Bookriot's 100 Must-Read Books About Cults.
1. 
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
by:
Jon Krakauer
4.01 avg rating — 220,433 ratings 
3. 
The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult
by:
Jerald Walker
3.60 avg rating — 428 ratings 4. 
5. 
Massacre at Waco, Texas: The Shocking True Story of Cult Leader David Koresh and the Branch Davidians 3.18 avg rating — 98 ratings
9. 
Blown for Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology
by:
Marc Headley
4.04 avg rating — 1,520 ratings 
11. 
The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology Tried to Destroy Paulette Cooper
by:
Tony Ortega
4.05 avg rating — 1,577 ratings 
13. 
Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me
by:
Ron Miscavige
3.34 avg rating — 3,820 ratings 13. 
Ann the Word: The Story of Ann Lee, Female Messiah, Mother of the Shakers, The Woman Clothed with the Sun
by:
Richard Francis
3.39 avg rating — 74 ratings 15. 
Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape 3.77 avg rating — 40,861 ratings
15. 
19. 
The Cities of the Sun: Stories of Ancient America Founded on Historical Incidents in the Book of Mormon 1.83 avg rating — 6 ratings
21. 
Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamist Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs
by:
Elissa Wall
3.95 avg rating — 31,195 ratings 
23. 
I Walked to Zion: True Stories of Young Pioneers on the Mormon Trail 4.23 avg rating — 667 ratings
24. 
The Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice
by:
Rebecca Musser
4.05 avg rating — 12,885 ratings 24. 
The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ
by:
Joseph Smith Jr.
4.24 avg rating — 89,749 ratings 
26. 
American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church
by:
Alex Beam
3.66 avg rating — 1,129 ratings 
28. 
Vatican Secret Archives: Unknown Pages of Church History
by:
Grzegorz Górny
3.75 avg rating — 32 ratings 
30. 
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties
by:
Tom O'Neill
4.04 avg rating — 32,220 ratings 
32. 
The Knights of the Holy Grail: The Secret History of The Knights Templar 3.92 avg rating — 79 ratings
34. 
34. 
Voices From the Dead:: The Dark Rituals and Hidden Worship of the Masonic Lodge
by:
Texe Marrs
3.90 avg rating — 10 ratings 
36. 
Codex Magica: Secret Signs, Mysterious Symbols, and Hidden Codes of the Illuminati
by:
Texe Marrs
3.83 avg rating — 241 ratings 38. 
In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family
by:
Nansook Hong
3.79 avg rating — 273 ratings 38. 
Backwoods Witchcraft: Conjure & Folk Magic from Appalachia
by:
Jake Richards
4.04 avg rating — 1,185 ratings 
40. 
Witchcraft Goes Mainstream: Uncovering Its Alarming Impact on You and Your Family
by:
Brooks Alexander
3.33 avg rating — 9 ratings 42. 
Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple
by:
Deborah Layton
4.12 avg rating — 3,917 ratings 42. 
The Nine (Sinister Forces: A Grimoire of American Political Witchcraft, #1)
by:
Peter Levenda
4.16 avg rating — 557 ratings 
44. 
The Witches of Warboys: An Extraordinary Story of Sorcery, Sadism and Satanic Possession
by:
Philip C. Almond
3.62 avg rating — 40 ratings 
46. 
The Lancashire Witches: A Chronicle of Sorcery and Death on Pendle Hill
by:
Philip C. Almond
3.34 avg rating — 41 ratings 48. 
A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown
by:
Julia Scheeres
4.01 avg rating — 5,116 ratings 48. 
American Witches: A Broomstick Tour Through Four Centuries
by:
Susan Fair
3.64 avg rating — 1,052 ratings 50. 
50. 
A Witch and a Bitch: the Trial of the Last Witch in England
by:
Andrew Swanston
liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating 52. 
Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back
by:
Frank Schaeffer
3.68 avg rating — 2,237 ratings 52. 
Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America
by:
Margot Adler
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9,140 ratings 
56. 
The Virgin and the Pentacle: The Freemasonic Plot to Destroy the Church
by:
Alan Butler
3.40 avg rating — 10 ratings 
58. 
Crime and the Craft: Masonic Involvement in Murder, Treason and Scandal
by:
Mike Neville
4.25 avg rating — 8 ratings 60. 
Heaven's Harlots: My Fifteen Years as a Sacred Prostitute in the Children of God Cult
by:
Miriam Williams
3.47 avg rating — 495 ratings 60. 
The Dark History of the Occult: Magic, Madness and Murder
by:
Paul Roland
3.55 avg rating — 135 ratings 62. 
Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church
by:
Lauren Drain
3.56 avg rating — 4,146 ratings 62. 
Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult
by:
Richard Metzger
4.05 avg rating — 1,806 ratings 
66. 
Girl at the End of the World: My Escape from Fundamentalism in Search of Faith with a Future
by:
Elizabeth Esther
4.02 avg rating — 2,150 ratings 
70. 
Fifty Years in Polygamy: Big Secrets and Little White Lies
by:
Kristyn Decker
3.68 avg rating — 1,034 ratings 70. 
The Satanic Conspiracy: The Specter Haunting Mankind (The Charles Moscowitz Pamphlet series) liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating
72. 
72. 
Pop Prophecy: Exposing False Prophecies about “Rapture,” Israel, and the End of the World
by:
Tal Brooke
4.80 avg rating — 5 ratings 74. 
75. 
Tears of the Silenced: An Amish True Crime Memoir of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Brutal Betrayal, and Ultimate Survival
by:
Misty Griffin
4.28 avg rating — 25,856 ratings 76. 
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
by:
Vincent Bugliosi
4.06 avg rating — 152,010 ratings 77. 
Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints
by:
Sam Brower
3.98 avg rating — 6,954 ratings 78. 
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
by:
Lawrence Wright
4.04 avg rating — 44,512 ratings 79. 
Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion
by:
Janet Reitman
3.87 avg rating — 9,538 ratings 80. 
Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People
by:
Tim Reiterman
4.32 avg rating — 2,615 ratings 81. 
83. 
Call Me Evil, Let Me Go: A Mother's Struggle to Save Her Children from a Brutal Religious Cult
by:
Sarah Jones
3.70 avg rating — 341 ratings 84. 
fathermothergod: My Journey Out of Christian Science
by:
Lucia Greenhouse
3.90 avg rating — 2,826 ratings 
86. 
Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche
by:
Haruki Murakami
3.91 avg rating — 21,847 ratings 
88. 
When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and the Women Who Fought Back
by:
Stephen Singular
3.80 avg rating — 1,612 ratings 89. 
I Fired God: My Life Inside—and Escape from—the Secret World of the Independent Fundamental Baptist Cult 4.06 avg rating — 1,254 ratings
91. 
Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge
by:
Don Lattin
3.40 avg rating — 735 ratings 92. 
A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed
by:
Jon Atack
3.99 avg rating — 513 ratings 93. 
Scientology: A to Xenu: An Insider's Guide to What Scientology is Really All About
by:
Chris Shelton
4.05 avg rating — 234 ratings 94. 
95. 
Girl on a Wire: Walking the Line Between Faith and Freedom in the Westboro Baptist Church
by:
Libby Phelps
3.74 avg rating — 630 ratings 
97. 
98. 
Love Sex Fear Death: The Inside Story of the Process Church of the Final Judgment
by:
Timothy Wyllie
3.80 avg rating — 390 ratings 
