Cults: A True Crime Collection: The Shocking True Stories of Heaven's Gate, the Manson Family, Jim Jones, the Branch Davidians, and More Deathly Cases

by Wendy Biddlecombe Agsar

Discover the truth of what happens when true believers go too far with the shocking stories of the world’s most known and horrific cults like The Order of the Solar Temple and t he NXIVM Cult.

Cults have been around for centuries, and many have been dubbed as satanic and murderous due to their heinous crimes. In A True Crime Collection , you will get to study the most notorious ones and what they did to achieve that notoriety. Get to know the story behind the scariest cults in history,

From gruesome suicides to clan murders, A True Crime Collection will tell you the real story behind the crimes and the leaders who orchestrated them. This book also studies the rise and fall of said clans and what led them to commit such terrible crimes like mass murders and human sacrifices.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime

232 pages, Paperback

Published March 27, 2024

Reviews

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never say no to a book about cults and this one was a good one! Learnt some me facts that were incredibly horrifying yet incredibly interesting.

[K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Content warnings: death, murder, suicide, cults, gaslighting, indoctrination, child sexual abuse, rape, animal cruelty, adult/minor relationship, addiction

I went into this hoping that it would be a mixture of true crime stories about cults and the actual psychology behind cults - why people become involved in them, why they stay, what eventually makes them decide to leave, what their lives are like afterwards. And instead I essentially got a series of biographies of cult leaders and the crimes they committed.

And, like, that's fine. But I really did want more about the victims and about the psychology of cults rather than just reading stories about men (mostly) being vile.

[Jeanna Mattison · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a lot of info in a small book. These groups are scary and sad. It wasn't the best read, but it was very informative. I don't remember a few of the cults, but I see their inspiration in fiction I have read. To see how leaders are similar and how the lost are who get caught up is very disturbing. Some of the groups in this book felt more like lost people and less cult like.

[Autumn O'Brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but many typos

[Mandy · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Read more like a Wikipedia page.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really it’s more of a 3.5. The topic is interesting, but the snippets are fairly short of each one and you can learn more about a lot of them from reading their Wikipedia page than you can from the book. The writing style wasn’t my favorite as well with transition phrases such as “This seems like a good place to pause and explain,” or “At this point you’ve likely noticed,” in an otherwise informational text. It is definitely a quick read.

[Enaka · Rating 3 out of 5]

These books offer a short insight into several notable cults. I'd heard about most of these already, and while Cults doesn't delve particularly deeply into them, it was still an interesting read with a diverse selection in ideologies. If you're already knowledgeable about the groups discussed in this book, it's unlikely you'll learn anything new, but if you're looking for an overview of many cults, this could be a good resource.

[morgan rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a pretty easy read. it feels like a wikipedia page in a sense since it’s mostly her citing other books/experts, which is fine. it’s a good overview of these cults (except for the last one) with some interesting facts that i didn’t know even though i’ve read about many of these cults multiple times, but definitely not an in depth dive of these cults or the psych behind them. also, there were a surprising amount of grammatical/formatting errors.

[Elizabeth Peterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay, it lacked explanation of details and the way things were framed was confusing because everything felt out of order at times. I enjoyed learning details about certain cults but overall the book had more potential to be better than what it is.

[Jo-jean Keller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, informative and unnerving. It strains my credibility when I realize these are true stories.

[Becca Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found a lot of grammar/spelling/punctuation errors in this book. I did enjoy reading it, though. Surreal to see my hometown mentioned in one of the chapters, even though I knew about it already.

[Mama K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just so-so. Could've gotten nearly same info on Google or old news accounts. No new, or more in depth info here

[Flannery · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book desperately needed a copy editor.

[BxerMom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was hoping I’d learn something new but I didn’t.

[Luisa Logo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just the right amount of information, not overwhelming, and kept me engaged.

[Taylor Rankin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting. I enjoyed learning new information about some of the cults I know. I would recommend this book if you want a quick run down about some cults. I do wish there was more detail.

[Kristin Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad overview of cults. I found the writing to be a little bland and hard to focus, but it could be me pausing my fiction obsession to go back to nonfiction.

I will say this was very informative overall. I never heard of the last cult mentioned in the book, and I love learning something new. This is a great starting point to learning more true crime.