07 - A Book About a Cult

[Kayla]

I just finished Alice Feeney’s new book Beautiful Ugly and if would be perfect for this prompt if you want to read something newly published!

[Denise]

I just finished the audiobook for In the Clearing and came here to recommend it. I gave it 5 stars! I'm surprised that it doesn't have more ratings but it might be because it's based in Australia. The author has other books too that I'm going to check out, J.P. Pomare. This was my first finished book for the challenge.

[JessicaMHR]

I was just browsing the stacks at the library and saw Cult X by Fuminori Nakamura and decided to grab that. Have no idea if I'll like it, it is supposed to be a mystery so that's good cause it looks more like a horror by the cover.

It will also work for a book in translation if anyone needs one of those.

[JessicaMHR]

Ron wrote: "Taking a nontraditional route here. I DNF'd a book about a cult this year so I wasn't looking forward to this. Instead I decided to look for synonym words for 'cult' and came across several that I ..."

NICE! I like this idea.

[Joy]

Brandon wrote: "Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology

This was featured on the podcast The Worst Bestsellers in the past year. It did not sound like a book I want to read, but it will ..."

Have you read this yet? I did a few years ago and rather liked it. The book isn't great, but it's interesting. I can't look at Tom Cruise the same way again.

[Brandon]

I do not intend to read about any real-life cult. That's just not my jam.

Right now, I have penciled in a reread one of the trilogies that start with The Butlerian Jihad or Sisterhood of Dune. The second one has a more clear cult leader, but in both cases, there is a part of humanity with extreme anti-machine sentiment.

[Joy]

If you need a good book about a cult, "Leaving the Witness" by Amber Scorah may qualify. It's debatable whether JW is a cult, but her tale shows her courage. As part of her religious duties, she went to China, so there's a fascinating look into another culture.

[Nadine in NY]

Brandon wrote: "I do not intend to read about any real-life cult. That's just not my jam.

Right now, I have penciled in a reread one of the trilogies that start with The Butlerian Jihad or [book:Sist..."



I would count both the Bene Gesserit and the followers of Maud D'ib both as cults, so any Dune book would do in my eyes!

[Heather]

I wasn't looking forward to this prompt, as I just don't have an interest in reading about this topic. My very first book fit the prompt,though, so at least it's done early.

In Christmas and Other Horrors: A Winter Solstice Anthology, one of the stories is about a cult in the classical Christian sense - the cult of a Christian saint and a religious relic.

I don't have many other suggestions to offer since I avoid this topic, but I seem to recall a cult in Station Eleven.

[Marie-Eve]

For my fellow French speakers...
When i was a teen i had disturbing reading choices and read L'alliance de la brebis (before the movie came out) and well. Its about the Ant Hill Kids cult by leader Roch Theriault told as told by one surivor. It is deeply disturbing (at least it was for me then) but it was good.

I have Little Heaven, so I might go with this, but i also really like Ashley Winstead. Can someone confirm if Midnight Is the Darkest Hour is really about a cult cause the blurb is vague. Thank you!

[Ron]

Heather wrote:

I don't have many other suggestions to offer since I avoid this topic, but I seem to recall a cult in Station Eleven

You're right about that. Damn I could've totally added this book for this prompt, but I just did a re-read of Station Eleven back in December so I'm not in the mood to do a re-read of it any time soon.

[Anshita]

I listening to Rajneeshpuram: Inside the Cult of Bhagwan and Its Failed American Utopia by Russell King. I watched Wild Wild Country a while back was intrigued to know more about the cult ever since.

[Sasha]

Anshita wrote: "I listening to Rajneeshpuram: Inside the Cult of Bhagwan and Its Failed American Utopia by Russell King. I watched the Wild Wild Country a while back was intrigued to know more abou..."

Oh, he was popular in Germany when I was growing up there in the 1980s - to the point that we even had a class discussion about why we shouldn't get involved in his cult. Of course that just made us more interested in him, because that's how teenagers are.

[Eileen]

Just read Lucy Undying for this one, which is a nice option if you want fiction/fantasy. There's a cult central to the plot.

[Sasha]

I read Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The High Country for the Star Trek Series Challenge and was happy to discover that it also fits this prompt. The planet on which the main characters find themselves is in the grip of a Luddite cult.

I do still want to read my original choice for this prompt, Better to Have Gone: Love, Death, and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville. However, since I'm uncertain whether I will have time to read 68 books this year (50 for PopSugar and 18 for the Star Trek challenge), I'm not going to miss the opportunity for some double counting!

[Sherri]

I read Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere.

[Amy]

Anshita wrote: "I listening to Rajneeshpuram: Inside the Cult of Bhagwan and Its Failed American Utopia by Russell King. I watched the Wild Wild Country a while back was intrigued to know more abou..."

I'm reading it too and for the same reason!

[Lilith]

If you are looking for something short, funny, and very informative, I highly recommend reading Which Cult Should I Join?: A Choose-Your-Own Guidebook for the Spiritually Bereft.

I cannot remember now the year of the PopSugar Challenge, but the prompt was: a choose-your-own-adventure book. I had never even heard of that genre - and that is why I do these challenges.

It was a lot of fun, choosing my adventures. Then, I read it cover to cover. Many of the cults I was familiar with from my own reading, and just as many were new to me.

[Lilith]

I read Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life. It's exactly what it says on the tin. It does not get into the salacious details, any more than is necessary, but there could be triggers for some readers.

