The Best Books About Or Featuring Cults (Nonfiction & Fiction)
“What are the best books about Cults?” We looked at 388 of the top fiction & nonfiction books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
The top 26 titles, all appearing on 3 or more “Best Cult” book lists, are ranked below by how many lists they appear on. The remaining 300+ titles, as well as the lists we used are in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.
Happy Scrolling!
Top 26 Books About Cults Books
26 .) Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church by Lauren Drain
Lists It Appears On:
- Book Riot
- Bustle
- Goodreads
“You’ve likely heard of the Westboro Baptist Church. Perhaps you’ve seen their pickets on the news, the members holding signs with messages that are too offensive to copy here, protesting at events such as the funerals of soldiers, the 9-year old victim of the recent Tucson shooting, and Elizabeth Edwards, all in front of their grieving families. The WBC is fervently anti-gay, anti-Semitic, and anti- practically everything and everyone. And they aren’t going anywhere: in March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the WBC’s right to picket funerals.
Since no organized religion will claim affiliation with the WBC, it’s perhaps more accurate to think of them as a cult. Lauren Drain was thrust into that cult at the age of 15, and then spat back out again seven years later. BANISHED is the first look inside the organization, as well as a fascinating story of adaptation and perseverance. “
25 .) Betrayal of the Spirit: My Life Behind the Headlines of the Hare Krishna Movement by Nori J. Muster
Lists It Appears On:
- Cult Research
- ICSA
- Book Riot
“Nori J. Muster joined the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)–the Hare Krishnas–in 1978, shortly after the death of the movement’s spiritual master, and worked for ten years as a public relations secretary and editor of the organization’s newspaper, the ISKCON World Review. In this candid and critical account, Muster follows the inner workings of the movement and the Hare Krishnas’ progressive decline.
Combining personal reminiscences, published articles, and internal documents, Betrayal of the Spirit details the scandals that beset the Krishnas–drug dealing, weapons stockpiling, deceptive fundraising, child abuse, and murder within ISKCON–as well as the dynamics of schisms that forced some 95 percent of the group’s original members to leave. In the midst of this institutional disarray, Muster continued her personal search for truth and religious meaning as an ISKCON member until, disillusioned at last with the movement’s internal divisions, she quit her job and left the organization.”
24 .) Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookbub
- Book Riot
- Goodreads
“Jenna Miscavige Hill, niece of Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige, was raised as a Scientologist but left the controversial religion in 2005. In Beyond Belief, she shares her true story of life inside the upper ranks of the sect, details her experiences as a member Sea Org—the church’s highest ministry, speaks of her “”disconnection”” from family outside of the organization, and tells the story of her ultimate escape.
In this tell-all memoir, complete with family photographs from her time in the Church, Jenna Miscavige Hill, a prominent critic of Scientology who now helps others leave the organization, offers an insider’s profile of the beliefs, rituals, and secrets of the religion that has captured the fascination of millions, including some of Hollywood’s brightest stars such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta.”
23 .) Combatting Cult Mind Control by Steven Hassan
Lists It Appears On:
- ICSA
- Cult Research
- About Great Books
A former cult member and a leading expert in counseling people away from cults, Steven Hassan brings his best-selling book to audiocassette. He exposes the troubling facts about destructive cults–including their use of psychological manipulation to gain money and power, and their influence on government, the legal system, and society as a whole–and explains how to distinguish them from constructive organizations. He gives specific guidance to those who are presently drawn or attached to cults and advice to concerned friends and family of cult members.An invaluable guide for parents, teachers, health professionals, clergy, attorneys, and all those whose lives are touched by cult issues.
22 .) Cults in Our Midst by Janja Lalich and Margaret Singer
Lists It Appears On:
- Cult Research
- About Great Books
- ICSA
A definitive and shocking expose that reveals what cults are and how they work. With vital information on how to help people escape cult entrapments and recover from the experience, this book will be an invaluable resource to former cult members.
21 .) fathermothergod: My Journey Out of Christian Science by Lucia Greenhouse
Lists It Appears On:
- Book Riot
- Bustle
- Goodreads
fathermothergod is Lucia Greenhouse’s story about growing up in Christian Science, in a house where you could not be sick, because you were perfect; where no medicine, even aspirin, was allowed. As a teenager, her visit to an ophthalmologist created a family crisis. She was a sophomore in college before she had her first annual physical. And in December 1985, when Lucia and her siblings, by then young adults, discovered that their mother was sick, they came face-to-face with the reality that they had few–if any–options to save her. Powerless as they watched their mother’s agonizing suffering, Lucia and her siblings struggled with their own grief, anger, and confusion, facing scrutiny from the doctors to whom their parents finally allowed them to turn, and stinging rebuke from relatives who didn’t share their parents’ religious values.
20 .) God’s Brothel: The Extortion of Sex for Salvation in Contemporary Mormon and Christian Fundamentalist Polygamy and the Stories of 18 Women Who Escaped by Andrea Moore-Emmett
Lists It Appears On:
- Book Riot
- Cult Research
- ICSA
A chilling indictment of contemporary Mormon and Christian fundamentalist polygamy, God’s Brothel reveals gruesome facts about Bible-based polygamy through the brave voices of 18 women who escaped from 10 of the 11 main religious groups as well as independent families. Their stories include rape, incest, orgies, and violence, making this form of polygamy more akin to sexual slavery than to any quaint religious or lifestyle choice.
19 .) Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright
Lists It Appears On:
- About Great Books
- Book Riot
- Goodreads
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 interviews with current and former Scientologists-both famous and less well known-and years of archival research, Lawrence Wright uses his extraordinary investigative ability to uncover for us the inner workings of the Church of Scientology. At the book’s center, two men whom Wright brings vividly to life, showing how they have made Scientology what it is today: The darkly brilliant science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, whose restless, expansive mind invented a new religion. And his successor, David Miscavige-tough and driven, with the unenviable task of preserving the church after the death of Hubbard. We learn about Scientology’s complicated cosmology and special language. We see the ways in which the church pursues celebrities, such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, and how such stars are used to advance the church’s goals. And we meet the young idealists who have joined the Sea Org, the church’s clergy, signing up with a billion-year contract.
18 .) Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge by Don Lattin
Lists It Appears On:
- Signature
- Book Riot
- Goodreads
“In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven, Don Lattin’s Jesus Freaks is the story of a shocking pilgrimage of revenge that left two people dead and shed new light on The Family International, one of the most controversial religious movements to emerge from the spiritual turmoil of the sixties and seventies.
Some say The Family International—previously known as the Children of God—began with the best intentions. But their sexual and spiritual excesses soon forced them to go underground and follow a dark and dangerous path. Their charismatic leader, David “”Moses”” Berg, preached a radical critique of the piety and hypocrisy of mainstream Christianity. But Berg’s message quickly devolved into its own web of lies. He lusted for power and unlimited access to female members of his flock—including young girls and teenagers—and became a drunken tyrant, setting up re-indoctrination camps around the world for rebellious teenagers under his control.”
