Nowhere Burning A Dark Tale of Family, Friendship, and Survival by Catriona Ward

 Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward

Nowhere Burning book cover

Author and master storyteller Catriona Ward

Big thanks to Tor Publishing and NetGalley for sharing an advanced copy of Catriona Ward’s dazzling new novel Nowhere Burning. I previously read and was stunned by Sundial, and last year, I read the Shivers Collection, in which her story “Night and Day in Misery” stood out to me as the best story in the collection. I had high expectations for this book, and Ward does not disappoint. Nowhere Burning is a compelling and propulsive novel that deals with families, friendships, and fidelity. In fact, there were elements of the story that reminded me of some of the best parts of Sundial. Needless to say, as one of the best horror and thriller writers I’ve read in the past few years, Ward has created a dark story about death and rebirth that also features a clan of rejected kids who make their own society in the mountains in the abandoned estate of an alleged serial killer who died years earlier in an attack on one of his houseguests that resulted in a massive fire. The killer, Leif Winham, is an actor and star whose loneliness and need for attention lead him to keep his houseguests indefinitely and subject them to gruesome experiments. Leif’s story is one of the three different timelines we see in the story. While we don’t learn a lot about Leif, we encounter him through his hiring of Adam, a handyman whom is hired to build a hidden staircase in Leif’s estate, Nowhere. Through this part of the narrative, we learn about how Nowhere came to be, and we understand the ruins of Nowhere in which the current group, the Children of Nowhere, live. Riley and her half-brother Oliver, were living with Cousin, an abusive family member who doesn’t allow Oliver to attend school and subjects him to harsh physical labor. After a mysterious visit from a floating child named Noon who Riley isn’t even sure if she is real or a hallucination, Riley makes a plan to visit Noon’s group, the Children of Nowhere, in the mountains. Noon provides Riley with vague directions through the park, and Riley makes a plan to escape Cousin’s abuses and join the Children of Nowhere. There’s another story line with Marc and Kimble, true crime documentarians, who are interested in the story of the Nowhere Children, and want to visit the ruins of Nowhere for their next documentary. These story lines converge in an exciting and surprising ending. 

Much like Sundial, I couldn’t put this book down once it started. It’s an exciting story of survival amidst trauma and tragedy, and the kind of terror that groups can inflict on outsiders when they experience external and existential threats to their survival. In a lot of ways, the setting of Nowhere Burning, an abandoned estate that initially had grand intentions as a kind of refuge for Leif Winham, literally a kind of nowhere where Winham wished to escape, but also to inflict pain and torture on those he felt where either taking from him or planning to leave him. Like the home in Sundial, Nowhere operates both in the past and the present, and despite its decay it remains a site of life and activity for the runaways that populate Nowhere. I also liked how both novels examine revisiting the sites of past traumas and tragedies. Although Riley and Oliver don’t experience trauma at the original Nowhere estate, their lives as orphans whose mother tragically passed away and whose lives were neglected and abused at Cousin’s house reflect the same kind of harsh existence that some of the characters in Sundial experienced. In fact, both stories look at the impact of a childhood lost to violence and misguided parenting. It’s interesting that the children of Nowhere seek out abusive and neglectful parents in the town and try to either punish these parents or bring their children to Nowhere to live a more idyllic, yet challenging existence, relying on nature, hunting, and farming to survive. I love how both novels challenge the idea of families, calling into question whether parents and other authority figures really know best for how to raise and care for children. 

Furthermore, both Sundial and Nowhere Burning feature an incredibly eerie setting that takes place in ruins. While the novel is being compared to Lord of the Flies, I also think there’s something Dickensian about Nowhere. It reminded me a little of Miss Havisham’s house, and how the children are both afraid of the house, yet seek to maintain it, not really cleaning the ruins, but keeping the decay and filth, maybe as a reminder, but also as a way of their hope that Leif Winham will eventually return. I loved the eerie and haunting, tragic mood of this story, much like the other texts of Ward’s I’ve read. Also like the other texts from Ward I’ve read, there’s quite a few twists and surprises that these characters encounter. While I was able to pick up on one surprising reveal, I didn’t anticipate the ending. Once I hit the halfway part of this book, I couldn’t put it down, and I found the story to be really propulsive and moving. I especially loved the connection that Riley has with her brother Oliver, and how Riley tries to navigate the challenges of belonging to a new group after leaving Cousin’s abusive home. 

