Tag: cults

Loving, Ohio written by Matthew Erman and illustrated by Sam Beck

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“We all lived here. In some way. And wherever you live it leaves imprints on you.” – Matthew Erman, Loving, Ohio

In Loving, Ohio, four teens are dealing with the tragic suicide of one of their friends amidst the mystery of an overbearing cult in this supernatural horror graphic novel voted one of New York Public Library’s Best New Comics of 2024. As someone who devours any and all fiction and nonfiction about cults, Loving, Ohio was the top of my list. The cult in this book gave me strong Church of Scientology vibes, but with enough quirkiness that I was freaked out at points.

Sloane, Elliott, Cameron, and Ana are four teenagers trying to make it through high school while people go missing or are murdered in the town where they live, Loving, Ohio. Loving was built around The Chorus, a new age cult with members in high ranking positions of power and influence within both the cult and the community. Everyone in the community is enamored by The Chorus with it leaching into any and every business and family around. Sloane and her friends are not thrilled with The Chorus and have plans to hopefully make it out of Loving alive. When one of their close friends dies by suicide, the four decide enough is enough. When more murders happen, the four find themselves hunting down the murderer while dealing with normal teen things like finding out their place in the world. All of this loss is dealt with while The Chorus looms over them.

This book was incredibly well written. The art was gorgeous, the story was freaky and unsettling, and the horror was horrifying. While Loving, Ohio clearly has supernatural elements throughout, the characters are still dealing with the mundanity of life, albeit with immense levels of grief and nightmare mixed in. Highly recommend.

The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“I wondered how the public’s consumption of others’ pain and suffering cross the line from empathy to voyeurism. How quickly have we, as a society, become numb to the struggles of others, our capacity for compassion eroded by the sheer volume of human drama we’re exposed to daily? We were just characters in a soap opera now, except the drama was real, and the consequences permanent. Our grief had been reduced to a mere commodity, packaged and sold, consumed and discarded.”
― Shari Franke, The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom

I am fascinated by true crime. What intrigues me is not the violence perpetrated, but the motivations of the abusers. What made them the way that they are? Was it nature or nurture? The case of Ruby Franke, the viral 8 Passengers family vlog, and her eventual arrest on multiple charges of aggravated child abuse in 2023 had me researching family vlogging culture and how manipulative cults can damage their members. When I learned that Shari Franke, Ruby Franke’s eldest child, was releasing a book entitled The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom, I knew I needed to read it, as Shari has become a vocal proponent of the dangers of family vlogging and an advocate against child exploitation in social media.

Shari Franke’s childhood was doomed from the start. Her mother, Ruby Franke, had a severe moral code that grew into even greater delusions of righteousness after she created her popular YouTube channel 8 Passengers. On said channel, which eventually had 2.5 million subscribers, Ruby documented the day-to-day life of raising six children. Everything in the Franke household was orchestrated by Ruby. Subscribers loved Ruby’s wholesome mommy blogger online persona, but Shari knew another side of her mother: the fierce tyrannical parent who did not tolerate disobedience.

Ruby’s behavior changed for the worse after she met relationship coach Jodi Hildebrandt. Jodi and Ruby together created inhumane living conditions and were merciless in delivering discipline. Jodi’s influence on Ruby was sadistic. The family relationships and conditions within the family home quickly deteriorated, leaving Jodi and Ruby with eventual complete control of the four youngest Franke children.

All the while, Shari was fighting for the truth. This book is her battle cry. She describes her childhood with Ruby, what life was really like in the Franke household, and how Jodi’s involvement brought out Ruby’s even darker side. While revealing the horrors that befell them once Ruby joined “ConneXions,” Jodi’s cultish life coaching program, Shari draws her own moral line in the sand. She will not disclose her younger siblings’ names or detail the four youngest’s stories. As I mentioned earlier, Shari is a vocal proponent of the dangers of family vlogging and an advocate against child exploitation in social media. Shari talks about how perilous influencer culture is and how her mother’s cruelty destroyed them, but eventually provided a springboard of truth and survival for Shari, her younger siblings, and their father.

“No child should ever have to earn a parent’s affection. And no amount of achievement can ever fill the void where unconditional love should be.”
― Shari Franke, The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom

Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley

- Claire Leave a comment

Sloane Crosley’s Cult Classic is witty, self-aware, and eloquently rendered. The novel follows Lola, a woman in her late thirties, as she maneuvers her half-hearted engagement, eccentric collection of colleagues from a psychology magazine, and the seemingly endless slew of ex-flames that she keeps running into. Lola’s smart–too smart to consider these run-ins with old boyfriends a coincidence. What she failed to predict, however, was who was behind these interactions and why they placed so much weight (and currency) in her past romantic escapades. 

The plot gains more and more momentum the farther we delve into the cultish endeavors of Clive, the self-appointed psychology guru that Lola cannot help but be entranced by. Like all cult-leaders, Clive denies that his group, the Golconda, the abundance of infatuated followers, or the synagogue-disguised secret headquarters are attributes of a full-on cult. But the true nature of his secret society resides somewhere between meditative groupthink and the layers of social media that petrify the what-ifs of our expired relationships.

 I, unfortunately, found the ending to leave a little to be desired. The majority of the narrative was incredibly engrossing and ultimately deserved a better finale. The plot plunges into the mysterious cosmic alignments between Lola and her exes, which we discover is a product of Clive and his followers’ mind-control. In the end, though, the climax flat lines. 

Crosley’s originality in story conception almost makes up for some of the gaps in narrative substance. The story especially shines in its focus on our main character and the mental aerobics she performs to work through her underdeveloped emotional tendencies. Crosley’s underlining commentary on social media and how it has altered modern dating is sharp but forgivingly nuanced. Her contribution to the overarching conversation about human connection in the age of online relationships alone makes Cult Classic worth a read.

Also available as a CD audiobook.