17 .) Kraken by China Miéville
Lists It Appears On:
- Panmacmillan
- Barnes & Noble
- Goodreads
With this outrageous new novel, China Miéville has written one of the strangest, funniest, and flat-out scariest books you will read this—or any other—year. The London that comes to life in Kraken is a weird metropolis awash in secret currents of myth and magic, where criminals, police, cultists, and wizards are locked in a war to bring about—or prevent—the End of All Things.
16 .) Not Without My Sister by Celeste Jones, Kristina Jones, and Juliana Buhring
Lists It Appears On:
- ICSA
- Goodreads
- Book Riot
“From as early as three years old, Juliana, Celeste and Kristina were treated as sexual beings by their ‘guardians’ in the infamous religious cult known as the Children of God. They were made to watch and mimic orgies, received love letters and sexual advances from men old enough to be their grandfather, and were forced into abusive relationships. They were denied access to formal schooling, had to wander the streets begging for money, and were mercilessly beaten for ‘crimes’ as unpredictable as reading an encyclopaedia.
Finally, unable to live with the guilt of what had happened to her children, their mother escaped with Kristina, cutting herself off from her remaining children in a bid to save at least one child. Desperate to save her sisters, Kristina eventually returned to the place of her torture to free Celeste. Years later, Juliana found the courage to escape, knowing that the child she was carrying would be subjected to the same fate if she did not.”
15 .) The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple by Jeff Guinn
Lists It Appears On:
- Book Riot
- Electric Lit
- Goodreads
“In the 1950s, a young Indianapolis minister named Jim Jones preached a curious blend of the gospel and Marxism. His congregation was racially integrated, and he was a much-lauded leader in the contemporary civil rights movement. Eventually, Jones moved his church, Peoples Temple, to northern California. He became involved in electoral politics, and soon was a prominent Bay Area leader.
In this riveting narrative, Jeff Guinn examines Jones’s life, from his extramarital affairs, drug use, and fraudulent faith healing to the fraught decision to move almost a thousand of his followers to a settlement in the jungles of Guyana in South America. Guinn provides stunning new details of the events leading to the fatal day in November, 1978 when more than nine hundred people died—including almost three hundred infants and children—after being ordered to swallow a cyanide-laced drink.”
14 .) The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookbub
- Goodreads
- Read It Forward
“The Kevinian cult has taken everything from seventeen-year-old Minnow: twelve years of her life, her family, her ability to trust. And when she rebelled, they took away her hands, too.
Now their Prophet has been murdered and their camp set aflame, and it’s clear that Minnow knows something—but she’s not talking. As she languishes in juvenile detention, she struggles to un-learn everything she has been taught to believe, adjusting to a life behind bars and recounting the events that led up to her incarceration. But when an FBI detective approaches her about making a deal, Minnow sees she can have the freedom she always dreamed of—if she’s willing to part with the terrible secrets of her past.”
13 .) Cartwheels in a Sari: A Memoir of Growing Up Cult by Jayanti Tamm
Lists It Appears On:
- Read It Forward
- ICSA
- Book Riot
- Goodreads
“In this colorful, eye-opening memoir, Jayanti Tamm offers an unforgettable glimpse into the hidden world of growing up “cult” in mainstream America. Through Jayanti’s fascinating story–the first book to chronicle Sri Chinmoy–she unmasks a leader who convinces thousands of disciples to follow him, scores of nations to dedicate monuments to him, and throngs of celebrities (Sting, Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela) to extol him.
When the short, bald man in flowing robes prophesizes Jayanti to be the “Chosen One,” her life is forever entwined with the charismatic guru Sri Chinmoy, who declares himself a living god. A god who performs sit-ups and push-ups in front of thousands as holy ritual, protects himself with a platoon of bodyguards, and bans books, TV, and sex. Jayanti’s unusual and increasingly bizarre childhood is spent shuttling between the ashram in Queens, New York, and her family’s outpost as “Connecticut missionaries.” On the path to enlightenment decreed by Guru, Jayanti scrubs animal cages in his illegal basement zoo, cheerleads as he weight lifts an elephant in her front yard, and trails him around the world as he pursues celebrities such as Princess Diana and Mother Teresa.
But, when her need for enlightenment is derailed by her need for boys, Jayanti risks losing everything that she has ever known, including the person that she was ordained to be. With tenderness, insight, and humor, Jayanti explores the triumphs and trauma of an insider who longs to be an outsider, her hard-won decision to finally break free, and the unique challenges she confronts as she builds a new life.”
12 .) Escape by Carolyn Jessop and Laura Palmer
Lists It Appears On:
- Signature
- Book Riot
- Bookbub
- Goodreads
The dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children. When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of Carolyn’s heritage: She was born into and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church that had settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children and withstood her husband’s psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of his other wives who were locked in a constant battle for supremacy. Carolyn’s every move was dictated by her husband’s whims. He decided where she lived and how her children would be treated. He controlled the money she earned as a school teacher. He chose when they had sex; Carolyn could only refuse at her peril. For in the FLDS, a wife’s compliance with her husband determined how much status both she and her children held in the family. Carolyn was miserable for years and wanted out, but she knew that if she tried to leave and got caught, her children would be taken away from her. No woman in the country had ever escaped from the FLDS and managed to get her children out, too. But in 2003, Carolyn chose freedom over fear and fled her home with her eight children.
11 .) Heaven’s Harlots: My Fifteen Years as a Sacred Prostitute in the Children of God Cult by Miriam Williams
Lists It Appears On:
- Electric Lit
- Cult Research
- ICSA
- Book Riot
“An explosive first-person account by a young woman who spent fifteen years in a sex cult called the Children of God, which encouraged “”sacred prostitution”” and taught that “”The Lord is our pimp.””
Miriam Williams was an idealistic child of the sixties who, at seventeen, accepted an invitation from a “”Jesus person”” to visit a commune in upstate New York. She would soon be prostituting herself for a perverse cult that used sex to lure sinners to the Lord — and this is her shocking, searingly honest account of a fifteen-year spiritual odyssey gone haywire.The Children of God turned its female devotees into Heaven’s Harlots, leading strangers to the love of God by enticing them with the pleasures of the flesh. At its height, the cult boasted 19,000 members around the world: In such places as France and Monte Carlo, young women, Miriam among them, mingled with the rich and famous to save their souls, and in this unsparing, unnerving autobiography, she’ll identify some of her high-profile “”clients.”” She left this bizarre world in an attempt to protect her son, born through an arranged marriage and kidnapped by his father.”
10 .) Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
Lists It Appears On:
- Read It Forward
- Cult Research
- Book Riot
- Goodreads
In the summer of 1969, in Los Angeles, a series of brutal, seemingly random murders captured headlines across America. A famous actress (and her unborn child), an heiress to a coffee fortune, a supermarket owner and his wife were among the seven victims. A thin trail of circumstances eventually tied the Tate-LeBianca murders to Charles Manson, a would-be pop singer of small talent living in the desert with his “family” of devoted young women and men. What was his hold over them? And what was the motivation behind such savagery? In the public imagination, over time, the case assumed the proportions of myth. The murders marked the end of the sixties and became an immediate symbol of the dark underside of that era.