Nowhere Burning is an amazing story that includes a strange and famous serial killer, as well as a kind of strange cult of kids who worship him in his abandoned estate. There are traces of folk horror, cult horror, and true crime in this story, but it is also a story about family and bonds, and how even among tragedy and trauma, those bonds that we forge with our family can be important. Riley is a great main character whose resilience and fortitude enable her to navigate challenging situations. I also loved the different children of Nowhere. A group of kids eking out living amidst the ruins of a once great estate was fascinating. There are elements of folk tales and other stories like Peter Pan in this story, but it is a much darker take. The only thing I wished there was more of was the connection the children have to Leif Winham. I don’t remember a clear explanation about how or why they came to appreciate him. There’s also some ambiguity about how the children of Nowhere eventually came to be. We know that there was a power struggle, and Noon and her group eventually won out, but I wondered if there was more to that story than Ward included here. Nevertheless, this was a great book that I couldn’t put down once I really got into the story. Highly recommended!

Creeping Cults: The Culting of America by Daniella Mestyanek Young and Amy Reed

 The Culting of America: What Makes a Cult and Why We Love Them by Daniella Mestyanek Young and Amy Reed

The Culting of America book cover

Author Daniella Mestyanek Young

Author Amy Reed

Many thanks to Otterpine and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of The Culting of America: What Makes a Cult and Why We Love Them by Daniella Mestyanek Young and Amy Reed. I’ve noticed more and more books focusing on cults, examining them from different perspectives. Not just the lurid, true crime or primarily academic type books that seemed to analyze some of the more notorious cults from the past 50 years or so (The Manson Family, The People’s Temple); rather books like Amanda Montel’s Cultish (which Mestyanek Young and Reed frequently reference) and Jane Borden’s Cults Like Us take a more nuanced approach to examining the issues of cults and how many groups and institutions in our lives closely mimic cults. Borden’s book argues that America’s founding was itself based on the cult of the Protestant Ethic, among other religious beliefs that have gradually become part of many American’s identities. Mestyanek and Reed make similar claims while developing their own aspects of group dynamics, drawn from research and scholarship, to investigate and examine the practices of various groups and institutions. As the authors acknowledge, its sometimes hard to determine what a cult is, and with Mestayanek’s own personal experiences growing up in a destructive religious cult and serving in the US Army, she identifies elements of these group dynamics in both. Furthermore, I appreciated their advice to readers to move beyond binaries, looking at whether a group is a cult or not, or thinking about good or bad outcomes, with a call to think about the complexities of belonging and more importantly leaving these groups. What costs might members entail with exiting the group, whether they are social, financial, or professional. Also like Borden’s book, Mestyanek and Reed also reference the more recent political and social events in America to examine how instability, lack of connections and relationships, and mistrust and resentment can fuel the rise of cults as a means of filling a void for these connections and beliefs.

Both Mestyanek and Reed use real world examples from well-known cults, institutions and groups, as well as lesser-known examples, to highlight and identify the ways these groups align with their group dynamics. Furthermore, both authors include their own personal examples of participation with cults, institutions and groups to provide further evidence of the seeming benefits and potential drawbacks of membership within these groups. I also appreciated how the authors make use of both scholarly sources and more popular literature like Montell’s book, as well as other first-hand accounts from cult survivors and escapees. It lends a sense of authority and expertise, while also making the content relevant and accessible to a general audience. Furthermore, despite a rather dark and tragic topic, the authors use humor and sarcasm at appropriate times to lighten the mood. The book is filled with many relevant examples that help to highlight the specific practices of these groups and institutions to attract and sustain members. I think it is interesting to see how fine a line the nature of members is for some of these groups like the military and Alcoholics Anonymous, groups which typically are held in high esteem, but also display elements of cult-type membership and potential high-costs for members leaving. I can also understand the pushback that the authors received, but I think they are raising important points about the nature of the groups and their attempts to sustain members, not necessarily arguing that they are inherently bad. However, in reading these examples, we can see how others may misuse or misconstrue some of the elements of these groups to make false promises or to build on more familiar institutions to attract followers and those who are in need of some kind of change or future goal. In particular, Chapter 6, “Distinguishable Vernacular,” was one of the more fascinating sections since it deals with the language of cults and groups. While this was the focus of Montel’s book, Mestyanek and Reed examine some different examples and show how shared language can alter our sense of identity and belief, creating a unique bond among members. I think this is true of almost any group, whether it is a friend group who shares specific slang or a work group that may use specific acronyms and terms to define and solve problems in the field. I know that whenever I’ve started a new job, acclimating to new language, specifically to acronyms, takes almost as much work as learning software or systems.