What I loved was that the author was able to be vulnerable and allow me into her head, which I always admire. Sarah Edmondson drew me right in, and I admired her aspirations to do good in the world and to further the personal growth of herself and others. I really felt for her through her entire journey. There is an HEA, just as the title promises.

[Ron]

Finally decided on my book for this prompt.

It's highly political though so I don't know if I should mention it, but it works.

[Dubhease]

Ron wrote: "Finally decided on my book for this prompt.

It's highly political though so I don't know if I should mention it, but it works."

Well now we want to know your highly political choice.

[Kat]

I read this book years ago and recommend it:
Cult A Love Story: Ten Years Inside a Canadian Cult and the Subsequent Long Road of Recovery

[Ron]

Dubhease wrote: "Ron wrote: "Finally decided on my book for this prompt.

It's highly political though so I don't know if I should mention it, but it works."

Well now we want to know your highly political choice."

Ha ha fair enough, but be warned. I don't care what people's politics are, mine sure as heck don't matter. I'm just reading it out of curiosity sake like I do anything else. I like to learn things, even the topics that make people uncomfortable because I love figuring out why people think they do, what makes them uncomfortable and why. Humanity fascinates me, even some of the intense stuff.

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism

[Denise]

Ron wrote: "Dubhease wrote: "Ron wrote: "Finally decided on my book for this prompt.

It's highly political though so I don't know if I should mention it, but it works."

Well now we want to know your highly ..."

Works for me!

[Sasha]

Ron wrote: "Humanity fascinates me, even some of the intense stuff."

I love that attitude!

[Ron]

Sasha wrote: "Ron wrote: "Humanity fascinates me, even some of the intense stuff."

I love that attitude!"

Thanks. It's always been the best way to learn for me. This is why I don't give my opinion when parents ask if a book is age appropriate for their kid. I read The Mists of Avalon when I was just 12 years old so I'm not one to judge and given my experience I'm not the best person to suggest what is and what is not appropriate since I believe kids should read just about anything.

As far as other topics go, the topics that people are either too afraid of or consider too "woke" or "political", I don't care. How else are we supposed to learn the truth of anything if we don't touch those subjects?

[Dubhease]

I want to say that I don't consider Mennonites or the Amish to be cults.

However, the protagonist in A Complicated Kindness feels like she is living in a cult. It doesn't have the same level of control and isolation that was present in other cult books I've read. Nadine said something about cult-adjacent being close enough, so I'm counting it.

[Kim]

Nadine in NY wrote: "Catherine wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "Catherine wrote: "I'm fascinated by cults -- to the point that I have a cults and other alternative lifestyles shelf.

The Ash Family is one ..."

When I read this prompt, the third, The Last Policeman book, World of Trouble immediately came to my mind, so I think it MUST qualify! (I know you're doing this, but a warning to others: be sure to read the trilogy in order!)

[Kim]

Denise wrote: "I just finished the audiobook for In the Clearing and came here to recommend it. I gave it 5 stars! I'm surprised that it doesn't have more ratings but it might be because it's base..."

Thanks for coming back to recommend that book, Denise! I bumped it up to my first choice for this prompt. (I'm always poaching your reading list!)

[Nadine in NY]

Kim wrote: "When I read this prompt, the third, The Last Policeman book, World of Trouble immediately came to my mind, so I think it MUST qualify!..."



thanks for confirming!! I still have not finished this category (and I still want to read #2 & #3 in that series!!!)

[Laura Ruth]

I picked up Naomi Alderman's The Future intending to use it for the "dystopian book with a happy ending" prompt. After reading it, decided it's not a good fit for that category, but one of the main characters grew up in a survivalist cult, and it definitely affected the plot, so I decided it works for this one even if it's not technically "about" the cult.

Also works for "book centering queer characters that's not about coming out," as there's a love story between two women.

http://www.lauraruthloomis.com/whats-...

[Ron]

I ended up going with The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism .

There's nothing wrong with Christianity, but when it turns into extremism that's when it can become a serious cult-like issue.

[Laura Ruth]

Naomi Alderman's The Power also includes a cult.

[Ron]

I caved and got Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism

[Denise]

Ron wrote: "I caved and got Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism"

I read that last year and I really liked it. She talks about a lot of organizations with cultish behavior that you maybe would not have thought of as a cult, like a particular chain of gyms

[Ron]

That does sound interesting, thanks.

[Bluebelle-the-Inquisitive (Catherine)]

I'm going to be honest while I do have an interest in cults, I have no interest in reading a non-fiction book about them and fiction books with them usually just feel wrong to me.

So I read The Grace Year. It's a book that ruins me every time I read it.
Without spoilers, there is a group involved that the wider society would consider a cult, a hazard to societal structures. They are feared by society despite existing peacefully alongside it.

[Michelle]

I read The Girls. Pretty average read.

[Bluebelle-the-Inquisitive (Catherine)]

For anyone looking for a shorter list of books, Goodreads admin Cybil posted a blog post on July 1st titled Follow the Leader: Cults and Cultish Fiction and Nonfiction.

[Ellen]

I plan to read by T. Kingfisher.

[Britany]

Finished The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Chelsea]

Oh man, if someone is still looking for a title for this and wants fiction, I just finished Some Desperate Glory and that book SLAPPED. It is sci-fi and won the Hugo a few years ago (deservedly so).

[Sara Grace]

I just read I Who Have Never Known Men and I don't feel it fits this prompt.

[Jessica]

I read Into the Light by Aleatha Romig. It was so good!