9 .) Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People by Tim Reiterman and John Jacobs
Lists It Appears On:
- Signature
- Cult Research
- Book Riot
- Goodreads
“Tim Reiterman’s Raven provides the seminal history of the Rev. Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and the murderous ordeal at Jonestown in 1978.
This PEN Award–winning work explores the ideals-gone-wrong, the intrigue, and the grim realities behind the Peoples Temple and its implosion in the jungle of South America. Reiterman’s reportage clarifies enduring misperceptions of the character and motives of Jim Jones, the reasons why people followed him, and the important truth that many of those who perished at Jonestown were victims of mass murder rather than suicide.”
8 .) Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor’s Story of Life and Death in the People’s Temple by Deborah Layton
Lists It Appears On:
- Goodreads
- About Great Books
- Book Riot
- Cult Research
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. She returned to the United States with warnings of impending disaster, but her pleas for help fell on skeptical ears, and shortly thereafter, in November 1978, the Jonestown massacre shocked the world. Seductive Poison is both an unflinching historical document and a suspenseful story of intrigue, power, and murder.
7 .) Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing up In a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs by Elissa Wall and Lisa Pulitzer
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookbub
- Book Riot
- Goodreads
- About Great Books
In September 2007, a packed courtroom in St. George, Utah, sat hushed as Elissa Wall, the star witness against polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs, gave captivating testimony of how Jeffs forced her to marry her first cousin at age fourteen. This harrowing and vivid account proved to be the most compelling evidence against Jeffs, showing the harsh realities of this closed community and the lengths that Jeffs went to in order to control the women in it. Now, in this courageous memoir, Elissa Wall tells her incredible and inspirational story of her time in the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), detailing how she emerged from its confines to help bring one of America’s most notorious criminals to justice.
6 .) The Girls by Emma Cline
Lists It Appears On:
- Panmacmillan
- Electric Lit
- Read It Forward
- Goodreads
Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon, Evie is in thrall to 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. Hidden in the hills, their sprawling ranch is eerie and run down, but to Evie, it is exotic, thrilling, charged, a place where she feels desperate to be accepted.
5 .) The Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice by Rebecca Musser
Lists It Appears On:
- Bustle
- Read It Forward
- Book Riot
- Goodreads
Rebecca Musser grew up in fear concealing her family s polygamous lifestyle from the dangerous outside world Covered head to toe in strict modest clothing she received a rigorous education at Alta Academy the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints school headed by Warren Jeffs Always seeking to be an obedient Priesthood girl in her teens she became the nineteenth wife of her people s prophet 85 year old Rulon Jeffs Warren s father Finally sickened by the abuse she suffered and saw around her she pulled off a daring escape and sought to build a new life and family The church however had a way of pulling her back in and by 2007 Rebecca had no choice but to take the witness stand against the new prophet of the FLDS in order to protect her little sisters and other young girls from being forced to marry at shockingly young ages The following year Rebecca and the rest of the world watched as a team of Texas Rangers raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch a stronghold of the FLDS Rebecca s subsequent testimony would reveal the horrific secrets taking place behind closed doors of the temple sending their leaders to prison for years and Warren Jeffs for life THE WITNESS WORE RED is a gripping account of one woman s struggle to escape the perverse embrace of religious fanaticism and sexual slavery and a courageous story of hope and transformation
4 .) Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche by Haruki Murakami
Lists It Appears On:
- Panmacmillan
- Book Riot
- Electric Lit
- Goodreads
“In this haunting work of journalistic investigation, Haruki Murakami tells the story of the horrific terrorist attack on Japanese soil that shook the entire world.
On a clear spring day in 1995, five members of a religious cult unleashed poison gas on the Tokyo subway system. In attempt to discover why, Haruki Murakmi talks to the people who lived through the catastrophe, and in so doing lays bare the Japanese psyche. As he discerns the fundamental issues that led to the attack, Murakami paints a clear vision of an event that could occur anytime, anywhere.”
3 .) My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
Lists It Appears On:
- Cult Research
- The Guardian
- Goodreads
- ICSA
- Book Riot
“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 dentist’s chair, and collecting Rolls Royces.
Tim and his mother were given Sanskrit names, dressed entirely in orange, and encouraged to surrender themselves into their new family. While his mother worked tirelessly for the cause, Tim-or Yogesh, as he was now called-lived a life of well-meaning but woefully misguided neglect in various communes in England, Oregon, India, and Germany.
In 1985 the movement collapsed amid allegations of mass poisonings, attempted murder, and tax evasion, and Yogesh was once again Tim. In this extraordinary memoir, Tim Guest chronicles the heartbreaking experience of being left alone on earth while his mother hunted heaven.”
2 .) Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
Lists It Appears On:
- Panmacmillan
- Bookbub
- Bustle
- Read It Forward
- Goodreads
Tender Bransonâlast surviving member of the Creedish Death Cultâis dictating his life story into Flight 2039âs recorder. He is all alone in the airplane, which will crash shortly into the vast Australian outback. But before it does, he will unfold the tale of his journey from an obedient Creedish child to an ultra-buffed, steroid- and collagen-packed media messiah. Unpredictable and unforgettable, Survivor is Chuck Palahniuk at his deadpan peak: a mesmerizing, unnerving, and hilarious satire on the wages of fame and the bedrock lunacy of the modern world.
1 .) Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookbub
- Read It Forward
- Cult Research
- About Great Books
- Signature
- Book Riot
- Bustle
- Goodreads
“This extraordinary work of investigative journalism takes readers inside America’s isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities, where some 40,000 people still practice polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God.
At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.”
