What’s a trend in fiction you are obsessed with? I love cults. Any type of cult or commune story that discusses survival, has charismatic leaders, and explores psychological manipulation is my favorite. The beauty of cults in fiction is that they can span genres and ages. Check out the below list of cults in fiction that range from dystopian to horror to literary thrillers. As of this writing, all of these titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provide by the publishers.

Crafting for Sinners by Jenny Kiefer

Ruth is trapped. She’s stuck in her small, religious hometown of Kill Devil, Kentucky, stuck in the closet, and stuck living paycheck to paycheck. After her manager finds out that she lives with her girlfriend, Ruth is fired from her job at New Creations—a craft store owned by the church that dominates life in Kill Devil.

In an act of revenge, Ruth attempts to shoplift some yarn but is caught red-handed. Instead of calling the police, the employees lock her in the store—and attack her. As Ruth fights for her life using only the crafting supplies at hand, she plunges deeper into the tangled web of the New Creationists, who are hiding a terrible secret that threatens not only her but the entire town.

Urgent, scathing, and utterly original, Crafting for Sinners cements Kiefer’s status as a dazzling new star in horror. – Quirk Books

Dark Sisters by Kristi DeMeester

In this fiercely captivating novel, horror meets historical fiction when a curse bridges generations, binding the fates of three women. Anne Bolton, a healer facing persecution for witchcraft, bargains with a dark entity for protection—but the fire she unleashes will reverberate for centuries. Mary Shephard, a picture-perfect wife in a suffocating community, falls for Sharon and begins a forbidden affair that could destroy them both. And Camilla Burson, the rebellious daughter of a preacher, defies conformist expectations to uncover an ancient power as her father’s flock spirals into crisis.

Three women. Three centuries. One legacy of fury, love, and a power that refuses to die. – St. Martin’s Press

Galloway’s Gospel by Sam Rebelein

In this shockingly fun wild ride of horrors, Sam Rebelein takes readers back to Renfield County and tells the story of two Rachels—one who mistakenly starts a cult at her local high school and one who tries to dismantle it ten years later.

2009: Rachel Galloway is bored in class. She spends the dreary fall days sketching in her notebook—adorable pigs munching on her boring teachers—and imagining a utopia where all the horrors of Burnskidde High School disappear. But when her classmates start to believe this utopia could be real, Galloway finds herself at the center of an elaborate, and quickly spreading, new religion. Before long, the town is split between believers and nonbelievers. As tensions rise and the rituals become more dangerous, Galloway can’t be sure what’s real and what’s not, or who she can trust.

BURNSKIDDE: CULTWATCH

2019: This is the cryptic message that Renfield County Guard Rachel Durwood receives from her colleague Mark, mere days after he’s disappeared. Mark’s note leads Durwood to the town of Burnskidde, famously sealed off from the rest of the county ten years ago. Now, she discovers a small, insulated community preparing for the rapture and, seemingly, their collective demise. In order to save Burnskidde from itself, she must piece together the fallout from 2009 and avoid being swept up into the monstrous cult herself.

As Rachel Galloway watches her life spiral out of control, Rachel Durwood navigates a world where history, horror, and faith collide. Despite being separated by a decade, Galloway and Durwood may be closer to each other than they realize. But even together, will they be able to stop Burnskidde’s impending doom? – William Morrow

The Goldens by Lauren Wilson

A delicious, intoxicating debut thriller about a young woman who is swept into a glamorous world of fascinating influencers, glittering parties—and possibly murder.

Chloe has always dreamed of becoming a bestselling writer. Then she meets Clara Holland, a prominent influencer, socialite, and model. Clara is enigmatic, dazzling, gorgeous. And at last, ordinary Chloe has something to write about.

Bonding instantly, Chloe moves into Clara’s grand family estate. They spend long afternoons together, writing Clara’s memoir, polishing social media posts, and planning sumptuous, decadent parties: fairy lights in the orangery, themed cocktails, sequined backdrops, roaring bonfires. But as Clara opens her home to more girls who want to live like her and inspire one another, the media calls them a cult.

As life becomes more claustrophobic, Chloe begins to hear unsettling rumors about Clara. When a girl goes missing after a spectacular New Year’s Eve party, the rumors take on a sinister new meaning. If she can’t escape Clara’s influence, everything Chloe holds dear may be in danger.

