter. However, parts of it did also make me laugh, such as sentences like this one: “Crowley continued to solidify the order’s presence in North America and remained OHO of the OTO until his RIP in 1947.” In some circumstances, such as the section on Jonestown, the tone is more serious and the snarky asides temporarily disappear.
There are many asides throughout the book that basically boil down to, “this may sound crazy, but it’s not as crazy as Christianity!” The author did not take a neutral stance or keep his own biases out of the text in any way. I’m not weighing in here with my own opinions, but I figured it’s worth noting in case this is something that may potentially bother you as a reader.
One interesting and surprising thing I learned from this book: not EVERY cult leader had harmful and nefarious intentions. (No, I have not been indoctrinated!) But yes, many of them did. Some of these sections get pretty ugly simply because of the descriptions of what went on within the cults. Definitely heed the trigger warnings if you think the more gruesome stuff might be too much for you.
While many of these groups had their own individual characteristics, there were of course lots of shared “quirks” amongst them that eventually led to repetition. So I ended up reading this in chunks to avoid seeing the same stuff over and over again. I guess that’s the problem with topics like this one.
Overall, I thought this was interesting enough to keep me invested till the end, but it did feel repetitive after a while due to the nature of the material. The tone was a little uneven, (I think the author maybe let his personal feelings show through a bit too strongly and that made it tough to show a more reverent tone where it was needed throughout the book.) But if you want information on a bunch of different cults in a quick and easily digestible format, this will probably do the trick.
Thank you to Netgalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.
TW: Mention of Animal Death, Mention of suicide and Group suicide, Mention of Sexual Abuse, Child Harm/Abuse, Descriptions of Amateur Surgery, Incest
The book covers SO MUCH ground. Thirty different cults are discussed in detail, and the author absolutely did the research but also condensed everything down pretty well. I’m sure that if any of these topics interest you enough, you could look into them in even more detail if you wanted. But I was pretty satisfied with the glimpse given into each one.
Having said that, it was also a lot of information and I read much of it while I was ill, so retaining it was a bit difficult. If you were to quiz me on the various groups covered I would probably fail miserably. (Not the book’s fault!)
The author does have a bit of a flippant tone, and sort of makes fun of the subject matter. However, parts of it did also make me laugh, such as sentences like this one: “Crowley continued to solidify the order’s presence in North America and remained OHO of the OTO until his RIP in 1947.” In some circumstances, such as the section on Jonestown, the tone is more serious and the snarky asides temporarily disappear.
There are many asides throughout the book that basically boil down to, “this may sound crazy, but it’s not as crazy as Christianity!” The author did not take a neutral stance or keep his own biases out of the text in any way. I’m not weighing in here with my own opinions, but I figured it’s worth noting in case this is something that may potentially bother you as a reader.
One interesting and surprising thing I learned from this book: not EVERY cult leader had harmful and nefarious intentions. (No, I have not been indoctrinated!) But yes, many of them did. Some of these sections get pretty ugly simply because of the descriptions of what went on within the cults. Definitely heed the trigger warnings if you think the more gruesome stuff might be too much for you.
While many of these groups had their own individual characteristics, there were of course lots of shared “quirks” amongst them that eventually led to repetition. So I ended up reading this in chunks to avoid seeing the same stuff over and over again. I guess that’s the problem with topics like this one.
Overall, I thought this was interesting enough to keep me invested till the end, but it did feel repetitive after a while due to the nature of the material. The tone was a little uneven, (I think the author maybe let his personal feelings show through a bit too strongly and that made it tough to show a more reverent tone where it was needed throughout the book.) But if you want information on a bunch of different cults in a quick and easily digestible format, this will probably do the trick.
Thank you to Netgalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.
TW: Mention of Animal Death, Mention of suicide and Group suicide, Mention of Sexual Abuse, Child Harm/Abuse, Descriptions of Amateur Surgery, Incest
Read
October 2, 2024DNF'ed at 28%. The lighthearted jokey-relatable tone of the writing style wasn't all that funny or endearing, and it felt particularly ill-advised given the subject matter. Beyond that, there just didn't appear to be any particular insights or perspectives the author had to offer on the various groups and leaders discussed in the amount of the audiobook I did listen to, so I didn't see much reason to continue. I can read the wikipedia pages on my own time, and draw my own conclusions--and make my own jokes, thanks.