The 300+ Additional Best Books About People Living In Cults
| # | Books | Authors | Lists |
| (Titles Appear On 2 Lists Each) | |||
| 27 | A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron. Hubbard Exposed | Jon Atack | Book Riot |
Cult Research | |||
| 28 | A Place Called Waco: A Survivor’s Story | David Thibodeau and Leon Whiteson | Goodreads |
| Book Riot | |||
| 29 | A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown | Julia Scheeres | Goodreads |
| Book Riot | |||
| 30 | American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst | Jeffrey Toobin | Read It Forward |
| Book Riot | |||
| 31 | Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults | Janja Lalich | Cult Research |
| ICSA | |||
| 32 | Children of Paradise | Fred D’Aguiar | Electric Lit |
Barnes & Noble | |||
| 33 | Church of Lies | Flora Jessop and Paul T. Brown | Book Riot |
| Goodreads | |||
| 34 | Churches That Abuse | Ronald Enroth | Cult Research |
| ICSA | |||
| 35 | Coping with Cult Involvement: A Handbook for Families and Friends | Livia Bardin | Cult Research |
| ICSA | |||
| 36 | Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lives to Take it All (or Almost All) of it Back | Frank Schaeffer | Cult Research |
| Book Riot | |||
| 37 | Cult Insanity: A Memoir of Polygamy, Prophets, and Blood Atonement | Irene Spencer | Book Riot |
| Goodreads | |||
| 38 | Cults on Campus: Continuing Challenge | Marcia Rudin | ICSA |
Cult Research | |||
| 39 | Cults, Conspiracies and Secret Societies | Arthur Goldwag | Read It Forward |
| Signature | |||
| 40 | Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism | Robert Jay Lifton | Cult Research |
| Book Riot | |||
| 41 | From Slogans to Mantras: Social Protest and Religious Conversion in the Late Vietnam War Era | Stephen A. Kent | ICSA |
Cult Research | |||
| 42 | Gated | Amy Christine Parker | Bookbub |
| Goodreads | |||
| 43 | Geek Love | Katherine Dunn | Flavorwire |
Barnes & Noble | |||
| 44 | Heartbreak and Rage: Ten Years Under Sun Myung Moon | K. Gordon Neufield | ICSA |
Cult Research | |||
| 45 | Heaven’s Gate: America’s UFO Religion | Benjamin E. Zeller | Book Riot |
| Electric Lit | |||
| 46 | His Favorite Wife: Trapped in Polygamy | Susan Ray Schmidt | Book Riot |
| Goodreads | |||
| 47 | I Fired God: My Life Inside | Jocelyn R. Zichterman | Book Riot |
| Goodreads | |||
| 48 | In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s Family | Nansook Hong | Cult Research |
| Book Riot | |||
| 49 | Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion | Robert B. Cialdini | Cult Research |
| ICSA | |||
| 50 | Inside Out: A Memoir of Entering and Breaking Out of a Minneapolis Political Cult | Alexandra Stein | Cult Research |
| ICSA | |||
| 51 | Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion | Janet Reitman | Goodreads |
| Book Riot | |||
| 52 | Keep Sweet: Children of Polygamy | Dr. Dave Perrin and Debbie Palmer | Bookbub |
| Book Riot | |||
| 53 | Lost Boy: the True Story of One Man’s Exile from a Polygamist Cult and His Brave Journey to Reclaim His Life | Brent W. Jeffs and Maia Szalavitz | Goodreads |
| Book Riot | |||
| 54 | Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson | Jeff Guinn | Book Riot |
| Goodreads | |||
| 55 | Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field | Benjamin Zablocki and Thomas Robbins | Cult Research |
| ICSA | |||
| 56 | Recovery from Abusive Groups | Wendy Ford | Cult Research |
| ICSA | |||
| 57 | Recovery From Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse | Michael D. Langone | ICSA |
Cult Research | |||
| 58 | Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves | Steven Hassan | ICSA |
Cult Research | |||
| 59 | Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist’s Wife | Irene Spencer | Goodreads |
| Book Riot | |||
| 60 | Stranger in a Strange Land | Robert A. Heinlein | Flavorwire |
| Goodreads | |||
| 61 | The 19th Wife | David Ebershoff | Bookbub |
| Goodreads | |||
| 62 | The Boston Movement: Critical Perspectives on the International Churches of Christ | Carol Giambalvo & Herbert Rosedale | Cult Research |
| ICSA | |||
| 63 | The Chosen One | Carol Lynch Williams | Bookbub |
| Goodreads | |||
| 64 | The Kingdom of Cults | Walter Martin and Ravi Zacharias | About Great Books |
| Goodreads | |||
| 65 | The Leftovers | Tom Perrotta | Bustle |
Read It Forward | |||
| 66 | The Patron Saint of Butterflies | Cecilia Galante | Bustle |
| Goodreads | |||
| 67 | The Secret History | Donna Tartt | Flavorwire |
Panmacmillan | |||
| 68 | The Sound of Gravel: A Memoir | Ruth Wariner | Book Riot |
| Goodreads | |||
| 69 | The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult | Jerald Walker | Book Riot |
| Electric Lit | |||
| 70 | Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism | Robert Jay Lifton | Cult Research |
| ICSA | |||
| 71 | Trance | Christopher Sorrentino | Bustle |
Read It Forward | |||
| 72 | Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror | Judith Lewis Herman | ICSA |
Cult Research | |||
| 73 | Triumph: Life After the Cult | Carolyn Jessop | Goodreads |
| Book Riot | |||
| 74 | Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology | Leah Remini | Book Riot |
| Goodreads | |||
| 75 | Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of the Way International | Charlene L. Edge | ICSA |
| Book Riot | |||
| 76 | When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and the Woman Who Fought Back | Stephen Singular | Book Riot |
| Goodreads | |||
| 77 | Women Under the Influence: A Study of Women’s Lives in Totalist Groups | Janja Lalich | ICSA |
Cult Research | |||
| (Titles Appear On 1 List Each) | |||
| 78 | 1984 | George Orwell | Cult Research |
| 79 | A Confederacy of Dunces | John Kennedy Toole | Flavorwire |
| 80 | A Journey to Waco | Clive Doyle, Catherine Wessinger and Matthew D. Wittmer | Book Riot |
| 81 | A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The True Story of a New Jewish Boy Who Joins the Church of Scientology and Leaves Twelve Years Later to Become the Lovely Lady She is Today | Kate Bornstein | Book Riot |
| 82 | A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story | Elaine Brown | Cult Research |
| 83 | Abode of Love: Growing Up in a Messianic Cult | Kate Barlow | Book Riot |
| 84 | Adult Children of Parental Alienation Syndrome: Breaking the Ties that Bind | Amy J | ICSA |
| 85 | Alienation and Charisma: A Study of Contemporary American Communes | Benjamin D. Zablocki | Cult Research |
| 86 | Amity & Sorrow | Peggy Riley | Goodreads |
| 87 | Amway: The Cult of Enterprise | Stephen Butterfield | Cult Research |
| 88 | Anthropology of an American Girl | Hilary Thayer Hamann | Flavorwire |
