Those Who Prey

September 15, 2020
A college freshman becomes the victim of a worldwide cult. With a dead mother, a busy father, and an unrelatable stepfamily, Emily leaves Mississippi for a fresh start in college up north. Instead, her first year at Boston University in 1994 is lonely. So when she meets Josh and his charismatic friends in a coffee shop, she eagerly accepts their invitations to social events with the Kingdom even as they proceed to control her time and even her thoughts. In the first section of this debut, chapter headings spell out the steps the Kingdom uses to expand their membership in order to show Emily's brainwashing. Once it's clear that she's imbedded in the cult, the story quickly shifts in tone, becoming a psychological thriller. Selected by a Kingdom leader and encouraged by her crush on Josh, Emily accepts a so-called internship to travel with cult members to Italy. The novel's psychological strengths resonate here, as Emily experiences hunger, fear, strict rules, and even scarier tactics intended to keep her in line and recruit more members. But when she begins to question the Kingdom's motives and consider leaving, large plot jumps move the story forward but quell the thriller intrigue. A concluding author's note discusses real cults that swept college campuses in the 1990s. Characters follow a White default. Engaging but not enthralling. (Psychological thriller. 14-18)

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October 1, 2020

Gr 9 Up-Emily envisioned her move to Boston as a fresh start: A glossy college pamphlet photo filled with new friends and cherry blossoms. But after a rough first semester, Emily is left feeling lonely and homesick. When she meets green-eyed Josh and his red-headed friend Heather, the teen is pleased that her college life is finally coming together. But through calculated affirmation and subtle peer pressure, Emily is not only pulled into a new friend group, but eventually baptized into the Kingdom. Slowly, her volunteer work and classes become secondary to partner-guided Bible studies and accountability tallying, and when Emily is chosen for a Kingdom internship in Italy, she jumps at the chance to recruit with her friends overseas. But once in Tuscany, peer pressure gradually turns to shaming and fear. And then Emily finds her assigned discipling partner dead. Corded phones, card catalogs, and Walkman cassette players set the scene for this 90s story. Excerpts from interviews and snippets of an article covering the fall of the Kingdom are slotted between sections of the book to provide foundation and foreshadowing, and the work explores the post-cult emotional healing process in a unique way. Vague character descriptions and easily rationalized situations leave the reader with an uneasy understanding-Emily could be any of us. VERDICT For readers of true crime, thrillers, and cult novels searching for an atypical story.-Maggie Mason Smith, Clemson Univ., SC

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