5 YA Cult Stories to Help Set the Mood for American Horror Story: Cult
My goodness, do I love me some American Horror Story. A series where each season stands on its own, but hides little treats and the occasional crossover character for diehard fans, it’s one of the most creative, well-acted, and unnerving shows on television.
We’ve gone into haunted houses, hotels, asylums, and more…and now, we get to experience a cult. (Complete with clowns!)
Whether you need something to fill the void in your heart as each episode leaves you on a cliffhanger, or you just want a good book to pass the time until you can binge-watch the entire season at once (my personal preference), we’ve rounded up a few great YA novels that take you into the world inside, and outside, of cults.
The Last Harvest, by Kim Liggett
This post gives me a chance to nerd out over a book you may have missed, which hit shelves earlier this year. A masterful piece of YA horror, Liggett’s The Last Harvest takes readers to a small-town farm, where the gruesome death of Clay Tate’s father haunts him and the community. But things seem to be turning around…in an unusual, creepy way. People are paying attention to Clay. The local farmers, his ex-girlfriend, they all descend on him, as truths start to unravel about what happened to his father. Truths rooted in ancient rituals and blood sacrifice.
While you’re at it, don’t forget to check out Liggett’s Blood and Salt. She definitely has a brand, and that is terrifying cults and small towns surrounding farms. The sequel, Heart of Ash, is due out this February.
Mirror in the Sky, by Aditi Khorana
In Khorana’s magnificent sci-fi and contemporary genre blend, mankind discovers another Earth across the cosmos, one that is a nearly perfect mirror of the one we currently live on. The same people, the same cities, everything the same, with a few slight differences here and there.
This raises questions for people on our planet about why we’re here. People question religion, our place in the universe, why we even exist. And for Tara Krishnan, it flips her world upside down. A group of popular kids start hanging out with her, a popular guy starts taking an interest in her…and her mother joins a cult across the country, following a spiral into obsession with the mirror world. It’s not the main plot point of the book, but Tara’s struggles with her family play such an important role in this diverse, stirring book about figuring out who you are and where you belong.
No Parking at the End Times, by Bryan Bliss
What happens to a family when they obsess over a cultlike figure, only to discover this potential savior is anything but? After spending a ton of time (and all their money) following a false leader predicting the end of the world, Abigail and her brother Aaron are living in their family’s van. End Times is a story of what happens after the cult, and talks a lot about the complex issues surrounding religion and families that end up going toxic, with responsibilities suddenly thrown upon the kids. It’s literary and heartbreaking, peppered with the kind of dark humor Bliss is so great at.
But why heartbreaking? In every cult story, there seems to be one friend or family member who keeps trying to bring the people they love back from the edge. This is that kind of story, of continuing to try long after they’ve fallen off.
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, by Stephanie Oakes
Another story about life after being in a cult, Oakes’ novel introduces us to Minnow, a teen girl who has been a part of a cult for nearly her entire life, and has her hands cut off as a result of trying to fight back. It’s a novel inspired by the Grimm fairy tale “The Handless Maiden.”
Minnow is in juvenile detention, and we learn how she got there and why, as the possibility of freedom comes to her in the form of an FBI detective bent on trying to determine just what happened to the cult she was a part of. There are a lot of flashbacks and some seriously beautiful writing in this dark, complicated novel about faith. Check it out.
Family, by Micol Ostow
I love a good novel in verse. But a novel in verse, telling a story inspired by the Manson Family murders? What?! Leave it to Micol Ostow to pull off one of the most unique YA books about cults, like, ever. Readers meet Melinda, a teen runaway trying to escape a broken home and in search of something more. She finds it in a man named Henry, who invites her to join a different kind of family. But if she really wants to be a part of this new group she’s coming to love, she’ll have to do anything they ask. Anything.
You can also check out Ostow’s latest, the YA novel adaptation of Mean Girls, in which a sheltered, homeschooled teen finds herself in the craziest of high school clique/cults, the Plastics.