Review by sanjus -- The Cult Next Door

Post by **Sanju Lali** » 05 Nov 2019, 07:29

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Cult Next Door" by Elizabeth R. Burchard, Judith L. Carlone.]

4 out of 4 stars

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A stress reduction consultant, who works with his bio feed-back machines, crafts his pseudo-science theory that defies all the universally accepted laws of physics as well as biology and brainwashes his clients to accept his hypothesis as gospel truth. Moreover, he also hypnotizes them to believe that they can’t live without him. We can find a similar scenario in the book named The Cult Next Door by Elizabeth R. Burchard, Judith L. Carlone, which is a memoir of these two authors who have experienced such kind of circumstances together in their lives. This book has 3890 locations as viewed on Amazon Kindle, and it is divided into 94 chapters. Each chapter tells about the circumstances they faced during a particular time.

The initial chapters elaborate on Elizabeth’s childhood and how she was brought up. Her father was a reputed psychologist who married his intern. When Elizabeth was eight years old, her parents divorced, and then onward, she stayed with her mom. After the separation, Elizabeth’s mother suffered from depression, which motivated her toward life improvement. She blindly started following several quacks, who were wearing a mask of a real doctor, sequentially one at a time, thereby following their prescriptions with absolutely no skepticism. Later, she followed a bio-feed-back therapist who was a sociopath in reality. He covertly began to exploit the mother and the daughter in the ways one cannot imagine. While struggling through the unbearable hardships, after some time, she met Judith, who came like a savior to help Elizabeth. Judith has also written several chapters of this book. Could Elizabeth come out of the clutches of the sociopath with the help of Judith? Reading this book until the end can answer this question.

The thing I liked the most about this book is the fact that though this book is a memoir, it is no way less intense than a fictional gut-wrenching suspense story, and that is why it glued me until the end. There were several twists and turns to her story, and I was eager to know what happens next, feeling curious whether Elizabeth’s suffering will ever come to an end.

The thing I disliked about this book is the unnecessary fine details of the house in which Elizabeth’s mom stayed alone, which seemed to be a bit exaggerated because I felt like vomiting imagining the scene, where there were green algae in the toilet bowl of the bathrooms. However, it may be required to give a complete picture of the situation in which her mother was living by blindly following a sociopath. I could make out that this book was professionally edited because I spotted only a very few errors that were even not easy to notice.

I recommend this book only to adults and do recommend not to teenagers and children because their guardians may not want them to see the explicit scenes as well as the acts of cruelty that are depicted in this book. This book could be appealing to those who want to explore what happens under the cover of cult practices that are running with various brand names. The book could also be useful to students of psychology and sociology.

This book may not be appealing to the readers who dislike the emotionally intense scenes of cruelty and pain because a considerable portion of the book has this kind of stuff. This book also may not be useful to those who are already reeling under depression because their symptoms may seem overwhelming to them while reading this book.

I picked up this book, wondering about what I can find about the cultures in the next door. However, after reading this book, I found that this book sheds light on the commonly occurring exploitation that is going on in our society under the cover. Initially, by looking at the elegant writing style with the apt detailing of the events, I was thinking of giving all the four stars. After considering the overall quality of the book and its contents, I decided to give this book 4 out of 4 stars.

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The Cult Next Door
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Post by **Adina Lutinger** » 07 Nov 2019, 04:37

Wow, It's so sad to grow into such horrifying circumastances.. I hope the author and her mother managed to create a healthy and better life for themselves. Thank you very much for your well written review.

spluficvictory · Post by **spluficvictory** » 07 Nov 2019, 07:43

While memoirs are not my cup of tea, this one sounds interesting. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the review

Gabriel Merêncio · Post by **Gabriel Merêncio** » 07 Nov 2019, 08:46

It sounds like a tough read, but I enjoy reading about cults and related topics, so I might give it a chance sometime. Thanks for the review!

Prisallen · Post by **Prisallen** » 07 Nov 2019, 13:12

I'm glad the author was able to get some help. I could not read this book as it would depress me to remember there are people who are capable of doing such horrible things to children. Wonderful review, though!

Juliet+1 · Post by **Juliet+1** » 07 Nov 2019, 19:07

Congratulations on being brave enough to read and review this book. I know it's important for information on abuses like these to be widely shared, so I'm glad the book was published, but I don't think I want to read it.

Charlyn Tuzon · Post by **Charlyn Tuzon** » 08 Nov 2019, 03:41

Seems like a book with strong topics and issues. Great review!

Wyland · Post by **Wyland** » 08 Nov 2019, 08:36

I like how you bring out the intensity of this story, in spite of it being a memoir. It's quite sad that the professional chooses to brainwash his client driven by greed. Thanks for the wonderful review.

gen_g · Post by **gen_g** » 09 Nov 2019, 04:54

I'm glad that the author managed to get help; it also seems like a fascinating read. Thanks for the review.

Sam Ibeh · Post by **Sam Ibeh** » 09 Nov 2019, 08:30

Though the book looks long, I think there's so much to learn from it. Thanks for that comprehensive review.

Nkoo · Post by **Nkoo** » 09 Nov 2019, 13:46

From your review, I can almost sense the disgust you felt while reading the details of Elizabeth's mom's bathroom. You did a great job with the review. Thank you.