Extracting the Human(ity) from the Cult
Book Feature: "The Ascent" by Allison Buccola
Cults have always been a lurid fascination for outsiders looking in, curious about the inner workings and the psychology around membership. And even more fervent when the cult splashes across news tickers because of tragic or shocking events—think Waco, Jonestown, Heaven’s Gate, NXIVM.
These sad stories with axis-shifting headlines often cloud the personal stories of its members and the unifying thread of humanity weaving through: humans searching for belonging. Yes, they were likely preyed on and manipulated, but what made them susceptible to such tactics? Grief? Trauma? Loneliness? Loss? Longing to be loved? There can be so many factors, yet they all seem to be very human events and feelings that happen to everyone.
If it’s humanity that leads them to the cult, why do we judge them so harshly? This is not to say that evil is not bred in the bowels of the cult, but that’s not the focus here. Why does society lead with judgment first before compassion? I kept wondering this for the duration of reading "The Ascent" by Allison Buccola, and I saw it from a different angle.
"The Ascent" is a psychologically rich thriller that explores the lingering trauma of cult survival, the quiet terror of motherhood, and the slippery nature of truth.
Twenty years after walking away from a vanished cult as a child, Lee Burton has built a seemingly perfect life: loving husband, new baby, new identity. But the illusion of safety fractures when a stranger arrives, claiming to hold the key to Lee’s buried past. As paranoia builds and motherhood isolates her further, Lee must confront whether her instincts are a sign of unraveling or a sign she can't ignore.
From the beginning, we learn Lee doesn’t trust herself. She’s a new mother, navigating post-partum life for the first time, colliding with her complicated past and deep-seated feelings of being left as a child. So she commits herself to never leaving her child, figuratively and slightly literally. Clearly, a direct line from her childhood trauma to her present problems…but no one sees that until a documentary of the cult she survived explodes into mainstream media at the same time a figure from her past emerges.
The novel chronicles Lee’s believability and exposes the benefit of the doubt extended to some but not others. And Lee is not one of the others, but she is definitely “othered.”
Lee is deemed not to be mothering correctly, bearing the parental judgment often assigned to new mothers. Not only from strangers but from her husband and mother-in-law. Buccola smartly examines how society often gaslights new mothers, brushing off their intuition as hormonal fog. Lee’s fears are amplified by a culture that tells women to question themselves. Ignore your gut. I see this ringing true for the women in my life.
Flashing back to Lee’s childhood, Buccola creates a vivid picture of how Lee, the lone survivor of a cult, is shocked into pedestrian life, a jarring transition that highlights the way society often portrays uniqueness and differing life experiences as negative. We're told "different is bad," refusing to face how similar we all are. Buccola hits this nail on the head, authentically portraying the tactics used against the "othered" individual. Again, her own family is guilty of reinforcing Lee as an outsider.
Rather than compassion and love, of which Lee craves at her heart, she is met with judgment, fear, hatred, blame, and so much more. But mostly, Lee is told she is crazy, outright, and via constant messaging from how she is treated. She is broken. She is the problem.
But will Lee continue to believe them?
Buccola deftly weaves together multiple storylines—past and present, real and remembered—into a layered, believable world of trauma and survival. And through it all, she delivers moments of quiet grace: the small, unexpected lifelines that often save us before we even recognize them as such.
A mysterious and fracturing thriller, "The Ascent" reminds us that sometimes what we’re searching for was within us all along.
Thank you to Allison Buccola, Random House, & NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my authentic review. “The Ascent” is out 5/20/25.
This story contains affiliate links, I may earn a small commission if you purchase anything through one of my links at no extra cost to you.