Mestyanek and Reed examine how often the beliefs that groups adhere to can often spiral into extremism, and how technology like social media and the internet can accelerate belief to action through disinformation and isolation. Mestyanek provides an example from her ex-husband’s radicalization, along with reminders of Q-Anon and the January 6^th Insurrection to further show how seemingly regular people, our neighbors, community members, and friends can all be susceptible to the tricks and deceptive practices of cult leaders. However, this book provides an awareness of these practices, along with some useful checklists and references to “culty things.” I think, though, that one of the most important takeaways in the book is reframing our thinking around cults, shifting from binary, either/or thinking, to examining ideas of membership and belonging in a more complex and holistic manner. In one of the final sections written by guest author Rebecca Slue, also known as The White Woman Whisperer, “The distinction between ‘group’ and ‘community’ is a matter of foundational values and relational truth. Groups are built to be functional, often around a cause, a mission, or a leader.” This last section was also incredibly important in not only reaffirming our sense of belonging to communities and not just groups but also affirming our sense of agency in seeking out these communities and ensuring that they remain communal and democratic. While sharing decision making and responsibilities (and accountability) can be time consuming and tiring, it is essential for the health of the community to involve all. Although frequent references to more notorious groups and cults are found in this book, the authors also frequently reference how more and more work situations can become cult-like, blurring the boundaries between work and belonging. Furthermore, they note how some careers are considered a calling and offer members a strong sense of identity and belonging. While I feel grateful to have a career where I don’t necessarily experience that level of creeping cultiness, I have had jobs where there has been that kind of pressure to work outside of proscribed hours, and I feel like this book offers an important message to many people, not just those interested in cults, psychology, or current events. Rather this book has important insights and ideas about belonging, community, and working, and shares these ideas with research and anecdotes, making the ideas and insights more accessible and understandable. Highly recommended. 

Examining the Consequences of Religious Extremism

 Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by John Krakauer

Under the Banner of Heaven book cover

I was excited to read this book because I am really interested in religious extremism, sects and cults, and I loved Krakauer’s book Into the Wild. Under the Banner of Heaven follows the Lafferty family and their violent and repressive views of the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS). Krakauer follows the Lafferty brothers, who took over a family chiropracting business, but also became skeptical of government regulations, leading one of the brothers to run for political office on an anti-government position. Despite taking place nearly 40 years ago, I found the book relevant today, with many people being averse and questioning the role of government in our lives. It seems like every so often, there is an uptick in anti-government movements, often bolstered by violence or movements to challenge rules and regulations. Both January 6^th and the impact of COVID have created these kinds of adverse reactions to the government’s attempts to regulate. Under the Banner of Heaven looks at these individuals and their beliefs from an earlier time, and kind of provides some more context for the origins of these beliefs. I’ve read other books about the origins of Oklahoma City and the Order from the 80s, and it seems like the Lafferty brothers have taken the kind of religious extremism along with limited work/economic opportunities, and threats to traditional ways of life that other violent, anti-government movements have experienced. Although the events perpetrated by the Lafferty brothers are violent and self-serving, Krakauer presents a compelling story, interviewing the brothers and sharing their own testimony and experiences to tell the story. He pairs this with a history and important events in the development of Mormonism, something that was both helpful and incredibly interesting to learn about. The historical chapters provided a better context for understanding the religion of Mormonism, and how some of these extremist beliefs have served as an extension. Furthermore, these chapters also helped to understand how the traditions associated with Mormonism provided the brothers with a way to challenge what some of their wives and other women in the Mormon community were seeking, like work outside the home or education. This was a compelling book that was hard to put down. Although there is a brutal murder at the center of this story, Krakauer’s research and exploration of the factors that led to the murder create a complex story that requires the history of Mormonism to better understand it. 

