Cults Curated

A selection of books about cults, both fiction and non.
Updated September 19, 2022
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The Girls
Emma Cline
Paper Book
THE INSTANT BESTSELLER * An indelible portrait of girls, the women they become, and that moment in life when everything can go horribly wrong ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, The Guardian, Entertainment Weekly, San Francisco Chronicle,...
Those Who Prey
Jennifer Moffett
Paper Book
Sadie meets The Girls in this riveting debut psychological thriller about a lonely college freshman seduced into joining a cult--and her desperate attempt to escape before it's too late. College life isn't what Emily expected. She expected to spend...
The Project
Courtney Summers
Paper Book
The Project is a pulls-no-punches story from New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award winning author Courtney Summers, about an aspiring young journalist determined to save her sister no matter the cost. The #1 Indie Next Pick and winner of the International...
The incendiaries
R. O. Kwon
Paper Book
Phoebe and Will meet in their first month at prestigious Edwards University. Phoebe is a glamorous girl who blames herself for her mother's death. Will is a misfit who transfers to Edwards from Bible college, waiting tables in secret to get by. What he knows for sure is that he loves Phoebe....
The Lightness
Emily Temple
Paper Book
"A teen thriller in the vein of the '90s horror movie The Craft . . . A beautiful meditation on meditation . . . Frequently hilarious, and thoughtful throughout."  --The New York Times Book Review "The Lightness could be the love child of Donna Tartt and Tana...
The Marriage Pact
Michelle Richmond
Paper Book
How far is too far when it comes to protecting your marriage? Find out in this relentlessly paced novel of psychological suspense for anyone who loved The Couple Next Door. "Ranks with The Stepford Wives and Gone Girl as a terrifying look at...
The Hive
Gregg Olsen
Paper Book
Glamorous messiah or charlatan? A mask of beauty hides deadly secrets in #1 New York Times and Amazon Charts bestselling author Gregg Olsen's mesmerizing novel of suspense. In the Pacific Northwest, detective Lindsay Jackman is investigating the murder of a young journalist...
The Line Between
Tosca Lee
Paper Book
In this frighteningly believable thriller from New York Times bestselling author Tosca Lee, an extinct disease re-emerges from the melting Alaskan permafrost to cause madness in its victims. For recent apocalyptic cult escapee Wynter Roth, it's the end she'd always been told was coming.<...
Sorrowland
Rivers Solomon
Paper Book
A TIME 100 Must-Read Book of 2021 A New York Times Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of 2021 The Stonewall Book Award winner of 2022 Named a Best Book of 2021 by NPR, The New York Public Library, Publishers Weekly<...
Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple
Deborah Layton
Paper Book
Twenty years ago, on November 18, 1978 in Jonestown, a commune in the depths of the Guyanese jungle, 913 followers of the Reverend Jim Jones obeyed his orders to take their own lives, dutifully swallowing fruit-flavored punch laced with cyanide. It was the worst mass suicide in modern history. The...
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
Vincent Bugliosi
Paper Book
Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the twentieth century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his...
Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People
Tim Reiterman
Paper Book
The basis for the upcoming HBO miniseries and the "definitive account of the Jonestown massacre" (Rolling Stone) -- now available for the first time in paperback. Tim Reiterman's Raven provides the seminal history of the Rev. Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and the...
Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints
Sam Brower
Paper Book
"A remarkable man on many levels, Sam Brower is the real deal. Readers are apt to find his firsthand account of bringing Warren Jeffs to justice both extremely disturbing and absolutely riveting."-Jon Krakauer, from the foreword From the private investigator who cracked open the case that led...
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
Lawrence Wright
Paper Book
National Book Award Finalist A clear-sighted revelation, a deep penetration into the world of Scientology by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, the now-classic study of al-Qaeda's 9/11 attack. Based on more than two hundred personal...
A Place Called Waco: A Survivor's Story
David Thibodeau
Paper Book
In this text. a survivor of the Waco massacre tells the inside story of the Branch Davidians, David Koresh and what really happened.
Not Without My Sister
Kristina Jones
Paper Book
The bestselling, devastating account of three sisters torn apart, abused and exploited at the hands of a community that robbed them of their childhood. It reveals three lives, separate but entwined, that have experienced unspeakable horror, unrelenting loyalty and unforgettable courage. ...
Slonim Woods 9
Levin, Daniel Barban
Paper Book
An "extraordinary" (Nylon) firsthand account of the creation of a modern cult and the costs paid by its young victims- a group of college roommates "Intense . . . a tale of hard-won survival, and creating a life after the unimaginable."-Salon ...
The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult
Jerald Walker
Paper Book
A lively memoir of growing up with blind African American parents in a segregated cult preaching the imminent end of the world--for fans of James McBride's The Good Lord Bird. It's 1970, and Jerry Walker is six years old. His consciousness revolves around being a member of...
My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru
Tim Guest
Paper Book
At the age of six, Tim Guest was taken by his mother to a commune modeled on the teachings of the notorious Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The Bhagwan preached an eclectic doctrine of Eastern mysticism, chaotic therapy, and sexual freedom, and enjoyed inhaling laughing gas, preaching from a...

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