Discover new books on Goodreads
Meet your next favorite book
Sign in with Facebook
Score
A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
| 1 |
|
Cult Girls
by
Natalie Grand (Goodreads Author)
4.32 avg rating — 797 ratings
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 2 |
|
Educated
by
Tara Westover (Goodreads Author)
4.47 avg rating — 1,826,971 ratings
score: 498,
and
5 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 3 |
|
Opening Minds: The Secret World of Manipulation, Undue Influence and Brainwashing
by
4.40 avg rating — 35 ratings
score: 393,
and
4 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 4 |
|
Soul Snatchers: The Mechanics of Cults
by
3.63 avg rating — 19 ratings
score: 200,
and
2 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 5 |
|
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
by
Jon Krakauer (Goodreads Author)
4.01 avg rating — 223,633 ratings
score: 199,
and
2 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 6 |
|
World Famous Cults and Fanatics
by
2.98 avg rating — 102 ratings
score: 197,
and
2 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 7 |
|
The Cults of the Roman Empire
by
3.92 avg rating — 74 ratings
score: 194,
and
2 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 8 |
|
Combatting Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best-selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults
by
Steven Hassan (Goodreads Author)
4.42 avg rating — 1,572 ratings
score: 192,
and
2 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 9 |
|
The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
by
4.01 avg rating — 1,258 ratings
score: 191,
and
2 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 10 |
|
American Messiahs: False Prophets of a Damned Nation
by
Adam Morris (Goodreads Author)
3.61 avg rating — 274 ratings
score: 182,
and
2 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 11 |
|
The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power
by
4.26 avg rating — 151 ratings
score: 180,
and
2 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 12 |
|
Obedience to Authority
by
4.19 avg rating — 4,534 ratings
score: 179,
and
2 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 13 |
|
The Church of Fear: Inside the Weird World of Scientology
by
3.85 avg rating — 1,651 ratings
score: 175,
and
2 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 14 |
|
Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control
by
3.60 avg rating — 620 ratings
score: 169,
and
2 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 15 |
|
Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of 'Brainwashing' in China
by
4.15 avg rating — 317 ratings
score: 168,
and
2 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 15 |
|
Losing Reality: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry
by
3.76 avg rating — 209 ratings
score: 168,
and
2 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 17 |
|
Science of Coercion: Communication Research and Psychological Warfare, 1945-1960
by
4.09 avg rating — 87 ratings
score: 166,
and
2 people voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 18 |
|
Beyond Belief: Cults, Healers, Mystics and Gurus-Why We Believe
by
4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 19 |
|
Toxic Faith: Understanding and Overcoming Religious Addiction
by
4.07 avg rating — 243 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 19 |
|
The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement
by
3.66 avg rating — 85 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 19 |
|
To Go Beneath the Water
by
4.45 avg rating — 11 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 19 |
|
Waco Rising: David Koresh, the FBI, and the Birth of America's Modern Militias
by
Kevin Cook (Goodreads Author)
3.87 avg rating — 2,034 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 23 |
|
Trauma in the Pews: The Impact on Faith and Spiritual Practices
by
Janyne McConnaughey (Goodreads Author)
4.70 avg rating — 60 ratings
score: 98,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 23 |
|
Take Back Your Life: Recovering From Cults & Abusive Relationships
by
Janja Lalich (Goodreads Author)
4.38 avg rating — 211 ratings
score: 98,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 25 |
|
Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists
by
3.97 avg rating — 7,278 ratings
score: 97,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 26 |
|
Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change
by
4.01 avg rating — 87 ratings
score: 96,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 27 |
|
The Wrong Way Home: Uncovering the Patterns of Cult Behavior in American Society
by
4.09 avg rating — 46 ratings
score: 95,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 27 |
|
The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult
by
3.60 avg rating — 440 ratings
score: 95,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 29 |
|
Them and Us: Cult Thinking and the Terrorist Threat
by
4.31 avg rating — 32 ratings
score: 94,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 29 |
|
Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki
by
4.57 avg rating — 1,452 ratings
score: 94,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 31 |
|
Cults: Faith, Healing and Coercion
by
3.77 avg rating — 111 ratings
score: 93,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 31 |
|
They Shall Take Up Serpents: Psychology of the Southern Snake-Handling Cult
by
4.06 avg rating — 17 ratings
score: 93,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 33 |