October 26, 2024
In 2024's Cult Following, author J.W. Ocker takes us on a broad survey of 30 historic and contemporary organizations across the world that are generally considered cults - from the infamous (Heaven's Gate, Children of God, NXIVM) to the odd (the John Frum cargo cult on the Pacific island of Vanuatu) to the obscure (or at least obscure-to-me, like Breatharianism). Ocker loosely classifies each cult cluster by a central motivation that people may have had for joining, like the search for truth, protection, purpose, salvation, or betterment.
Further reading: cults and cult memoirs
Cults: Inside the World's Most Notorious Groups and Understanding the People Who Joined Them by Max Cutler and Kevin Conley
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell
Don't Call It a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM by Sarah Berman
Breaking Free by Rachel Jeffs (FLDS)
Uncultured: A Memoir (Children of God) | my review
When the World Didn't End: A Memoir by Guinevere Turner (Lyman Family)
Flunk. Start.: Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology by Sands Hall (Scientology)
My statistics:
Book 255 for 2024
Book 1858 cumulatively
Further reading: cults and cult memoirs
Cults: Inside the World's Most Notorious Groups and Understanding the People Who Joined Them by Max Cutler and Kevin Conley
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell
Don't Call It a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM by Sarah Berman
Breaking Free by Rachel Jeffs (FLDS)
Uncultured: A Memoir (Children of God) | my review
When the World Didn't End: A Memoir by Guinevere Turner (Lyman Family)
Flunk. Start.: Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology by Sands Hall (Scientology)
My statistics:
Book 255 for 2024
Book 1858 cumulatively
March 11, 2025
Cults are my jam. I have this need to read anything I can on them. It may have something to do with my intense feelings against religion, or maybe to do with the idea that one person can gather so many people and make them believe whatever they want. Again, religion? The way their minds change to a hive mentally, giving up everything else in the world just to be a part of something. It’s frightening. What’s scarier is that I can see myself doing that exact thing.
In this book, Ocker talks about what drives cults. Each section is prompted with what that group of cults may have been trying to achieve. Whether it’s the search for truth, protection, purpose, salvation or betterments. The point is, that they are searching for something they are lacking in their lives. It’s completely relatable and eye opening. Also, incredibly informative.
Over twenty cults are discussed in this book. There are the more known ones like Manson, Jonestown and Waco. But even stranger cults that worship aliens, get their messages from a spirt world connected typewriter, or even darker ideals. I couldn’t get enough. My mind was blown by what people want to believe in.
I really recommend this book as a small reference guide to cults. You may find the need for more information about them after reading this. It may not be enough for you. You may need to go down the rabbit hole and keep digging, it’s that interesting. But this book is a great starting place.
In this book, Ocker talks about what drives cults. Each section is prompted with what that group of cults may have been trying to achieve. Whether it’s the search for truth, protection, purpose, salvation or betterments. The point is, that they are searching for something they are lacking in their lives. It’s completely relatable and eye opening. Also, incredibly informative.
Over twenty cults are discussed in this book. There are the more known ones like Manson, Jonestown and Waco. But even stranger cults that worship aliens, get their messages from a spirt world connected typewriter, or even darker ideals. I couldn’t get enough. My mind was blown by what people want to believe in.
I really recommend this book as a small reference guide to cults. You may find the need for more information about them after reading this. It may not be enough for you. You may need to go down the rabbit hole and keep digging, it’s that interesting. But this book is a great starting place.
October 14, 2024
Real interesting. I appreciated the time spent on lesser known groups. We’ve all read about the heavy hitters, I wanna hear about the people say they live off air!
October 25, 2024
This book is worth it alone for the many religious groups it covers that aren't as well known. However, this book is more or less a collection of Wikipedia shallow chapters about religious groups of varying degrees of celebrity. It adds nothing to what you can read elsewhere about the well-known groups, and offers little as far as the lesser known groups you've never heard of.
