It’s Getting Kind of Culty: Must-Read Books About Cults

Our collective fascination with cults certainly isn’t new, but it does feel like it’s at some kind of high point. Social media and the age of streaming have a lot to do with that: one viral video is all it takes to spread the word on culty activity far and wide, and streaming platforms are all in a race to bang out documentaries about cults just as quickly. That content almost always performs, driven by a general voraciousness for true crime. And though I feel a way about it given my own complicated feelings around the ethics of true crime, I’d be lying if I said I’m not in the camp of folks who gleefully settle in for a good cult doc watch.

The reasons we’re drawn to media about cults are certainly varied and layered, but I think a lot of us can’t look away because we’re convinced, perhaps naively, that it couldn’t happen to us. Or maybe we suspect it could, but can’t clearly imagine what it would take for us to fall prey to ideologies that, from the safe remove of our living rooms, feel so obviously toxic and exploitative. The books on this list, both fiction and nonfiction, expose and explore the inner workings of cult and cult influence, and how we’re all probably more vulnerable to falling for one than we think.

Whether you’re in the mood for a fictional take on a real cult, a memoir of a cult survivor, or an analysis of the language fo fanaticism, there’s something here to satisfy your cultish interests. And if you’re participating in Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge this year, these titles will all satisfy task #17: Read a book about a cult or cults.

Content warning: some of these books and their descriptions involve mentions of physical and sexual abuse.

Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult by Faith Jones The Children of God was an extremist religious group formed in the 1960s, infamous for engaging in the physical and sexual abuse of children. Author Faith Jones was raised in the cult and coached in its exploitative brand of spiritual warfare, but escaped its clutches at the age of 23 to begin a new life. This memoir is her story of survival and escape from one of the most notorious cults in history, and a deeply personal one: the cult’s founder, David Berg, was her grandfather.

The Scammer by Tiffany D. Jackson This fictional cult story is a YA thriller by Tiffany D. Jackson, who does not miss but decided to really show off with this one. Inspired by the events surrounding the Sarah Lawrence cult, Jackson sets her story on an HBCU campus and delivers an ending I truly did not see coming. If you like suspenseful books set on college campuses, explorations of high-control groups, and stories ripped from the headlines, this book is calling your name.

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