Fascinating Books About Cults

In 1995, five members of a religious cult unleashed poison gas on the Tokyo subway system. In an attempt to discover why, Haruki Murakmi talks to the people who lived through the catastrophe.

Jerry Walker shares his story of growing up with blind, African American parents in a segregated cult preaching the imminent end of the world.

At the prestigious Edwards University, Phoebe Lin is lured into a religious cult by a former student with a dubious past and violent plans. Still reeling from her mother’s death — and secretly blaming herself for it — Phoebe follows along willingly. Meanwhile, the boy who’s in love with her, Will Kendall, knows intimately how easy it is to be manipulated, and he struggles to reach out to Phoebe before it’s too late.

In this work of fiction, Evie is captivated by Suzanne, a mesmerizing older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader.

A young father and son set out on a road trip, devastated by the death of the wife and mother they both loved. United in grief, the pair travel to her ancestral home, where they must confront the terrifying legacy she has bequeathed: A family called the Order that commits unspeakable acts in search of immortality. For Gaspar, the son, this maniacal cult is his destiny. As the Order tries to pull him into their evil, he and his father take flight, attempting to outrun a powerful clan that will do anything to ensure its own survival. But how far will Gaspar’s father go to protect his child? And can anyone escape their fate?

Rebecca Stott tries to make sense of her childhood in the cult Exclusive Brethren and to understand her father’s role in the cult.

Daniel Barban Levin was one of the original residents of Slonim Woods 9. Beginning the moment Daniel set foot on Sarah Lawrence’s idyllic campus and spanning the two years he spent in the grip of a megalomaniac, this brave, lyrical, and redemptive memoir reveals how a group of friends was led from college to a cult without the world even noticing.

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn’t be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England’s Warren University. She is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort — a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other “Bunny,” and seem to move and speak as one. But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies’ fabled “Smut Salon.” Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.

When Daisy Dawson is attacked by a serial killer, she manages not only to get away, but to grab the necklace around the killer’s neck. Special Agent Gideon Reynolds recognizes the necklace: It’s from the cult his mother helped him escape from when he was a teenager — the cult that took his mother’s life, and many others. An edge-of-your-seat thriller with heart-stopping stakes.

A young woman living in a rigid, puritanical society discovers dark powers within herself in this stunning, feminist fantasy debut.

In this haunting and riveting firsthand account, a high-level member of Jim Jones’s Peoples Temple for seven years, Deborah Layton, escaped his infamous commune in the Guyanese jungle, leaving behind her mother, her older brother, and many friends.

This extraordinary work of investigative journalism takes readers inside America’s isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities, where some 40,000 people still practice polygamy.

A young journalist, reeling from loss, investigates a mysterious cult in the California redwoods, only to be drawn in by its charismatic leader in this addictive novel that asks why people give up control and what it takes, ultimately, to find one’s place in the world.

The title of Arthur Goldwag’s anthology says it all: This book is perfect for readers looking to learn about a breadth of cults, conspiracies, and secret societies across history, including the Freemasons, the mafia, the Kennedy assassination, and — of course — the Illuminati.

In this colorful, eye-opening memoir, Jayanti Tamm offers an unforgettable glimpse into the hidden world of growing up “cult” in mainstream America.

Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.

Seventeen-year-old Minnow is imprisoned in a juvenile detention center for a crime she committed after her escape from the tyrannical Kevinian cult, at whose authority she lost everything — including her own hands. In this dark work of fiction, Minnow must be willing to admit what she knows about the cult’s demise in order to reclaim her life.

Lawrence Wright — armed with his investigative talents, years of archival research, and more than two hundred personal interviews with current and former Scientologists — uncovers the inner workings of Scientology.

In this novel, a young couple decides to join an exclusive and mysterious group known only as The Pact. The young lovers are about to discover that The Pact will go to any lengths to enforce their rules.

On a private island off the coast of Maine, Wisewood’s guests commit to six-month stays. During this time, they’re prohibited from contact with the rest of the world to keep guests focused on achieving true fearlessness so they can become their Maximized Selves. Natalie thinks it’s a bad idea, but Kit has had enough of her sister’s cynicism and voluntarily disappears off the grid. Six months later Natalie receives a menacing e-mail from a Wisewood account threatening to reveal the secret she’s been keeping from Kit. She’s about to learn that Wisewood won’t let either of them go without a fight.