Otherwise, Ocker has very little to say about these groups and their significance to society. He momentarily addresses the academic discourse on the word "cult," glosses over the argument against the use of the word, and declares that scholars are fools for trying to suggest we think of these groups differently. Um... actually, my dude, there are VERY good reasons why we shouldn't use the word "cult," and I'm not sorry we haven't come up with another buzzword for you to flash around your blog.
I won't go into the argument here. This is a review. Let's just say I have very strong feelings about how we talk about religion (I'm one of those academics he wants to write off as foolish), and Ocker is simply another one of those people with zero credibility and all the audacity to get a fun little book published because we live in a society that no longer appreciates critical thinking.
God help me, I need a rum and Coke.
Otherwise, Ocker has very little to say about these groups and their significance to society. He momentarily addresses the academic discourse on the word "cult," glosses over the argument against the use of the word, and declares that scholars are fools for trying to suggest we think of these groups differently. Um... actually, my dude, there are VERY good reasons why we shouldn't use the word "cult," and I'm not sorry we haven't come up with another buzzword for you to flash around your blog.
I won't go into the argument here. This is a review. Let's just say I have very strong feelings about how we talk about religion (I'm one of those academics he wants to write off as foolish), and Ocker is simply another one of those people with zero credibility and all the audacity to get a fun little book published because we live in a society that no longer appreciates critical thinking.
God help me, I need a rum and Coke.
October 31, 2024
4✨
One thing about me.. I love a good cult documentary. I think that’s what allowed me to realize I like listening to thriller/mystery books while working because it feels like I’m working with a documentary on in the background. That’s exactly how this audiobook made me feel.
I liked how it’s a book full of various cults and their history. It’s brief and educational in each one. It’s so fascinating to me.
One thing about me.. I love a good cult documentary. I think that’s what allowed me to realize I like listening to thriller/mystery books while working because it feels like I’m working with a documentary on in the background. That’s exactly how this audiobook made me feel.
I liked how it’s a book full of various cults and their history. It’s brief and educational in each one. It’s so fascinating to me.
September 15, 2025
Cults are pretty cool. As the author asserts, they reveal a lot about humanity's desires of belonging and truth-seeking. We're all probably in one (if not more). It was informative, cheeky, and entertaining!
As an aspirant (positive) cult leader, this gave me a lot of inspiration!
As an aspirant (positive) cult leader, this gave me a lot of inspiration!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 7, 2024
As someone who is well-versed in the world of cults, I didn't feel that I really learned anything new from this collection.
Because Ocker covers such a large number of cults in so few pages, most of what is discussed is a vague summary and can be easily googled - if it's a group you're unfamiliar with as a reader.
With all that being said, I think if one is new to cults, this is a great place to get started to learn more!
I'm not the reader for this one, but I can see others really getting a lot out of it.
Thanks to Quirk Books for the gifted copy!
Because Ocker covers such a large number of cults in so few pages, most of what is discussed is a vague summary and can be easily googled - if it's a group you're unfamiliar with as a reader.
With all that being said, I think if one is new to cults, this is a great place to get started to learn more!
I'm not the reader for this one, but I can see others really getting a lot out of it.
Thanks to Quirk Books for the gifted copy!
March 11, 2025
{Audiobook Version}
September 24, 2024
This was a really good book about cults! It included several cults I had heard of before, and several I had not. I have listened to/read a lot of cult material out there, so I was pleasantly surprised!
dnf
November 15, 2024DNF: I really wanted to like this book because cults are such an interesting subject. However, I could only finish the first section before I ended up stopping. Ocker has a part of the intro where he says that people often judge cult members as gullible idiots when that's often not the case - cult members are often intelligent and educated. He also mentions that cult leaders are extremely persuasive and charming, so it's not as easy as "how could someone fall for such an obvious scam??" I think this was good to include in the intro since society can be extremely harsh on people who for the most part were just looking for a place to fit in. But then the first section about cults pursuing information and enlightenment kind of took a 180. None of the cults in this section were necessarily harmful at all (mostly just annoying) so I understand that they're described with humor. But going from the intro with the semi-holier than thou statement about not making fun of cult members to several chapters of Ocker describing how flagrantly ridiculous multiple cults were gave me a bad impression.