Dark, gut-wrenching, and simmering with danger and atmosphere, The Goldens is about to be your newest obsession. – Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar

The High Heaven by Joshua Wheeler

In 1967, on the night of the first Apollo mission, a child named Izzy is orphaned when the doomsday cult she was born into clashes with the sheriff in the high desert of New Mexico. She’s taken in by a struggling rancher who is trying to keep his mind from falling apart as NASA rocket tests encroach on his outer range. Inspired by the true story of a UFO cult in a village near White Sands, this novel traces Izzy Gently’s whole life: from tragedy on the ranch, through addiction and a rich cast of eccentrics in Texas, to New Orleans, where Izzy is haunted by her past even as she uses lessons from childhood to counsel people who have lost the ability to see the moon.

In The High Heaven, Joshua Wheeler explores American piety as it mutates over the course of the Space Age, as technology changes notions of both humanity and the heavens. Shot through with the speculative while paying homage to three iconic genres—neo-Western, picaresque, and Southern gothic—Izzy’s life story becomes a mirror for the warping of manifest destiny and, ultimately, a testament to the human will to seek meaning from the universe.

Suffused with the absurdist history of American space travel and the wide-open landscapes of the Southwest, The High Heaven chronicles a larger-than-life adventure of one extraordinary woman who, despite tragedy, never loses sight of redemption. – Graywolf Press

Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer

O Lord, deliver us.

Doctor Liz has just been acquitted for performing the last abortion in North Dakota when she’s kidnapped.

They’re not just any kidnappers, but a fundamentalist cult, deep in the rural west, without respect for law or decency, and in desperate need of an OB/GYN.

Guarded, isolated, without access to the outside world, Liz nevertheless is treated with respect as the only doctor on the compound, but she is very aware of what happened to the last obstetrician they kidnapped.

She must escape, and bring help to the girls trapped at the compound, if it’s the last thing she does. – Tordotcom

Paper Cut by Rachel Taff

Everybody knows the story. Nobody knows the truth…

Lucy Golden is a true-crime icon, infamous for the murder she committed while escaping a California cult twenty years ago. But as everyone in Los Angeles knows, fame is fleeting, and Lucy and her story are always just one news cycle away from obscurity. Not to mention, she’s fending off a stalker and moderating an icy feud between her acclaimed photographer mother and her scandalous rock star sister. Worst of all, online trolls are asking increasingly threatening questions about the legendary crime. Questions that could tear her life apart.

So when a hotshot documentarian makes her case the subject of his next film, Lucy sees a chance to silence any doubters once and for all. But as filming begins, she must return to the California desert and come face-to-face with a cast of players from her torrid history. Of course, the past is never what it seems, and long-buried secrets soon collide with present-day threats. Can Lucy stop her critics from digging up the truth before it’s too late? And how far will she go to protect the story she’s been telling—and selling—all along?

Told in a narrative split between the present day and Lucy’s hit memoir about her fated summer in the cult, Paper Cut combines psychological suspense with coming-of-age Californian cult noir and a sharp examination of the true-crime phenomenon. As incisive as it is propulsive, this mesmerizing debut will keep readers hooked until the last page. – William Morrow

The Wind Witch Murders by Casey Dunn

A haunting Southern Gothic mystery where dark magic meets deadly secrets, and a daughter must uncover the truth about her mother before it’s too late.

Arkansas, 1999. Eighteen-year-old Raven Moore has spent her entire life trying to outrun her mother’s dark reputation. Twelve years ago, two bodies were found burned in a field at the base of the Hill, and Raven’s mother, Deanne—the woman they called the Wind Witch—was convicted of their murders.

Three days ago, Deanne died in an asylum, without ever speaking a word in her own defense.

Then, at the funeral, a stranger appears with a red feather in his hand. He knows things about Raven’s mother that no one in Silverfield will speak aloud. Things about the Hill People—a community rumored to practice witchcraft who vanished the day Deanne was locked away.

Things about the wind, and blood, and the gift that runs in Raven’s veins . . . whether she believes in it or not.

Raised by her fiercely religious grandmother to fear everything her mother represented, Raven’s life has been built on secrets and doubt. But when the past reaches out to claim her, she must choose: remain in the world that has always feared her, or step into the legacy her mother left behind.

Because the wind remembers what everyone else has forgotten. And some murders were never what they seemed . . . – Severn House