 Culture Creep: Notes on the Pop Apocalypse by Alice Bolin

Culture Creep book cover

Author Alice Bolin

Big thanks to Mariner Books and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of Alice Bolin’s new collection of essays Culture Creep: Notes on the Pop Apocalypse. I was drawn to this book by its title and the cover. I wasn’t familiar with Alice Bolin’s previous book Dead Girls, but before beginning this book, I read a little about her and her writing, and it will be another book added to my “To Read” list. Culture Creep is an amazing collection of essays that focus on areas of pop culture, including things like films, tv shows, video games, as well as other forms of entertainment and technology. In her essays, Bolin examines the different ways that various factors have accessed in possibly assimilated these forms of entertainment, art, and communication in our lives and how this impacts us. In particular, Bolin is interested in the ways that these forms of entertainment and technology have impacted women, and throughout the essays her analysis zooms in and out to examine both the micro and macro implications of these changes for society, but especially for women. In one of the descriptions I read, an essay was compared to those in Jia Tolentino’s Trick Mirror, and I agree. I was reminded of many of Tolentino’s themes and observations about how technology, social media, and reconfigurations of feminism and female empowerment have adapted in society to be both more appealing and less demanding. In fact, Bolin cites Tolentino in at least one of her essays, and I appreciated the fact that she is taking some of Tolentino’s arguments and observations and building on them, contributing to the conversation about how social media and technology seemingly offer freedom and an ability for reinvention, but ultimately often leave us feeling more trapped and troubled. 

The first essay, “The Enumerated Woman,” focuses on how technology has changed women’s relationships with their bodies, examining her own experiences with Fitbit and food tracking apps. I appreciated how Bolin uses her own experiences to build on her arguments and relate to readers. I hadn’t really thought to much about the idea of fitness tracking. I tend to like measuring my steps, but I can also see how this may send the wrong kind of message about health behaviors, especially when we live in a society that seems to reinforce and police women’s appearances and weight. Bolin also introduces an strain of feminism that Tolentino refers to as “mainstream feminism”. Bolin describes this as “a philosophy co-opting certain elements of more radical feminist politics, like freedom of choice, but using them to reinforce traditional fender roles and other oppressive hierarchies.” It’s an interesting concept she calls “postfeminism” that reoccurs throughout her book in various instances. In this essay, though, Bolin examines how the freedom to track our movement and caloric intake can easily be posted to our social media, “where an imperative to share and consume becomes and imperative to conform, and good health and beauty are ever more thoroughly conflated.” This is a lot like Tolentino’s optimized woman—the modern woman who on social media is expected to live her best life and share it, but is also under extreme expectations to conform to a certain standard of beauty and achievement. For Bolin, these fitness trackers and posting about healthy behaviors, whether it is dieting or exercising, feeds into a social desire to feel productive. What I found most interesting about this essay was her argument that these kinds of trackers are largely part of a neoliberal philosophy to provide for one’s own well-being. That is, health is an individual responsibility, and not one that the state or government should support. This also fits into many of the themes within Bolin’s essays about how these kinds of neoliberal philosophies place responsibilities and labor on the individual and shift the responsibility from the state. While some of us may have access to the means of healthier living, whether it is close proximity to grocery stores with fresh fruit and vegetables or access and time to exercise, others may have more limited access to the means of healthy living. This shift in thinking about health and fitness, which seems to be more of the direction the Department of Health and Human Services is going, puts others at a disadvantage and makes healthy living less accessible for many Americans, yet frames health as a choice, not a service or product. The other interesting conclusion Bolin draws is from the work that we do for social media and technology companies as regular users who ultimately become the products to the advertisers that are the real consumers of these large corporations. Although I don’t see much change happening from this idea, it is interesting to think that these companies are enriching themselves from our hours spent “volunteering” (Bolin’s words) to teach them. This would be a great essay to use in class since it builds on experiences many people have had with both health and technology, but also it speaks to our stress and anxiety over our appearance and weight, and the kinds of social pressure we often experience to conform to social standards for our appearance. It not only builds on many of the ideas that Tolentino uses in her essays, but it also challenges our perceptions about how we think about our appearance, the decisions we make about our healthy living, and how we consume technology and media. I would anticipate interesting and thoughtful conversations from this essay. 