I can see myself revisiting this again in the future, but I'd probably only read about the cults I'm familiar with. It's not necessarily bad that the book had a comedic/light tone, but I was expecting something a bit more serious and that's not what I got here. I did think the writing style was witty and fun though so I don't want to give this book a poor rating just because I'm not in the mood to read it.
Date Stopped: 11/14/24
I can see myself revisiting this again in the future, but I'd probably only read about the cults I'm familiar with. It's not necessarily bad that the book had a comedic/light tone, but I was expecting something a bit more serious and that's not what I got here. I did think the writing style was witty and fun though so I don't want to give this book a poor rating just because I'm not in the mood to read it.
Date Stopped: 11/14/24
September 25, 2025
While I enjoyed spooky things including the stories of cults, I found this book on them a bit boring. Each entry on a cult is only 5-7 pages long which means we really only get a surface level view of the cult. Just as things would get interesting we would move on to a new topic. I would have loved to see more about why the cult was able to recruit people so well or anything more specific about the personal stories of people who survived the cult. Instead I was left with a sampler of 35 different cults.
I will say I appreciated how this book gave us a view of cults around the world which makes it such a wide human experience. The benefit of learning a little about all of them was to see what commonalities they have between them and how similar tactics were used to recruit and isolate, and their similar downfalls.
I will say I appreciated how this book gave us a view of cults around the world which makes it such a wide human experience. The benefit of learning a little about all of them was to see what commonalities they have between them and how similar tactics were used to recruit and isolate, and their similar downfalls.
January 2, 2025
Nice collection of well known and more obscure cults. Definitely just a starting point as each entry is just a basic overview. Worth the read though if you’re into stuff like this. I had only heard of a handful of the cults mentioned and some of the new ones were so horrifying, such as the Ant Hill Kids, that I wish I didn’t know about them now. Ocker does include a select bibliography of sources that are more in depth for some of the cults if you’re interested in further reading.
March 4, 2025
it was a decent listen, but i don't think i learned anything new. this is a perfect book for someone who is not familiar with cults like some of the more famous ones that have documentaries and podcasts dedicated to them. there was a LOT of information covered (approx 30 cults covered - including some i had never even heard of) so sometimes i left a section with more questions than answers.
November 13, 2024
this ate as an audiobook
March 26, 2025
This was a really good surprise to me. I was interested going in, and I enjoyed it! If you've ever wanted an intro or a quick refresher to a bunch of cults, this is perfect for you. It's a good jumping off point to research further too.
Thank you LibroFM for this copy.
Thank you LibroFM for this copy.
November 4, 2025
I never say no to a book about cults and this one was a good one! Learnt some new facts that were incredibly horrifying yet incredibly interesting. And the book itself is just gorgeous.
August 19, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for a review copy of this book.
I am fascinated by cults, so I requested this book as soon as I saw it. Ocker brings up that fact that we are all followers of something and becoming part of a cult is something that anyone could end up doing. He delves in to several different cults and some of their actions. There were some well-known ones and several I had never heard of. Some of them were so bizarre. Foot reading anyone? This would be a great book to read to get some information about each cult before reading further on them. I learned things I didn't know even about the cults I was familiar with. This isn't a deep dive into each cult, but it definitely give enough information about each cult and leader that I feel it's enough unless one really wants to read further on these, and Ocker kindly references other books that are great places to start.
This is a good book for someone just getting into cults as well as the seasoned cult reader.
I am fascinated by cults, so I requested this book as soon as I saw it. Ocker brings up that fact that we are all followers of something and becoming part of a cult is something that anyone could end up doing. He delves in to several different cults and some of their actions. There were some well-known ones and several I had never heard of. Some of them were so bizarre. Foot reading anyone? This would be a great book to read to get some information about each cult before reading further on them. I learned things I didn't know even about the cults I was familiar with. This isn't a deep dive into each cult, but it definitely give enough information about each cult and leader that I feel it's enough unless one really wants to read further on these, and Ocker kindly references other books that are great places to start.
