A well-researched, deeply personal commentary on the role of cults in American life.
A cult survivor and her co-author tell her story and comment on American society in this nonfiction work.
“You’re probably in a cult, you just don’t know it yet,” Young and Reed declare in the book’s opening lines. Unafraid to ruffle feathers, the authors assert that since the arrival of the Pilgrims and other “religious extremists,” Americans have been “defined by the distrust of institutions, a persecution complex, and stubborn self-righteousness”; in other words, “cults are the most American thing there is.” Born into the infamous sex cult known as the Children of God, Young has an intimate knowledge of the power of cults to isolate, warp, and control their members. Combining Young’s personal story with academic research from psychologists, anthropologists, and other scholars referenced in more than 400 endnotes, the authors provide straightforward criteria for identifying cults. These include a shared “sacred assumption,” a mission of such import that it requires personal sacrifice, a jargon understood only by insiders, and high exit costs. Using these identifiers, the authors note the presence of cults throughout American society—from the U.S. Army to Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire. Offering cogent, often frightening social commentary, the book similarly highlights the fast-growing ubiquity of internet cults that thrive in Reddit threads, social media, and YouTube channels. By expanding readers’ ideas of what constitutes a cult, the authors hope their argument will disrupt “some of our most sacred assumptions” and alert their audience to the ways in which they are being manipulated by politicians, religious leaders, and even bosses in the workplace (psychopathic traits, often masked as charisma, are 12 times more common among business leaders that the general public, per the authors). Young’s deeply personal, ingrained disdain for cults is complemented by co-author Reed’s knack for engaging, accessible prose. This volume includes ample ancillary materials, including an essay by anti-racist TikTok creator Rebecca Slue, a “Quick Reference Guide” to spotting cultish groups, and questions for book club discussions.
A well-researched, deeply personal commentary on the role of cults in American life.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9781955671828
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Otterpine
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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