Do you think you wouldn’t join a cult? Most of us like to believe we’d see the red flags. That we’d walk away at the first sign of manipulation. But the truth is, cults rarely look like cults from the inside. They feel like safety. Like belonging. Like finally being seen. These stories tap into that unsettling truth and ask the hard questions: What would it take for you to stay? And what would it take to break free?
These novels peel back the glossy façade of spiritual communities, wellness retreats, and secret societies to reveal what really happens when belief becomes control. They explore the psychology of devotion, the hunger for meaning, and the quiet, creeping dread that builds when something isn’t quite right. Leaders become deities. Rituals become weapons. And lies are treated as gospel.
What makes these books so compelling isn’t just the twists or the betrayals. It’s the atmosphere. The tension. The way truth is buried, gaslight by gaslight, until the line between faith and fear disappears completely. If you love fiction where the horror is psychological, the setting is claustrophobic, and the secrets are sacred, this list was made for you.
The Girls by Emma Cline
It’s the summer of 1969, and fourteen-year-old Evie Boyd is lured into a ragtag group of girls following a magnetic cult leader. Loosely inspired by the Manson Family, The Girls isn’t just about the horror — it’s about the slow, seductive pull of belonging. Cline’s writing is dreamy, disarming, and unsettling in the best way.
The Medusa Psalms: Welcome to Walpurgis County by Kyle Toucher
Welcome to Walpurgis County, where the line between reality and nightmare blurs and every shadow hides a darker truth. This collection of ten stories and two novellas dives into haunted mountains, deranged cults, cosmic horrors, and ancestral vendettas. Here, monsters roam, conspiracies fester, and the landscape itself becomes a battleground of madness. Dark, chilling, and relentlessly atmospheric.
Godshot by Chelsea Bieker
Set in a drought-ridden California town ruled by a garishly dressed cult leader named Pastor Vern, Godshot follows 14-year-old Lacey May as she’s pulled deeper into a twisted religious community. As the adults preach submission and salvation, Lacey’s world begins to unravel—and so does her blind trust. It’s an unflinching, lyrical look at girlhood, desperation, and the way belief can become a trap.
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes
After escaping a brutal cult in the Montana woods — with her hands cut off — seventeen-year-old Minnow ends up in juvenile detention. There, she finally begins to unravel the truth behind the Prophet who ruled her life. This YA thriller is raw, haunting, and powerfully told, with questions about justice, belief, and resilience. This book was also made into a TV series titled Sacred Lies, which streamed on Facebook Watch.
The Church of Dead Girls by Stephen Dobyns
In a quiet town in upstate New York, three teenage girls go missing. Panic sets in, and neighbors begin turning on one another. What starts as a mystery soon transforms into a study of mob mentality and groupthink—the breeding ground for any cultish behavior. This one’s less about organized religion and more about the cult of fear, conformity, and suspicion.
The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwon
Phoebe Lin is a brilliant college student grieving her mother’s death when she’s drawn into a secretive cult of young radicals. Her boyfriend watches helplessly as she’s pulled further away, ultimately vanishing after a violent act of terrorism. This is a quiet, literary novel that tackles devotion, identity, and the seductive power of purpose.
What Hell May Come by Rex Hurst
Set during the height of the Satanic Panic, What Hell May Come imagines a world where every unhinged claim was real. Sixteen-year-old Jon St. Fond discovers his parents are part of a secret occult religion—and the deeper he digs, the darker the truth becomes. A brutal, paranoid dive into religious hysteria, occult conspiracies, and the cost of survival.
