Best Fantasy Book About Leaving a Cult?
A list of my favorite books about leaving a cult - in other words, books and characters I would compare The Acolyte’s Heresy and Serena to. My list is fairly short, probably because of self-selection bias when I was reading as a cult member, so I would love to hear your recommendations and expand my TBR list!
Reading for Comparison
10 books I read to better understand how to comp my novels! In conclusion, Tess of the Road and The Sacred Space Between are the best comparisons thematically, while The Jasmine Throne, The Unbroken, and King of Scars are the best comparisons for the scale of the plot and intricacy of the political, theological, and magical world building.
How It Begins…
It always starts with a death, plot-wise, and always the character arc, plotting-wise. Before any other plot element, I need to know how the POV characters are transforming. Because the plot is how the character is forced to transform. Once I hone in on that arc of transformation, really, the climax scene, then I build the rest of the story around getting my POV characters to that point.
Diversity and Inclusion in My World
There are a couple caveats I want to lay out as quickly as possible about how diversity and inclusion plays out in my world, including: race and skin color, sexual orientation, religion, age, class and education. These can be tricky topics, and I am open to learning from you and others about how to approach these issues better in my novels.
Therreth and Ether: An Introduction
I want to start generating reader interest in my novels by discussing my world, but I realize that without the full novels, it could be a while before you understand all my references. This blog post is your guide to my world to follow along as I post about it.
The Power of Beta Reading
As someone born and raised in the Unification church who then left, I offer unique and original insights on religion throughout my novels and cast of characters. But sometimes, I need someone who did not share my upbringing to point out just how different my perspective is. Serena’s arc is the one that most directly draws on my experience growing up in the Unification church, so I will draw on her example to illustrate my point.
My 7 Types of Readers
I am not here to please everyone. It is more important for me to find the readers my work appeals to than to try to make my novels appeal to everyone. So, I am going to spend a little bit of time breaking down each of the seven types of my readers (based on faith-curiosity, feminism, and fantasy-loving) and you can judge for yourselves whether you should give my novels a chance or not.
Welcome to Kazarah and Aeona!
And how shall I greet you, dear reader? This is no simple question in my world. Major themes include religious diversity and religious sectarianism – so, each character would greet you differently when they meet you based on which sect they adhere to.