This is a good book for someone just getting into cults as well as the seasoned cult reader.
March 18, 2025
What a stupid waste of time. Instead of reading this, please read Cultish by Amanda Montell. I was hoping it would be more of a dissection of behaviors and thinking in cult communities, but whoever said it was a “Wikipedia cliff-notes collection of cult-related news stories” said it best. It was so shallow and obviously not well researched. Lets get into it:
This felt like the literary version of a middle school boy showing you an uncensored video of a beheading for shits and giggles. If the casual language of historical tragedies and the true crime nature of the book don’t turn you off, the bad (and badly timed) jokes and clunky flow of the VERY LOOSELY connected chapters will.
The factual descriptions of the nature of the cults were described as “the dry parts” and quickly skipped over to get to how the victims died in very gruesome ways. The author unnecessarily lingered on the sexual abuse and used the first person point of view a lot for some reason. The conclusions made that were obviously meant to be groundbreaking were actually just thoughts anyone has had if they look into these historical events for more than two minutes.
Several of the chapters ended in something like “and it’s still a mystery to this day,” leading me to believe that there was next to no investigative journalism conducted.
To wrap this up, save yourself a few hours and just listen to a couple podcasts. Read news paper articles. Literally anything else.
This felt like the literary version of a middle school boy showing you an uncensored video of a beheading for shits and giggles. If the casual language of historical tragedies and the true crime nature of the book don’t turn you off, the bad (and badly timed) jokes and clunky flow of the VERY LOOSELY connected chapters will.
The factual descriptions of the nature of the cults were described as “the dry parts” and quickly skipped over to get to how the victims died in very gruesome ways. The author unnecessarily lingered on the sexual abuse and used the first person point of view a lot for some reason. The conclusions made that were obviously meant to be groundbreaking were actually just thoughts anyone has had if they look into these historical events for more than two minutes.
Several of the chapters ended in something like “and it’s still a mystery to this day,” leading me to believe that there was next to no investigative journalism conducted.
To wrap this up, save yourself a few hours and just listen to a couple podcasts. Read news paper articles. Literally anything else.
June 13, 2025
Thanks for this audiobook included in the Libro influencer program! I didn’t know anything about this but I am very fascinated by cults (and have watched so many documentaries) that I had to get this one. I thought this was very well done- ranging from cults I knew a ton about and ones completely unknown to me.
Ocker examines what leads people to join cults, sorting them by what the members sought by joining: truth, protection, purpose, salvation, and betterment. Some cults like Branch Davidians, NXIVM, and the Manson Family were very familiar to me while others like Ordo Templi Orientis, Breatharianism, and Los Narcosatánicos were brand new personally. I learned a lot!
I liked Ocker’s tone with this book and how he tied different religions together. I also liked the examination of Christianity included as well. On audio, I found it very easy to follow. My only issue is that I wish the chapters were titled by cult to go back easily!
✨Content Warnings: Suicide, Death, Violence, Sexual Assault, Emotional
Abuse, Child Abuse, Child Death, Torture, Animal Death, Mental Illness, Eating Disorder, Medical Content, Cannabalism, Pregnancy, Adult/Minor Relationship
✨Themes: Belief, Trust
✨You May Like This If You Enjoyed:
-The Girls (Emma Cline)
-I haven’t read any other nonfiction books about cults. If you have any recs drop them in the comments!
Ocker examines what leads people to join cults, sorting them by what the members sought by joining: truth, protection, purpose, salvation, and betterment. Some cults like Branch Davidians, NXIVM, and the Manson Family were very familiar to me while others like Ordo Templi Orientis, Breatharianism, and Los Narcosatánicos were brand new personally. I learned a lot!
I liked Ocker’s tone with this book and how he tied different religions together. I also liked the examination of Christianity included as well. On audio, I found it very easy to follow. My only issue is that I wish the chapters were titled by cult to go back easily!