| 89 | Apocalypse: On the Psychology of Fundamentalism in America | Charles B. Strozier | Cult Research |
| 90 | Asylums | Erving Goffman | Cult Research |
| 91 | Atlas Shrugged | Ayn Rand | Flavorwire |
| 92 | Awake in a Nightmare—Jonestown: The Only Eyewitness Account | Ethan Feinsod | Cult Research |
| 93 | Bacchae | Euripides | Panmacmillan |
| 94 | Bare-faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard | Russell Miller | Cult Research |
| 95 | Beyond Belief: True Story of Faith, Denial and Betrayal | Margot Tesch | Book Riot |
| 96 | Bhagwan: The God that Failed | Hugh Milne | Cult Research |
| 97 | Bitter Harvest: Gordon Kahl and the Posse Comitatus | James Corcoran | Cult Research |
| 98 | Blood and Guts in High School | Kathy Acker | Flavorwire |
| 99 | Blown | Lauren Halsted Burroughs | Book Riot |
| 100 | Blown for Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology | Marc Headley | Book Riot |
| 101 | Blue Windows: A Christian Science Childhood | Barbara Wilson | Book Riot |
| 102 | Born and Raised in a Sect: You are Not Alone | Lois Kendall | ICSA |
| 103 | Born into the Children of God: My Life in a Religious Sex Cult and My Struggle for Survival on the Outside | Natacha Tormey | Book Riot |
| 104 | Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control | Kathleen Taylor | Cult Research |
| 105 | Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment | Janet Heimlich | ICSA |
| 106 | Call Me Evil, Let Me Go: A Mother’s Struggle to Save her Children from a Brutal Religious Cult | Sarah Jones | Book Riot |
| 107 | Catch-22 | Joseph Heller | Flavorwire |
| 108 | Channeling into the New Age: The “Teachings” of Shirley MacLaine and Other Such Gurus | Henry Gordon | Cult Research |
| 109 | Charisma | Charles Lindholm | Cult Research |
| 110 | Charisma and Control in Rajneeshpuram | Lewis F. Carter | Cult Research |
| 111 | Charisma and Leadership in Organizations | Alan Bryman | Cult Research |
| 112 | Charismatic Capitalism: Direct Selling Organizations in America | Nicole Woolsey Biggart | Cult Research |
| 113 | Child of Satan, Child of God: Her Own Story | Susan Atkins | Electric Lit |
| 114 | Christianity, Cults & Religions | Rose Publishing, Paul Cardin | About Great Books |
| 115 | Cities on a Hill: A Journey through Contemporary American Cultures | Frances FitzGerald | Cult Research |
| 116 | Closing the Gate | Deb Simpson | Book Riot |
| 117 | Coercive Persuasion: A Sociopsychological Analysis of the “Brainwashing” of American Civilian Prisoners | the Chinese Communists | Cult Research |
| 118 | Commitment and Community: Communes and Utopias in Sociological Perspective | Rosabeth Moss Kanter | Cult Research |
| 119 | Confabulations: Creating False Memories, Destroying Families | Eleanor Goldstein, with Kevin Framer | Cult Research |
| 120 | Corporate Cults: The Insidious Lure of the All-Consuming Organization | David Arnott | Cult Research |
| 121 | Counterfeit Dreams: One Man’s Journey Into and Out of the World of Scientology | Jefferson Hawkins | Book Riot |
| 122 | Crazy Therapies | Margaret Singer & Janja Lalich | ICSA |
| 123 | Crossing Over: One Woman’s Escape from Amish Life | Ruth Irene Garrett | Book Riot |
| 124 | Cult Child | Vennie Kocsis | Book Riot |
| 125 | Cult Proofing Your Kids | Paul R | ICSA |
| 126 | Cult Recovery: A Clinician’s Guide to Working With Former Members and Families | ICSA | |
| 127 | Cult Survivor’s Handbook | Nori Muster | ICSA |
| 128 | Cults in America: Programmed for Paradise | Willa Appel | Cult Research |
| 129 | Cults Inside Out | Rick Alan Ross | ICSA |
| 130 | Cults: Faith, Healing, and Coercion | Marc Galanter | Cult Research |
| 131 | Damaged Disciples | ICSA | |
| 132 | Darkness at Noon | Arthur Koestler | Cult Research |
| 133 | Daughter of the Saints: Growing Up in Polygamy | Dorothy Allred Solomon | Book Riot |
| 134 | Daughters of Zion: My Family’s Conversion to Polygamy | Kim Wariner-Taylor | Book Riot |
| 135 | Destructive and Terrorist Cults: A New Kind of Slavery | Masoud Banisadr | ICSA |
| 136 | Dhalgren | Samuel R. Delany | Flavorwire |
| 137 | Diary Of A Drug Fiend | Aleister Crowley | The Guardian |
| 138 | Divine Disenchantment: Deconverting from New Religions | Janet Liebman Jacobs | Cult Research |
| 139 | Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith | John Lofland | Cult Research |
| 140 | Dune | Frank Herbert | Flavorwire |
| 141 | Easily Fooled: New Insights and Techniques for Resisting Manipulation | Bob Fellows | ICSA |
| 142 | Encyclopedic Dictionary of Cults, Sects, & World Religions | George Mather | Acts 29 |
| 143 | Ender’s Game | Orson Scott Card | Flavorwire |
| 144 | Enlightenment Blues: My Years with an American Guru | Andre van der Braak | Cult Research |
| 145 | Escape from Freedom | Erich Fromm | Cult Research |
| 146 | Escape from Utopia: My Ten Years in Synanon | William Olin | Cult Research |
| 147 | Escape Through the Window: A Cult Survivor’s Story | Sarah Rose | Book Riot |
| 148 | Escape: My Life Long War Against Cults | Paul Morantz | Book Riot |
| 149 | Exit Counseling: A Family Intervention | Carol Giambalvo | Cult Research |
| 150 | Fair Game: The Incredible Untold Story of Scientology in Australia | Steve Cannane | Book Riot |
| 151 | Family Interventions for Cult-Affected Loved Ones | Carol Giambalvo | ICSA |
| 152 | Fear of Flying | Erica Jong | Flavorwire |
| 153 | Feet of Clay—Saints, Sinners, and Madmen: A Study of Gurus | Anthony Storr | Cult Research |
| 154 | Fifty Years in Polygamy: Big Secrets and Little White Lies | Kristyn Decker | Book Riot |
| 155 | From Dean’s List to Dumpsters | Jim Guerra | ICSA |
| 156 | From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, ed. and trans. | H. H. Gerth and C. W. Mills | Cult Research |
| 157 | Gated and Astray | Amy Christine Parker | Bustle |
| 158 | Gather the Daughters | Jennie Melamed | Electric Lit |
| 159 | Generation X | Douglas Coupland | Flavorwire |
| 160 | Getting Saved from the Sixties: Moral Meaning in Conversion and Cultural Change | Steven M. Tipton | Cult Research |
| 161 | Girl at the End of the World: My Escape from Fundamentalism in Search of Faith with a Future | Elizabeth Esther | Book Riot |
| 162 | Girl on a Wire: Walking the Line Between Faith and Freedom in the Westboro Baptist Church | Libby Phelps and Sara Stewart | Book Riot |
| 163 | God Bless America: Strange and Unusual Religious Beliefs and Practices in the United States | Karen Stollznow | About Great Books |
| 164 | God, Harlem U.S.A. | Jill Watts | Electric Lit |
| 165 | God’s Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church | Caroline Fraser | Book Riot |
| 166 | Greedy Institutions: Patterns of Undivided Commitment | Lewis A. Coser | Cult Research |
