A lot of people have been asking me why I chose to write about a cult. The short answer is, because they’re scary. The longer answer is, I didn’t write a book about a cult, I wrote a book about a girl who was raised in a cult and is forced to join “normal” society after her mother forces her out. With no place to go, Sunshine takes her three kids to live with the biological father she never knew existed and his wife Liesel, who thinks this ready-made family might be the answer to all her prayers.I wrote a book about a family trying to learn how to survive and how to make a life together when everything they all ever knew has been turned upside down. I wrote about losing everything you’ve ever believed is true and trying to find a way to move forward instead of being held back.
The cult is just part of the background. A fascinating, scary part, yes. But I also tried to show just why someone would not only want to join a cult, but how someone might genuinely feel like life in the cult is better and more normal than the type of life general society agrees is right.
Sunshine was sort of difficult for me to write, because I’m not sure why people would ever let themselves be brainwashed into following a leader, no matter how charismatic, whose teachings bring them harm. Yet as I researched cults, I discovered something disturbing...I began to understand how something so different, so off-beat, could become appealing and eventually, overwhelming.
I hope readers of ALL FALL DOWN enjoy the story and maybe discover within themselves how it feels to find out that everything you thought you knew about yourself can be turned upside down.
Want a copy of All Fall Down for your very own? Comment here about a time you changed your mind about something you thought you knew. Or just comment, I’m easy that way.
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In the midst of a chaotic midnight assembly, Sunshine is forced out into the darkness. Holding a scrap of paper scrawled with a stranger’s name and address, Sunny grasps the hands of her three small children and begins her escape.
Liesel Albright has dreamed of starting a family. She never bargained on inheriting one already in progress…or one so deeply damaged. When nineteen-year-old Sunshine appears on the Albright’s doorstep claiming Liesel’s husband Chris is her father, all they can think to offer is temporary shelter. The next day, they’re stunned by the news that the Family of Superior Bliss, led by a charismatic zealot, has committed mass suicide. Sunny and her children haven’t just left the compound–they’ve been left behind.
Now, instead of a baby of her own, Liesel must play mother to the four survivors while Chris retreats into guilt and denial. For Sunny, however, a lifetime of teachings is not easily unlearned. No matter how hard she tries to forget, an ominous catechism echoes in her mind, urging her to finish what the Family started.