“Foundering” is another interesting essay that focuses on some of the recent scammers using social media to get rich, and the television series or documentaries that have resulted from these schemers. Just like Tolentino examining confidence men and how scamming is a part of social media, Bolin examines some high profile scammers and the media representations of their crimes. She starts by explaining her viewing of the Billy McFarland Fyre Festival fiasco and the dueling documentaries that were produced on different streaming services. She ends up also examining Adam Neumann of WeWork infamy, who misled investors by overvaluing his company, yet somehow was given an incredible payout. It is kind of interesting to see how these men are often portrayed in the media, as either eccentrics, geniuses, or comical when they fail. Bolin notes the “boy genius” myth that followed these guys, along with Mark Zuckerberg, and how the media often distorts or lessens the crimes and unethical behavior that they engage in. Bolin also relates these kinds of hagiographies to how we view the origins of the country, often disregarding the awful, criminal and morally corrupt behaviors and actions while mythologizing the work of the founding fathers. It’s an American practice that continues on today. This essay goes into further critiquing Hamilton in humorous ways. I’m not really familiar with Hamilton, but I loved the way that Bolin notes that while Miranda brings in actors of color, the story still focuses on the white people, neglecting to tell the stories of people of color who contributed to the founding of the country. 

“Lean in/Bend Over” also focuses on scammers, specifically examining the NXIVM cult, and how Keith Raniere used women to attract other women to serve as “slaves” for his inner circle. I tried to watch The Vow, the HBO docuseries that Bolin references in this essay, but it was really difficult to watch due to the graphic nature of Raniere’s exploitation. Nevertheless, Bolin explores how Raniere used marketing and sales techniques to establish and recruit for his cult, exploiting our own needs for personal fulfillment and our insecurities. Bolin explores the “postfeminism” approach that Raniere took to empower women in NXIVM. In a kind of paradoxical way of thinking, female empowerment comes from powerful men like Raniere who believe in devaluing femininity. Raniere’s thinking comes from a long line of thinking that presents men and women as being completely opposite, and thus women are viewed as emotional and men as logical. Bolin later traces this kind of thinking to today’s political thinking where Roe has been reversed and more women have the Trad wife lifestyle pushed on them as an option against liberal values that promote education and careers over childrearing and domesticity. Bolin also presents how members of NXIVM shared the ways that food was restricted as a means of control, similar to the enumerated woman she analyzes in the first essay. This essay also made me think about the various ways that society and politicians seek to control women, whether it is in policing their bodies, limiting their options, or dictating their futures, all with the illusion of choice and opportunities. She also presents how these cults and this kind of thinking operate like multilevel marking (MLM) scams that often prey on people’s vulnerabilities to make money, exploiting people’s insecurities and desires for wealth. This essay would also be interesting to teach, especially because the events are so recent, shocking, and infamous, and have shifted the talk of accountability for treatment of women.  

“Stardate” was an interesting essay in that it explored two different television shows that seem so disparate, yet with the influx of television time due to the pandemic were probably made more relevant to many people. Bolin explores the worlds of Sex and the City and Star Trek the Next Generation, finding ways that the narrative structures with journal entries each serve as a frame for the events in the episode. She also notes how these shows are “products of progressive political agendas”, which I found fascinating. As someone who hasn’t really watched enough of either episode, it seemed incredible to find these kinds of similarities, but when we consider how the characters and storylines of these shows challenge many of the more traditional stories and characters, this kind of comparison makes sense. I also appreciated Bolin’s analysis of the kind of future world that Star Trek envisions as a kind of utopia, while other shows are often popular because of our nostalgia and desire for a return to the past. It seems especially hard to escape that kind of market in today’s film and television options, where sequels, franchises, and reboots seem to capture much of the market. Both Sex and the City and Star Trek the Next Generation created stories and dealt with issues and topics in a mature and nuanced way, frequently challenging popular assumptions and the kind of hegemonic thinking that dominated discourse about topics like cultural differences, power, and sex. 

The only essay that I didn’t really enjoy that much was “Real Time”, which again focuses on a popular COVID pastime: playing video games. In particular, Bolin explores the world of Animal Crossing on Nintendo Switch. I’m not that into video games, but Bolin manages to bring up some important points about the nature of work and rewards in video games and real life. It was interesting to consider how we spend our time, and how immersive these games have become, especially one where in Animal Crossing, players are tasked with creating a kind of utopia where care and patience are rewarded. In watching my children play a game like Zelda, where they have more control of the character and that involves more strategy, exploration, and patience, I can see how these kinds of games may become more rewarding for players. My kids reacted so differently when they were controlling link, not really looking to solve the game, but enjoying the ability to control what he wears, when and what he eats, and who he can talk to. It was interesting to see how much they enjoyed having this level of control, especially when they have primarily had these aspects of their lives dictated to them. For my kids, this kind of video game is an experience in autonomy, a kind of play responsibility. The main issue, though, that I had with this essay was that there was so much description of the game and the various activities that Bolin was involved with, it took away a little of the analytical eye that Bolin brought to her other essays. The last two essays, 

