Zealot cover art

Zealot

A book about cults

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Zealot

By: Jo Thornely
Narrated by: Jo Thornely
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About this listen

 'a smart, daring and refreshing book.' - Weekend Australian

'deliciously sinister' - Herald Sun

Why would anyone join a cult?

Maybe they're unhappy with their current religion, or they want to change the world, or they're disappointed with their lives and want to find something bigger or holier that makes sense of this confusing, chaotic and dangerous world. Or maybe they just want to give themselves the best possible chance of having sex with aliens.

Whatever the reason, once people are in, it's usually very difficult for them to leave. Cults have ways of making their followers do loopy, dangerous stuff to prove their loyalty, and in return they get a chance to feel secure within the cult's embrace, with an added bonus of being utterly terrified of the outside world.

From the tragic JONESTOWN Kool-Aid drinkers to the Australian cult THE FAMILY to the fiery Waco climax of THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS, this book is a wide-sweeping look at cults around the world, from the host of the popular podcast ZEALOT.

'a piss-taker of rare boldness.' - Weekend Australian Religious Studies True Crime

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Critic reviews

prose where every sentence is alive with individuality and intelligence. ... She has opened the creaking lid of the vampire's coffin and let in a good old blast of fresh daylight.
Written with a wonderfully irreverent sense of humour, the book has a serious aim, to instil irreverence in the reader, because, after all, an excess of reverence was what got many of these cult members into danger in the first place and then kept them there.
All stars
Most relevant
I love the enthusiasm with which the author talks about the subject. Interesting and horrifying on so many levels.

Love the podcast, love the book.

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This book is immensely entertaining, and had be snorting with laughter at many points. But somehow I felt that something important was missing: Thornely’s portraits of cult leaders and members from the 1970s until the present are ultimately caricatures. Many of the episodes described are funny because they are simply so strange or outrageous, such as Jim Jones’ sideline as a travelling spider-monkey salesman, or Bhagwan Rajneesh’s insatiable desire to acquire a hundred Rolls-Royces. Yet there is little attempt to try to understand the motivations of the various agents involved, apart from the obvious: the desire for money, power, and sex. I kept asking myself why people would turn their lives upside down to join a cult when such things can usually be had in radically less disruptive ways. Unfortunately, Thornely offers little reflective insight about such more complex motivations on the part of leaders or followers. Nevertheless, this remains a very funny book which I would recommend if you just want a good belly laugh at the extent of human folly.

Very funny, very disturbing, but somehow lacking

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