|
Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History
by
3.67 avg rating — 115 ratings
score: 92,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 34 |
|
Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs
by
Steven Hassan (Goodreads Author)
4.21 avg rating — 313 ratings
score: 91,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 34 |
|
Pinball Wizards: Jackpots, Drains, and the Cult of the Silver Ball
by
Adam Ruben (Goodreads Author)
4.20 avg rating — 151 ratings
score: 91,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 36 |
|
Breaking Their Will
by
Janet Heimlich (Goodreads Author)
4.02 avg rating — 157 ratings
score: 90,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 36 |
|
Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson
by
3.94 avg rating — 11,132 ratings
score: 90,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 38 |
|
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
by
4.20 avg rating — 11,819 ratings
score: 89,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 39 |
|
Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America
by
3.67 avg rating — 239 ratings
score: 88,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 40 |
|
Recovery from Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse
by
Michael D. Langone (Editor)
4.13 avg rating — 45 ratings
score: 87,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 40 |
|
Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism
by
3.60 avg rating — 673 ratings
score: 87,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 42 |
|
Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History
by
3.54 avg rating — 2,393 ratings
score: 86,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 43 |
|
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
by
Lawrence Wright (Goodreads Author)
4.04 avg rating — 44,865 ratings
score: 85,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 44 |
|
The Kingdom of the Cults
by
4.24 avg rating — 5,066 ratings
score: 84,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 45 |
|
The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing
by
4.19 avg rating — 1,062 ratings
score: 83,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 46 |
|
Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me
by
3.34 avg rating — 3,888 ratings
score: 81,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 46 |
|
A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870
by
3.98 avg rating — 1,243 ratings
score: 81,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 48 |
|
Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape
by
3.78 avg rating — 41,485 ratings
score: 80,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 48 |
|
What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815 - 1848
by
4.16 avg rating — 8,711 ratings
score: 80,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 50 |
|
Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology
by
Leah Remini (Goodreads Author)
4.07 avg rating — 76,325 ratings
score: 79,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 50 |
|
The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet
by
Lyn Millner (Goodreads Author)
3.95 avg rating — 165 ratings
score: 79,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 52 |
|
Cults Inside Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out
by
4.01 avg rating — 371 ratings
score: 78,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 52 |
|
Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure
by
4.19 avg rating — 1,399 ratings
score: 78,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 54 |
|
Battle for the Mind: A Physiology of Conversion and Brain-Washing
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 201 ratings
score: 77,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 54 |
|
They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group
by
3.85 avg rating — 2,923 ratings
score: 77,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 56 |
|
Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience
by
3.67 avg rating — 663 ratings
score: 76,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 57 |
|
Cults in Our Midst
by
3.97 avg rating — 352 ratings
score: 75,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 58 |
|
Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems
by
Alexandra Stein (Goodreads Author)
3.99 avg rating — 499 ratings
score: 74,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 59 |
|
Cults: A Bloodstained History
by
Natacha Tormey (Goodreads Author)
3.93 avg rating — 14 ratings
score: 72,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 60 |
|
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
by
Lawrence Wright (Goodreads Author)
4.04 avg rating — 44,865 ratings
score: 71,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 61 |
|
Cracking the Cult Code for Therapists: What Every Cult Victim Wants Their Therapist to Know
by
4.50 avg rating — 26 ratings
score: 70,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
| 62 |
|
ALEISTER CROWLEY AND WESTERN ESOTERICISM
by
4.25 avg rating — 28 ratings
score: 69,
and
1 person voted
|
Error rating book. Refresh and try again.
Rate this book
Clear rating
|
Anyone can add books to this list.
How to Vote
To vote on existing books from the list, beside each book there is a link vote for this book clicking it will add that book to your votes.
To vote on books not in the list or books you couldn't find in the list, you can click on the tab add books to this list and then choose from your books, or simply search.