“Teen People” and “Rabbit Hole”, both examine magazines and other forms of popular media specifically targeting women and men. “Teen People” examines magazines, and how these forms have changed over the last century to appeal to women, and ultimately send messages about how women should behave and what they should aim for in their lives and relationships. Bolin explains that when she was younger, she was obsessed with magazines, and these provided her with a kind of cultural awareness and capital that may have been missing in her town when she was growing up. However, she notes that her obsession grew to a point where it impacted her ability to attend class. It is another fascinating deep dive into a form of media that, although has lessened over the past 20 years, still remains popular, even if most of the content has migrated online. “The Rabbit Hole” examines the legacy of Playboy magazine and Hugh Heffner. Bolin explains her interest stemming from Heffner’s reality show about his multiple girlfriends, and how this “reality” show was really a kind of coercive performance to maintain his relevance to a digital world. This was a fascinating look at how Heffner shaped the style and substance of men’s magazines in the 50s and 60s, but also used his power and position to deflect many of the horrible things he did. Like other male subjects Bolin questions their accountability, she examines the ways that Heffner claims to be a feminist, one who empowers women and offers them opportunities that they may have never had, but is seemingly not much different from people like Bill Cosby, Keith Raniere, or even President Trump with his recent claims as being the protector of women. These final essays were the among the most powerful in the book, and I couldn’t put them down easily. These would also make excellent essays to teach in a writing class as they would stimulate much discussion and consideration about the arguments that Bolin raises. Furthermore, I think they would make students question the media they consume, as well as the messages that are often implicit in the medium. I would hope that in reading these essays, students would be more conscious and conscientious about what they consume online and in print. Overall this was an excellent collection, and it’s made me want to seek out Bolin’s other book about how the media portrays women. Bolin is not just a talented writer, but an amazing cultural analyst and critic, who easily swerves from personal experience to social issues and their implications in popular media. I loved how she shifted seamlessly from micro to macro analysis, closely examining minor details to further analyze how these issues are relevant to others and what they mean for society. I highly recommend these essays, whether you enjoy reading or are a teacher who is looking for some excellent reading to challenge your students’ assumptions and have them rethink their ideas and the media they consume.