✨Content Warnings: Suicide, Death, Violence, Sexual Assault, Emotional
Abuse, Child Abuse, Child Death, Torture, Animal Death, Mental Illness, Eating Disorder, Medical Content, Cannabalism, Pregnancy, Adult/Minor Relationship
✨Themes: Belief, Trust
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-I haven’t read any other nonfiction books about cults. If you have any recs drop them in the comments!
September 12, 2024
Cult Following, the extreme sects that capture our imagination and take over our lives by JW Oker. I think the most important thing I’ve learned from this book is we all belong to one kind of cult or another either the kind that wants our possessions admiration sex or just are commerce. In any event it seems Mr. ocher has looked at the subject from every point of view and has written an interesting book about the different cults different types of cults the ones that believe in magic revelations and even aliens there were so many different cults in this book I had never heard from one who lived under ground in a Russian cave, an American cult that lived in the desert of Utah and it seems they all ended badly but it definitely made for a really great read. Right before writing this review I realized I read two other books by this author and love them all he writes with respect and even has LOL moments thrown in to the informative narrative throughout the book. From those we know like Charles Manson thoes we’ve never heard of like the cult that starved them self to many others you will not put this book down without finding something that makes you say WTF! This is a book I definitely recommend. #NetGalley, #JWOcher, #CultFollowing,
October 24, 2025
Really enjoyed this overview of a few infamous cults throughout the decades. Every cult is described in short, and there’s not much detail or depth to the description, but it includes everything you need to know, like important facts, what the cult is famous for and why people joined it, and where it went wrong. Some chapters were quite disturbing, others were a lot of fun. And there are some interlude chapters about things surrounding the cult topic, such as brainwashing, cult vs. occult and so on. I also feel like there was a nice variety of famous (infamous) and lesser known cults, as well as American and international ones. The writing style is easy to read and not academic or dry at all, so this almost didn’t even feel like a non-fiction book. Or what I mean, it was fun to read 😂 to me, reading most non-fiction books feels like a chore, so this was fun. I’ve had the author‘s book on cryptids and cursed objects on my list for ages, and I’ll make sure to buy and read them soon. Loved this a lot, and not just because cults are such an interesting topic to me!
November 5, 2024
cults for dummies, basically. This is sort of like the TLDR for cults, covering tons of ground and a variety of different cults in bite sized packaging. It was a good primer about some of the best (and least) known cults from the last ~years, and was written in a way that made it breezy and consolidated, but didn’t feel TOO high level if you’re only mildly interested in the topic. The audiobook narrator was fantastic—thank you Libro.FM for the ARC.
The themes the sections are based around didn’t feel super focused as through lines for the cults covered, but the book didn’t feel repetitive despite the material being perhaps repetitive in nature (so many cults have similar belief systems). The tone was also solid. Overall, I enjoyed this and def think it’s an interesting read!
The themes the sections are based around didn’t feel super focused as through lines for the cults covered, but the book didn’t feel repetitive despite the material being perhaps repetitive in nature (so many cults have similar belief systems). The tone was also solid. Overall, I enjoyed this and def think it’s an interesting read!
May 22, 2025
Do you like learning about cults? If so, you’ll like this book. Generally, it’s like a spark notes description of tons of different cults - which is great if you want to learn about one you haven’t heard of. I’ve consumed so much content (books, podcasts, shows, etc) on Heavens Gate and Nxivm, but have never heard of the Ant Hill Kids until now. A great read if you aren’t looking to dive deep into any one cult.
June 20, 2025
As someone who has a fascination regarding cults and seen more cult documentaries that I can count, I thought this book was a nice compendium of various cults, many of which I had surprisingly not heard of! Though there was not too much depth on each cult (more of an overview and cliffs note version) I did find this read enjoyable. I’d liken it to Cults for Dummies style book. Either way, it’s worth the read if the topic interests you.
February 3, 2025
This was really interesting. I learned a lot of new information about a subject that fascinates me. I didn’t know that Joaquin and River Phoenix grew up in a cult. I’m intrigued (and slightly scared) by the idea that we’re all capable of joining a cult. They latch on to people at their most vulnerable. We all have the capacity to seek understanding and comfort when we’re at our lowest. I’m definitely going to check out this author’s other works.
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