| 167 | Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego | Sigmund Freud, trans. J. Strachey | Cult Research |
| 168 | Ham on Rye | Charles Bukowski | Flavorwire |
| 169 | Heaven’s Harlots: My Fifteen Years as a Sacred Prostitute in the Children of God Cult | Miriam Williams | Goodreads |
| 170 | Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids | Maia Szalavitz | ICSA |
| 171 | Heresy of Mind Control | Stephen Martin | ICSA |
| 172 | Holy Candy: Why I Joined a Cult and Married a Stranger | Yolande Brener | Book Riot |
| 173 | Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden | Peter L Bergen | Cult Research |
| 174 | Hopscotch | Julio Cortázar | Flavorwire |
| 175 | House of Leaves | Mark Z. Danielewski | Flavorwire |
| 176 | Human Trafficking: Emerging Legal Issues and Applications | Nora M | ICSA |
| 177 | I Am Forbidden | Anouk Markovits | Bookbub |
| 178 | I Can’t Hear God Anymore: Life in a Dallas Cult | Wendy J | ICSA |
| 179 | I Capture the Castle | Dodie Smith | Flavorwire |
| 180 | I, Tina: My Life Story | Tina Turner, with Kurt Loder | Cult Research |
| 181 | I’m Perfect, You’re Doomed: Tales from a Jehovah’s Witness Upbringing | Kyria Abrahams | Goodreads |
| 182 | I’m Dysfunctional, You’re Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self Help Fashions | Wendy Kaminer | Cult Research |
| 183 | Ice | Anna Kavan | Flavorwire |
| 184 | Identity and the Life Cycle | Erik H. Erikson | Cult Research |
| 185 | Identity: Youth and Crisis | Erik H. Erikson | Cult Research |
| 186 | In My Father’s House | Min. S. Yee | Book Riot |
| 187 | In the Days of Rain | Rebecca Stott | Electric Lit |
| 188 | Infinite Jest | David Foster Wallace | Flavorwire |
| 189 | Insane Therapy: Portrait of a Psychotherapy Cult | Marybeth F. Ayella | Cult Research |
| 190 | Inside al Qaeda | Rohan Gunaratna | Cult Research |
| 191 | Into The Light | Read It Forward | |
| 192 | Invisible Cities | Italo Calvino | Flavorwire |
| 193 | It’s Not About Sex My Ass: Confessions of a Mormon Ex-Polygamist | Joanne Hanks | Book Riot |
| 194 | Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth | Chris Ware | Flavorwire |
| 195 | Jonestown and Other Madness | Pat Parker | Electric Lit |
| 196 | Jonestown Survivor: An Insider’s Look | Laura Johnston Kohl | Book Riot |
| 197 | Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East | Gita Mehta | Cult Research |
| 198 | Kindred | Octavia Butler | Flavorwire |
| 199 | Kingdom of the Cults | Walter Martin | Acts 29 |
| 200 | L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman | Bent Corydon and L. Ron Hubbard Jr. | Cult Research |
| 201 | La-Bas (The Damned) | JK Huysmans | The Guardian |
| 202 | Lanark | Alasdair Gray | Flavorwire |
| 203 | Leaders and Their Followers in a Dangerous World: The Psychology of Political Behavior | Jerrold M. Post | Cult Research |
| 204 | Leaving Fishers | Margaret Peterson Haddix | Goodreads |
| 205 | Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith | Martha N. Beck | Goodreads |
| 206 | Life and Death in Shanghai | Nien Cheng | Cult Research |
| 207 | Little Brown Girl: A Memoir | Cassidy Elizabeth Arkin and Sandra J. Rogers-Hare | Book Riot |
| 208 | Little X: Growing Up in the Nation of Islam | Sonsyrea Tate | Cult Research |
| 209 | Locked In: My Imprisoned Years in a Destructive Cult | John Huddle | Book Riot |
| 210 | Losing the Way: A Memoir of Spiritual Longing, Manipulation, Abuse, and Escape | Kristen Skedgell | ICSA |
| 211 | Love and Loathing: Protecting Your Mental Health and Legal Rights When Your Partner HasBorderline Personality Disorder | Randi Kreger and Kim Williams | Cult Research |
| 212 | Love Sex Fear Death: The Inside Story of the Process Church of the Final Judgment | Timothy Wyllie | Book Riot |
| 213 | Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism | Dennis King | Cult Research |
| 214 | Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America | Peter Washington | Cult Research |
| 215 | Marked for Death: My War with Jim Jones the Devil of Jonestown | Timothy Oliver Stoen | Book Riot |
| 216 | Massacre at Waco: The Shocking True Story of Cult Leader David Koresh and the Branch Davidians | Clifford L. Linedecker | Book Riot |
| 217 | Masters of Atlantis | Charles Portis | Flavorwire |
| 218 | Matches in the Gas Tank: Trial | Fire in the Armstrong Cult | Book Riot |
| 219 | Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior | Mark Rathbun and Evie Cook | Book Riot |
| 220 | Memory, Trauma Treatment, and the Law | Daniel Brown, Alan W | ICSA |
| 221 | Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain | Alison Winter | Cult Research |
| 222 | Monkey on a Stick: Murder, Madness, and the Hare Krishnas | John Hubner and Lindsey Gruson | Cult Research |
| 223 | Moonstruck: A Memoir of My Life in a Cult | Allen Tate Wood | Cult Research |
| 224 | Mother of God | Luna Tarlo | Cult Research |
| 225 | Mr. Splitfoot | Read It Forward | |
| 226 | My Billion Year Contract: Memoir of a Former Scientologist | Nancy Many | Book Riot |
| 227 | My Life in the Klan | Jerry Thompson | Cult Research |
| 228 | Naked Lunch | William S. Burroughs | Flavorwire |
| 229 | Neuromancer | William Gibson | Flavorwire |
| 230 | Night Film | Marisha Pessl | Panmacmillan |
| 231 | Nightwood | Djuna Barnes | Flavorwire |
| 232 | Not My Idea of Heaven | Lindsey Rosa | Book Riot |
| 233 | Nowhere Girl: Growing Up Different | Nita Clark | Book Riot |
| 234 | Obedience to Authority | Stanley Milgram | Cult Research |
| 235 | Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology | Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke | Cult Research |
| 236 | On Charisma and Institution Building | Max Weber, ed. | Cult Research |
| 237 | On Social Psychology | George Herbert Mead, ed. | Cult Research |
| 238 | On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left | Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth | Cult Research |
| 239 | On the Road | Jack Kerouac | Flavorwire |
| 240 | One Door Away from Heaven | Dean Koontz | Goodreads |
| 241 | Opening Minds: The Secret World of Manipulation, Undue Influence, and Brainwashing | Jon Atack | ICSA |
| 242 | Our Father Who Art in Bed | ICSA | |
| 243 | Out of the Cocoon: A Young Woman’s Courageous Flight from the Grip of a Religious Cult | Brenda Lee | Book Riot |
| 244 | Outrageous Betrayal: The Dark Journey of Werner Erhard from est to Exile | Steven Pressman | Cult Research |
| 245 | Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism | Miranda Shaw | Cult Research |
| 246 | Passionate Journeys: Why Successful Women Joined a Cult | Marion S. Goldman | Cult Research |
| 247 | Patty Hearst: Her Own Story | Patricia Campbell Hearst | Cult Research |
| 248 | People Farm | Steve Susoyev | Cult Research |