American Ideologies and Cults: Exploring Cults Like Us by Jane Borden

 Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America by Jane Borden

Cults Like Us book cover

Author Jane Borden

Big thanks to Atria/One Signal Publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of Jane Borden’s Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America. This was a fascinating book, but also not quite what I expected for a book about cults in America. I am fascinated by cults and how people become involved in them, partly because it seems to strange and antithetical to me to completely give one’s self to a group. In fact, it seems somewhat unamerican to consider how one might lose themselves to a group and a guru, willing to engage in questionable behaviors and activities. Recent books like J. W. Ocker’s Cult Following provide an overview of some of the more notorious cults in recent years, while Amanda Montell’s Cultish examines how elements of cults are used in some more popular activities that we might not consider cults. In fact, Borden’s book seems to have more in common with Cultish in how she seeks to look at some of the conceptual markers of cults and find ways that American ideology and beliefs have largely incorporated this kind of thinking. That is, Cults Like Us seeks to define what and how cults operate, and then apply those definitions to other areas of American life and groups that we might not necessarily consider to be cults. It’s a fascinating way to re-examine what we consider to be American and the values that we often champion as making us an exceptional country (even if that mindset and perception is questionable, if not altogether gone with the current Trump dismantling, er uh, administration). I was a little surprised and challenged by this book since I assumed it would be more like case studies of different cults, but I found this book to be incredibly fascinating and enjoyed the challenge of expanding the conceptual markers of cults to other areas of American life. Borden uses both infamous and less familiar examples of cults and even some examples that we might not consider to be cults to make her argument about American’s have incorporated many of these elements into their lives, belief systems, and expectations for society and the groups they seek out.  Although she mentions MAGA, January 6^th, and QAnon a few times in the book, there are also many implicit examples of how Trump’s methods and approaches to cultivating a following employ many of the tactics that cult researchers have identified as markers of cults. What I found even more challenging and troubling was the notion that many of these elements have been a part of America’s founding, from both Columbus’s arrival in the Caribbean to the Puritan’s colonization of New England. The Author’s Note, Introduction and early chapters all detail how this kind of thinking was part of the reason for Europeans seeking out new land. Part of this is, what Borden calls, apocalyptic thinking, and she does a great job recontextualizing the definition to not just mean end times, but more like an uncovering or exposure of “the truth”, a revelation. According to Borden, Columbus’s trip to the New World was in part to hasten the second coming of Christ, while the Puritans also believed that the Catholic rule in Europe were also bringing about the end times. They, like Columbus, believed the Americas to be Eden like, a new land for a new start. Although their initial exposure to the land was rough, they began to incorporate beliefs and practices that not only focused on work and survival but also focused heavily on control of the group and regulation of behavior. It was fascinating to learn more about these historical figures and groups that Americans often see as heroic and unique, only to consider them in a new light that reconsiders their actions as both fearful and cultlike. In particular, the organization and practices of the puritan communities was shocking to learn more about, yet, many of us know the kind of violence and mayhem that was eventually led to the Salem Witch Trials and the deaths of 19 people from hanging and one from crushing stones. Nevertheless, Borden uses these historical figures and groups to help readers understand not only why Americans seek out groups with high control, but also how it has become such a part of American culture, and, in her conclusion and later chapters may be a general feature of human behavior.

