The Scariest Cult Horror Novels to Haunt Your Bookshelf

Evie is a lonely teenager in Northern California during the 1960s, and during one fateful summer, she’s drawn into the orbit of an older girl named Suzanne.

Little does Evie realize, however, that Suzanne is in the thrall of a magnetic cult leader who’s about to set the world on fire. This reworking of the Manson murders was everywhere when it first debuted, in particular since Emma Cline commanded a staggering sum of two million dollars for her book deal.

It’s hard to live up to that much hype, so if you haven’t read this one yet, it’s probably best to check your expectations at the door, because this novel isn’t exactly what you’d think.

At times, it can feel a bit exploitative—and a particular passage that’s needlessly critical of the Sharon Tate stand-in made me want to throw the whole book against the wall—but there’s ultimately an interesting meditation on female friendship and girlhood that makes this one intriguing to say the least.

The gorgeous prose is also worth the price of admission, so now that the initial buzz has died down, consider picking up this book if you like your fictional cults to be as poetic as they are dangerous. 

An oldie but goodie, Rosemary’s Baby has set an impossibly high standard for creepy horror about both cults and devilish offspring.  

You’ve probably read the book or seen the movie by now, but just in case, here’s a refresher: fresh-faced Rosemary Woodhouse and her husband Guy get a great opportunity to move into a beautiful historic apartment building in New York. The only catch? It’s crawling with satanic cultists.

Rosemary, however, doesn’t learn that particular detail until it’s too late. Ira Levin’s work remains such a stalwart of the genre, so if you haven’t picked up any of his novels (or simply haven’t read them in a while), then consider starting with either Rosemary’s Baby or The Stepford Wives.

Both books are more than worth your time.  

First and foremost, I don’t want to give too much away about this one. Even saying that it’s a book about cults feels a little bit like a spoiler, but since Black Sheep is often discussed in the context of cults, I think it’s all right to tell you that much.

The setup is fantastically simplistic on its surface: after many years away, Vesper Wright returns home to her deeply religious community, where her cousin is set to be married.

What follows is a wild ride with a ton of twists and turns, paired with Harrison’s signature wit and colorful prose. You truly can’t go wrong with any of Rachel Harrison’s work, but if you’re looking for something with an eerie cult vibe, then most definitely start with Black Sheep.   

Reporter Cora Mayburn heads into the heart of rural Appalachia to check out reports of a snake-handling cult and its charismatic leader.

What she discovers is far beyond her greatest nightmares, all of which is compounded by the fact that she has her own devastating history with religious trauma.

With a strong cosmic horror vibe, I’ve featured this title before in my article, 4 Appalachian Gothic Books Filled with Atmospheric Terrors, but it bears repeating: Kristi DeMeester can write Southern cults like nobody else.

Beneath was her debut novel, which came out back in 2017 from Word Horde, and since then, she’s released Such a Pretty Smile, another horror novel set in the South, this time following a serial killer named The Cur and the mother and daughter who get caught up in the supernatural danger of the killer’s web.

Look for her latest, The Dark Sisters, hitting bookstores in December of next year from St. Martins Press.