| 249 | Pilgrim’s Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier | Tom Kizzia | Goodreads |
| 250 | Principles of Group Solidarity | Michael Hechter | Cult Research |
| 251 | Prisons We Choose to Live Inside | Doris Lessing | Cult Research |
| 252 | Property: The True Story of a Polygamous Church Wife | Carol Christie and John Christie | Book Riot |
| 253 | Prophet of Death: The Mormon Blood-Atonement Killings | Pete Early | Cult Research |
| 254 | Prophet’s Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints | Sam Brower | Goodreads |
| 255 | Prophet’s Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints | Sam Brower | Book Riot |
| 256 | Prophetic Charisma: The Psychology of Revolutionary Religious Personalities | Len Oakes | Cult Research |
| 257 | Radical: My Journey out of Islamic Extremism | Maajid Nawaz | Book Riot |
| 258 | Recovering Agency: Lifting the Veil of Mormon Mind Control | Luna Lindsey | ICSA |
| 259 | Recovering from Churches that Abuse | Ronald Enroth | ICSA |
| 260 | Red Azalea | Anchee Min | Cult Research |
| 261 | Revisionism and Diversification in New Religious Movements | Edited by Eileen Barker | ICSA |
| 262 | Revolutionary Immortality: Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Cultural Revolution | Robert Jay Lifton | Cult Research |
| 263 | Roughing It | Mark Twain | The Guardian |
| 264 | Ruby Ridge: The Truth and Tragedy of the Randy Waver Family | Jess Walter | Book Riot |
| 265 | Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me | Ron Miscavige | Book Riot |
| 266 | Satanism & Occult-Related Violence | Michael D | ICSA |
| 267 | Scientology: A to Xenu: An Insider’s Guide to What Scientology is Really All About | Chris Shelton and Jon Atack | Book Riot |
| 268 | Scientology: Abuse at the Top | Amy Scobee | Book Riot |
| 269 | Secrets and Wives: The Hidden World of Mormon Polygamy | Sanjiv Bhattacharya | Book Riot |
| 270 | Seed | Lisa Heathfield | Goodreads |
| 271 | Servant of the Lotus Feet: A Hare Krishna Odyssey | Gabriel Brandis | ICSA |
| 272 | Seventeen Sisters: Tell Their Story | Barbara Barlow and Virginia Webb | Book Riot |
| 273 | Siddhartha | Hermann Hesse | Flavorwire |
| 274 | Sins of the Father: The Long Shadow of a Religious Cult | Fleur Beale | Book Riot |
| 275 | Sister Wife | Shelley Hrdlitschka | Bookbub |
| 276 | Six Years with God: Life Inside Rev. Jim Jones’s Peoples Temple | Jeannie Mills | Cult Research |
| 277 | Slavery of Faith: The Untold Story of the People’s Temple from the Eyes of a Thirteen Year Old, Her Escape from Jonestown at 20 and Life 30 Years Later | Leslie Wagner-Wilson | Book Riot |
| 278 | So Late, So Soon: A Memoir | D’Arcy Fallon | Cult Research |
| 279 | Speedboat | Renata Adler | Flavorwire |
| 280 | Spiritual Abuse Resources | ICSA | |
| 281 | Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right | Sara Diamond | Cult Research |
| 282 | Splitting: Protecting yourself while Divorcing a Borderline or Narcissist | William A. Eddy | Cult Research |
| 283 | Spying In Guruland | William Shaw | The Guardian |
| 284 | Station Eleven | Emily St John Mandel | Panmacmillan |
| 285 | Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity | Erving Goffman | Cult Research |
| 286 | Stoner | John Williams | Flavorwire |
| 287 | Stop Walking on Eggshells: Coping When Someone You Care about Has Borderline Personality Disorder | Paul T. Mason and Randi Kreger | Cult Research |
| 288 | Stories from Jonestown | Leigh Fondakowski | Book Riot |
| 289 | Sway | Zachary Lazar | Barnes & Noble |
| 290 | Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships | Janja Lalich & Madeleine Tobias | ICSA |
| 291 | Tears of the Silenced: A True Crime and an American Tragedy; Severe Child Abuse and Leaving the Amish | Misty Griffin | Book Riot |
| 292 | Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence | Mark Juergensmeyer | Cult Research |
| 293 | Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill | Jessica Stern | Cult Research |
| 294 | The Alexandria Quartet | Lawrence Durrell | Flavorwire |
| 295 | The Ashes of Waco: An Investigation | Dick Reavis | About Great Books |
| 296 | The Authoritarian Personality | T. W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswick, Daniel J. Levinson, and R. Nevitt Sanford | Cult Research |
| 297 | The Ayn Rand Cult | Jeff Walker | Cult Research |
| 298 | The Bible | The Guardian | |
| 299 | The Black Book | Orhan Pamuk | Flavorwire |
| 300 | The Book Of Mormon | Joseph Smith | The Guardian |
| 301 | The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog | Bruce Perry & Maia Szalavitz | ICSA |
| 302 | The Catcher in the Rye | J.D. Salinger | Flavorwire |
| 303 | The Challenge of the Cults and the New Religions | Ron Rhodes | Acts 29 |
| 304 | The Challenge to Heal: A Recovery Guide to Help Reclaim Your LIfe After Leaving any High-Control Group | Bonnie Zieman | ICSA |
| 305 | The Channeling Zone: American Spirituality in an Anxious Age | Michael F. Brown | Cult Research |
| 306 | The Church of Fear: Inside the Weird World of Scientology | John Sweeney | Book Riot |
| 307 | The Clan of the Cave Bear | Jean M. Auel | Flavorwire |
| 308 | The Cult at the End of the World: The Terrifying Story of the Aum Doomsday Cult, from the Subways of Tokyo to Nuclear Arsenals of Russia | David E. Kaplan and Andrew Marshall | Book Riot |
| 309 | The Cult Next Door: A True Story of a Suburban Manhattan New Age Cult | Elizabeth R. Burchard and Judith L. Carlone | Book Riot |
| 310 | The Cult Phenomenon: How Groups Function | Mike Kropveld & Marie-Andrée Pelland | ICSA |
| 311 | The Da Vinci Code | Dan Brown | The Guardian |
| 312 | The Defector: After 20 Years in Scientology | Robert Dam | Book Riot |
| 313 | The Demon-haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark | Carl Sagan | Cult Research |
| 314 | The Dice Man | Luke Rhinehart | Flavorwire |
| 315 | The Discipling Dilemma | Flavil Yeakley | Cult Research |
| 316 | The Followers | Rebecca Wait | Panmacmillan |
| 317 | The Future of Immortality and Other Essays | Robert Jay Lifton | Cult Research |
| 318 | The Girl Before | Read It Forward | |
| 319 | The God that Failed, ed. Richard Crossman | Cult Research | |
| 320 | The Gormenghast Trilogy | Mervyn Peake | Flavorwire |
| 321 | The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power | Joel Kramer and Diane Alstad | Cult Research |
| 322 | The Harmonious Circle: The Lives and Work of G. I. Gurdjieff, P. D. Ouspensky and Their Followers | James Webb | Cult Research |
| 323 | The Illuminatus! Trilogy | Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson | Flavorwire |
| 324 | The Joyful Community: An Account of the Bruderhof | Benjamin D. Zablocki | Cult Research |
