Cult Favorites: 6 Books Centered Around the Cult Experience
Written by Colleen Callery
Something about summer always feels ripe for getting into a good book about cults. Maybe it’s the urge to run from mainstream civilization and hide out in a secluded land where I can grow my own vegetables and take swims for lunch. Or maybe, even though we are well into August, there is something to the whole “Midsommar” phenomenon. Or maybe it’s just all the Kool Aid? (Sorry, bad joke.)
I’ve always been fascinated by cults and cultish groups, but there’s something about languishing in the summer heat that makes these stories even more seductive and powerful. It’s no secret that America loves a cult and, in some ways, it could even be argued that they were integral to the founding of the United States. With the doctrine of religious freedom (for whites) prominent in the constitution, there was fertile room for various groups to form outside of mainstream institutions, some more radical than others. And the highly American tension between seeking enlightenment and meaningful community amid a highly individualistic and commodified society continues to create the conditions that lead to people embarking on more radical ways of life. Below are five new(ish) novels and one nonfiction book that look at the engrossing and terrifying aspects of life in cults.
In the parched lands of Peaches, California, a small congregation clings to salvation from their local church, one that baptizes people in soda since water is so scarce and rains down gold glitter from the rafters after sermons so members know God is listening. Fourteen-year-old Lacey May has been a believer her whole life, but since moving in with her grandmother after her mother was exiled, and as the economic and the environmental situation worsens, the grip of the church tightens to a claustrophobic level. After a particularly traumatic experience, Lacey May knows its time to leave and makes for her getaway. This book is gritty, captivating and has all the markings of a modern gothic parable, so visceral in its language that I couldn’t put it down.
The Atmospherians is a perfect encapsulation of the tension of modern social dynamics taken to their most extreme. At its core, it dissects the dynamics of influence, for good and evil, performance, the fascinatingly thin line between likability and deep, deep hatred, and ultimately the mind of a successful cult leader.
Toxic masculinity is a disease and a social danger in this novel, one that is leading to “man hordes” -- random congregations of men who seem to fall under a spell, drop what they are doing and join in a group act with other nearby men, the results of which can vary from rescuing kittens from trees to inflicting random violence. So when Sasha Marcus, channeling the aura of a Gwyneth Paltrow Goop type leader, falls from her popular wellness brand social graces and finds herself deep in the New Jersey woods with her childhood best friend setting up a new endeavor to help “reform” toxic men, she is doing the world a great service, right?
This novel is so sharp and funny, and McElroy gets right to the heart of the often painful backstories that color these extreme manifestations of community and belonging.
This is a new book set to come out in January of next year, so take note and preorder now. A darkly funny story about a woman leaving behind her family as she journeys through the Southwest to answer some deeply difficult questions she has about her life. Watkins has called this a “novel in the form of an autobiography”, so it may not be surprising to see parallels to her own life. Perhaps most fascinating are the excerpts and letters Watkins has woven in from her own parents, who had close connections to the Manson Family. This is a story suspicious of happiness and most of the mainstream American ideals, and is ultimately about finding one’s way to personal liberation.
In this slim novel, taut with tension, a newly-transferred college student, Will, falls in love with fellow student, Phoebe. As Will decides he no longer subscribes to the Christian faith he was raised with, Phoebe also begins to lose faith in her own life, forgoing a promising future in music. Phoebe becomes more and more distant until Will discovers her involvement in a secretive religious cult that culminates in a violent act of terrorism. The novel is from Will’s perspective, which mostly puts us on the outside of the plot unfoldings between Phoebe and John, the charismatic leader, but I think this works to further emphasize the isolation, ostracization and confusion that often surround extremist groups and those that lose loved ones to them.
This novel came out a few years ago to much hype but remains a forever favorite for me. Its a story of Evie, a teenager who runs away from her suburban home and joins a Manson-like group, ending in a fictionalized version of the Tate-LaBianca murders. If you’re anything like me, you’ll read the whole thing in two days, barely coming up for air.
Switching gears from fiction to nonfiction, if you are at all interested in the workings of extremist groups, you’re going to want to add this book to your list. Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. I love that Montell focuses not just on the darker side of cultish groups, but explores how these concepts pervade so many aspects of the more benign and mainstream accepted communities like Instagram, Peloton, and many tech start ups. It’s no secret that cults are intriguing and seductive for a reason, but Montell pulls back the veil of why and how these groups can be so enticing and successful on a very practical and nonjudgmental level.
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