Other chapters in the book look at other cult elements including how we often look for strongmen or a kind of singular hero to save us from impending doom. As Borden cites other cults and groups who use these kinds of threats to better empower and enable the strongman’s control of others and strict regulation of their behavior. It’s that fear that is the mind killer and hastens the death of the individual and submission or conformity to the group. Again, although he is mentioned several times, it was somewhat scary to think about the implications behind these examples and how there are current, modern correlates in today’s politics. It also made me wonder whether Donald Trump really loves the country with how often he lambasts it and describes the world as such a hellscape. His perception of America, as someone who is largely privileged and has access to exclusive experiences and resources, is much different from mine. Regardless, Borden shares these important insights to further recognize that the current political and cultural landscape is not too different from other eras in American history and is largely representative of the kind of American thinking that has been a part of the initial colonizers who brought religion, culture and ethos to the shores of America. Again, it’s kind of eerie how both natural and man-made events (war) tend to hasten this kind of thinking of end times and how easily people abandon rationality and look to strongmen and groups for protection. It’s also scary how these kinds of events can be both manipulated and manufactured to create conditions of pliability and fear to empower leaders and strongmen. Another chapter focuses on the idea of exceptionalism or being a chosen one, which again seems like an element of both organized religion and more recent ideas of politics. It helps to also create a division between believers and nonbelievers that leaders exploit to further insulate their group and possibly bend them to take action against nonbelievers who might be deemed as threats (sounding familiar?). This also comes up in Chapter 6, where Borden presents an “Us vs. Them” ideology. However, I really enjoyed the lesser known cult examples she shares to highlight instances of these practices. The one example from this chapter on the Oneida Bible Communists was shocking to learn about. The next chapter on Rebellion and Anti-Intellectualism was also fascinating to learn about Mankind United and how its founder relied on conspiracy theories (which are “kissing cousins” with cults, according to Borden) to further his beliefs. Throughout the book, Borden uses other examples of cults to show how the founders and leaders often took from other belief systems, cults and conspiracy theories to cobble together their ideas and further empower their leaders and strongmen. Chapter 4 looks at Consumption and Salvation, and how cult leaders often use our desire for success, health and improvement to drive consumption of their products, whether it comes in the form of a cream, pill, or seminar/webinar. It was surprising to learn about John-Roger, the leader of MSIA, and how he exploited his followers, especially young men. MSIA, a cult I didn’t know anything about, “blatantly ripped off ideologies…of a movement called Eckankar” which also ripped off other movements. Again, we can see how these cult founders often just borrowed and remixed the ideas of others to exploit a new group looking for something to improve their lives. As Borden notes throughout the latter chapters, cults and religious movements (like the different Great Awakenings) often follow a period of social upheaval or change, and the leaders look to exploit people’s confusion or desire for improvement in these times. Chapter 5 links multilevel marketing scams like Amway to cults, and shows not only how the leaders of these programs, like Betsy Devos’s father-in-law, used their positions and connections to avoid the kind of legal challenges that would properly hold these kinds of pyramid schemers accountable and protect those at the bottom of the scheme propping up the wealth of others. I think that Amanda Montell also talks about MLM in her book Cultish, but not to the extent that Borden interrogates the history and practices of these scams. It’s shocking to really look at how these programs exploit the desire of others for success and wealth, but also how they use the American/Protestant ethos of hard work leading to success to further exploit others and continue to push them to buy and sell. Again, this kind of American ethos tied in with our need for consumption is what begets the kind of leaders who devise and exploit MLMs. Chater 6 which explores Identity and Isolation and examines the kind of “Us vs. Them” mentality that cults inculcate in their followers was particularly relevant in our current society as a largely unpopular movement seems to have overtaken the government and continually uses bad faith arguments, relies on people’s ignorance, and continues to strike a defensive and divisive tone when making their case for the unravelling of the federal bureaucracy. I couldn’t help but think of the Christian nationalists like Pete Hegseth and Russel Vought who have explicitly called for violence and pain to their enemies. Not sure how these fellas bring Americans together, but it seems like a strange stance to take for a follow of Christ who advocated for peace and love. Nevertheless, Borden uses the Nuwaubians and Dwight York, who originated in NY as the Ansaru Allah Community. Ocker discusses them in his book Cult Following, and I also read recent books about De La Soul and MF DOOM, who came from families who were also adherents to York’s system. It’s a fascinating, yet sad and troubling movement, that sought to use the Civil Rights and Black Power movements to bring about change in Black American communities, but ultimately York’s sexual exploitation of his followers led to the downfall of his organization. However, as Boden writes about York, he seemed not too much different from other cult leaders that she describes like John Noyes, who was the founder of the Oneida movement nearly 130 years earlier. Thus, Borden effectively ties these groups together, often emphasizing the similar behaviors and methods that the leaders and their organizations use to exploit followers and use them to not only advance their own agendas, but also to harm or eliminate any of those who are skeptical or present potential threats to their power. The last chapter focuses on our desire of comfort and how leaders will often present cults as a way to bring about comfort and release to our suffering. Borden uses the example of Love Has Won, which was a relatively new cult, but one that was presented in an HBO Max documentary last year. Like many cults, this one was not only strange, but also sad, in how the leader brought about her own demise, yet how people strangely accepted her failing health and rationalized their own decisions and complicity in her deterioration. Despite being a shorter chapter, I think Borden makes some important arguments here about how our desire for comfort and avoidance of pain and suffering may lead us to seek out questionable motives. What is even more interesting is how she emphasizes the kind of income inequality and unequal access to proper healthcare can and has led people to make rash and unhealthy decisions, whether it is from ingesting the silver tincture that Love Has Won followers kept taking to those who held grievances against the elite and wealthy who Trump exploited to take up arms on January 6^th. The conclusion is also important to read, as Borden ties her ideas together and reemphasizes the notion that cults, and especially apocalyptic thinking are a major part of the American identity. While this book was not necessarily what I thought it would be, it is an important read that challenges our ideas about cults, why people join them, and how they are interwoven into the fabric of our culture and society. A really interesting point that Borden makes towards the end of the book is how technology has largely atomized the kind of thinking and beliefs that cults exploit, allowing cults and their leaders to have a further and more powerful reach. While I agree, I don’t think this was the original intention of the internet, nor any social media company. I think that these started with good intentions, especially the early communities of the internet (especially the Whole Earth Lectronic Link), but sadly others found ways to exploit this tool to their own ends, and still others find ways to take advantage of the grief, anger, and other negative feelings that are the result of continued discrimination, exploitation, and inequality (maybe this is Trump’s new DEI) that have expanded over the past few decades. There is a lot to explore with this book, and I would love to revisit it again. It’s a challenging and thought-provoking book, but one that is especially relevant today in making sense of illogical and seemingly unamerican behavior. Borden brings a serious and ardent tone but also balances it with some humorous and scathing takes on cults, politicians and our society. I really appreciated these opportunities to lighten such dark topics and examples. Furthermore, I think that this kind of approach helps to make her conclusions, especially about human nature more relatable.