| 325 | The Light on Synanon | Dave Mitchell, Cathy Mitchell, and Richard Ofhse | Cult Research |
| 326 | The Long Prison Journey of Leslie Van Houten: Life Beyond the Cult | Karlene Faith | Cult Research |
| 327 | The Magus | John Fowles | Flavorwire |
| 328 | The Manson Girls | Michael James Duncan | Book Riot |
| 329 | The Master and Margarita | Mikhail Bulgakov | Flavorwire |
| 330 | The Nazi Doctors | Robert Jay Lifton | Cult Research |
| 331 | The Nazis and the Occult | Dusty Sklar | Cult Research |
| 332 | The New Religious Consciousness | Charles Y. Glock and Robert N. Bellah | Cult Research |
| 333 | The Onliest One Alive: Surviving Jonestown, Guyana | Catherine H. Thrash and Marian Kleinsasser Towne | Book Riot |
| 334 | The Origins of Totalitarianism | Hannah Arendt | Cult Research |
| 335 | The Other Side of Joy: Religious Melancholy among the Bruderhof | Julius H. Rubin | Cult Research |
| 336 | The Perks of Being a Wallflower | Stephen Chbosky | Flavorwire |
| 337 | The Possessed | Fyodor Dostoyevsky | Cult Research |
| 338 | The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life | Erving Goffman | Cult Research |
| 339 | The Private Memoirs and Confessions Of A Justified Sinner | James Hogg | The Guardian |
| 340 | The Promise of Paradise: A Woman’s Intimate Story the Perils of Life With Rajneesh | Satya Bharti Franklin | Cult Research |
| 341 | The Psychology of Attitude Change and Social Influence | Philip G. Zimbardo and Michael R. Leippe | Cult Research |
| 342 | The Road to Total Freedom: A Sociological Analysis of Scientology | Roy Wallis | Cult Research |
| 343 | The Satanic Bible | Anton S LaVey | The Guardian |
| 344 | The Secret Lives of Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys in a Polygamous Mormon Sect | Daphne Bramham | Book Riot |
| 345 | The Shelter Cycle | Barnes & Noble | |
| 346 | The Social Animal | Elliot Aronson | Cult Research |
| 347 | The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: My Life with Carlos Castaneda | Amy Wallace | Cult Research |
| 348 | The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries | Ruth Brandon | Cult Research |
| 349 | The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse: Recognizing and Escaping From Spiritual Manipulation and False Spiritual Authority | David Johnson & Jeff vanVonderen | ICSA |
| 350 | The Suicide Cult | Marshall Kilduff and Ron Javers | Cult Research |
| 351 | The Sullivanian Institute/Fourth Wall Community: The Relationship of Radical Individualism and Authoritarianism | Amy Siskind | Cult Research |
| 352 | The Testament | Colm Toibin | Panmacmillan |
| 353 | The True Believer | Eric Hoffer | Cult Research |
| 354 | The Unbearable Lightness of Being | Milan Kundera | Flavorwire |
| 355 | The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology Tried to Destroy Paulette Cooper | Tony Ortega | Book Riot |
| 356 | The Utopia Experiment | Dylan Evans | Panmacmillan |
| 357 | The Varieties of Religious Experience | William James | Cult Research |
| 358 | The Verbally Abusive Relationship: How to Recognize It and How to Respond | Patricia Evans | Cult Research |
| 359 | The Year 2000: Essays on the End | Charles B. Strozier and Michael Flynn | Cult Research |
| 360 | Them and Us: Cult Thinking and the Terrorist Threat | Arthur J. Deikman | Cult Research |
| 361 | Therapist | Ellen Plasil | Cult Research |
| 362 | Therapy Gone Mad: The True Story of Hundreds of Patients and a Generation of Betrayal | Carol Lynn Mithers | Cult Research |
| 363 | Thinner Than Thou | Barnes & Noble | |
| 364 | This Dark World: A Memoir of Salvation Found and Lost | Carolyn S. Briggs | Book Riot |
| 365 | This Is Not a Novel | David Markson | Flavorwire |
| 366 | Thus Spoke Zarathustra | Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche | Flavorwire |
| 367 | TM and Cult Mania | Michael Persinger, N. J. Carrey, and L. A. Suess | Cult Research |
| 368 | Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation | Dan Shaw | ICSA |
| 369 | Traveller in Space: In Search of Female Identity in Tibetan Buddhism | June Campbell | Cult Research |
| 370 | Understanding the New Age | Russell Chandler | Cult Research |
| 371 | V. | Thomas Pynchon | Flavorwire |
| 372 | Valley of the Dolls | Jacqueline Susann | Flavorwire |
| 373 | Vivian Apple at the End of the World | Katie Coyle | Bookbub |
| 374 | Waiting for the Apocalypse: A Memoir of Faith and Family | Veronica Chater | Book Riot |
| 375 | Watchmen | Alan Moore | Flavorwire |
| 376 | When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That Predicted the Destruction of the World | Leon Festinger, Henry W. Riecken, and Stanley Schachter | Cult Research |
| 377 | When They Were Mine: Memories of a Branch Davidian Wife and Mother | Shelia Martin and Catherine Wessinger | Book Riot |
| 378 | Why Did I Ever | Mary Robison | Flavorwire |
| 379 | Why I Left the Amish: A Memoir | Saloma Miller Furlong | Book Riot |
| 380 | Wife No. 19: The Story of a Life in Bondage, Being a Complete Expose of Mormonism and Revealing Sorrows, Sacrifices and Sufferings of Women in Polygamy | Ann Eliza Young | Book Riot |
| 381 | Wife Number Seven | Melissa Brown | Bookbub |
| 382 | Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China | Judy Chang | Cult Research |
| 383 | Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us | Robert D. Hare | Cult Research |
| 384 | Without Sin: The Life and Death of the Oneida Community | Spencer Klaw | Cult Research |
| 385 | Women, Sex, and Addiction: A Search for Love and Power | Charlotte Davis Kasl | Cult Research |
| 386 | You Must Be Dreaming | Barbara Noel | Cult Research |
| 387 | Youth in Revolt | C.D. Payne | Flavorwire |
| 388 | Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance | Robert M. Pirsig | Flavorwire |
15 Best Stories About Living In A Cult Book Sources/Lists
| Source | Article |
| About Great Books | Top 10 Books About Cults |
| Acts 29 | Recommended Books — Cults |
| Barnes & Noble | 6 Novels About Freaky Cults |
| Book Riot | 100 Must-Read Books About Life in Cults and Oppressive Religious Sects |
| Bookbub | 14 Books About Cults & Controversial Societies |
| Bustle | 9 Fascinating Books About Cults And Strict Fundamentalist Movements That’ll Get You Totally Swept Up In The Details |
| Cult Research | Recommended Reading |
| Electric Lit | 12 Chilling Books About Real and Fictional Cults |
| Flavorwire | 50 Essential Cult Novels |
| Goodreads | Popular Cults Books |
| ICSA | Book List |
| Panmacmillan | Eleven books about cults |
| Read It Forward | Gripping Books About Cults |
| Signature | Martha Marcy May Marlene’ Footnotes: Our Top 5 Books on Religious Cults |
| The Guardian | Sam Jordison’s top 10 books on cults and religious extremists |
