An interesting novel about what happens when people play with fate. The main character one day begins to run into her old boyfriends only to find out she’s being used in a mind control experiment. The writing is good though somehow reminded me of an MFA student trying to use lots of metaphors. I listened and it was enjoyable though I probably wouldn’t widely recommend this one.

Okay this book is fantastic, but if you can I HIGHLY recommend listening to the audiobook too!! Hilarious! I really, really enjoyed this book! It was captivating and it hooked me from the very first chapter! Definitely recommend! Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

This was my first Sloane Crosley so I am not sure if this is a typical book for her. This is a fascinating story about a main character who keeps running into her exes in the span of a short amount of time. The plot then takes a weird twist into technology and memory and so much more. I don't want to give it away except to say it has some interesting insights around technology, dating, relationships and memory. I really enjoyed the genre-bending nature of it and I really enjoyed Crosley's wry sense of humor.

With gratitude to netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have so many feelings about this book.The story centers on Lola, an engaged woman in New York City who can’t seem to stop encountering her ex-boyfriends. I felt like the story took a little more time than I would have liked to heat up but once it did I could not stop reading. It was unexpected, suspenseful, and often laugh out loud funny. Plus extra bonus points for having one of my favorite covers of the year so far.

Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for this ALC!

I was super excited to read this book – the title, the cover, the description all hooked me in! – but I am unfortunately disappointed. I’m not extremely disappointed, but this was one of the most middle-of-the-road books I’ve read in a long time. It’s described as “hilariously insightful and delightfully suspenseful” and yet I found it neither hilarious or delightful, light on the insightful, and barely suspenseful at all. This isn’t the worst, most boring book ever, but it’s not the best, most page-turning book either.

The biggest issue for me is that I don’t understand how Clive’s “not-a-cult” service works. Big “twist” at the end aside, if Lola is the client, how are her exes all magically appearing where she is instead of the other way around? And what, exactly, is the goal of their interactions again? Not just for Lola, but for other potential clients. I can’t tell if I just disagree with Clive or this was just poorly explained. Or, if it was poorly explained to Lola because it’s clear that she didn’t get it either.

I could see what Crosley was aiming for but the execution wasn’t there in my opinion. I would have enjoyed it more if there weren’t so many exes and Lola was able to spend more time with them. That would have made Lola’s half of the ending more palatable. As for the other half regarding Clive, it just seemed both rushed and unnecessary.

I know that other readers and reviewers are loving this book, and I think that many people will enjoy it. I just wasn’t one of them. It’s definitely a unique and thought-provoking read, so I still encourage people who are interested to read this book, and I will be interested to see what Crosley writes next.

Thank you netgalley for the audiobook to review but this book was so boring. Even in the end I was just bored and didn’t care about anyone. This is sad because I had so been looking forward to this novel but it just was not for me. Also, I had to speed up the book to 1.75x as the reading goes rather slowly.

—cult classic—

I loved this weird little book! Thanks to @netgalley & @macmillan.audio for giving me the opportunity to read this prior to its JUNE 7th release date! I have a feeling this one will be making its way around #bookstagram 👀

If you like Russian Doll on Netflix you’ll love this. It’s a completely different story but has the same vibes. It had everything I loved. Lots of psychology talk (in my previous life B4 children I had my BA in psych, Masters and License in Social Work. I even taught a psych class-so I loved this aspect of the book)

The characters were very human ie flawed. Our MC is Lola. She gets into this loop where she keeps running into ex boyfriends. So there is a number of other characters in this story. It was really fun to remeet her exs and hear her process the relationships.

For a semi “dark” story it’s actually quite lighthearted which adds to the layer of weirdness for me. Idk it’s a weird little story and I’m here for it. I can’t wait to see all the opinions on this one. I think it would be a great book club read for the discussion!

What would you do if given the opportunity to confront all of your exes once again to see if your past could potentially resolve your present? Lola is given a chance to become a part of a huge social experiment in which choosing a life package could possibly help resolve one's conflicts to begin on the road to healing.

Not everything is as simple as it seems once Lola has interactions with each ex; the memories come flooding back and remind her of how she came to be where she is when it comes to love. Simply put, love is complicated but love can also heal and the ability to do so freely is why Lola is a redeeming character. Her flaws are her biggest strength because of her ability to acknowledge she is not perfect and tries her best to move past them.

Clive is Lola's ex-boss and now the head of the Golconda "cult" and needs funding to secure this type of experience for others. He claims "it's not mind control, it's ethical persuasion, not coercive persuasion" when it comes to getting the exes close to the subject and how the experience is "a combination of subliminal messaging mixed with meditation". Everything they are doing has a purpose to provide their previous relationships the ultimate closure.

Either way, I really enjoyed the story and Sloane Crosley narrates the book as well, she has such a soothing voice, I found myself relaxing just listening to her, I wondered if I was being sent subliminal messages myself. Loved the emotional journey and intensity of Lola's thoughts as well. Crosley does not force the reader to try to side with Lola, she just lets Lola feel and think like any other imperfect human which I found very refreshing.

Make sure to get your copy on June 7th!
Huge thank you to the magnificent Sloane Crosley, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC!

#SloaneCrosley #CultClassic #NetGalley #MacmillanAudio

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and MacMillan Audio for an advance listener's copy of this book.

This really didn't work for me. I think the author is talented and does a great job narrating, but the story itself felt incredibly pointless. It reads like a dating memoir forced into an odd plot. I just really couldn't care less about the protagonist's exes. Maybe I'm too old for this book.

Thank you for granting me this arc. What an interesting read. Lola is a great choice for our guide throughout the book as we examine her past boyfriends and friendships. I love how we got a summary of how the relationship was and who or what eventually caused their relationship to end. At first, I thought that person developing this cult classic program for people to have some sense of closure regarding their past relationships was invasive but the more I think about I think we all might be curious. I didn't expect the ending but I did find it satisfying.

What a fun premise for a novel! So funny and bitingly astute. Meet Lola, a woman who has many (many) relationships in her past but is finally engaged to be married ito a wonderful man. One evening, she is having dinner w/ colleagues, her best friend and boss, when she steps out to buy cigarettes. She runs into an ex. Then it happens again. And again. Lola quickly finds out that these “meetings” have been orchestrated by her best friend and former boss to ostensibly help her make sure that her fiancé is “the one.” She then gives data on these meetings to what seems to be a new venture that her former boss, Clive, has started. But it all seems a bit like a cult to Lola….

*special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-arc.*

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Sloane Crosley for the advanced copy of Cult Classic in exchange for my honest review.

I had pretty high hopes for this one because the synopsis sounded super interesting, but it was ultimately just okay for me. I really did not like the main character (for reasons I'm not even sure I can articulate), and I didn't totally love where the plot ended up going.

The ending was clear cut, however, and I can always appreciate that. Also, I did enjoy having the author herself narrating the book. She did a great job.

Ultimately just a case of this one not being for me! I have no doubt it will do very well regardless.

Cult Classic will be on bookshelves June 7!

I did not like this book. The opening was so engaging, however it was just the first chapter. I kept reading hoping it would circle around to that initial idea again, but it never did. I was disappointed. Sloane Crosley did do a wonderful job narrating the audiobook.

Listened to the audiobook.
I received a free Advanced Reading Copy via NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.

Did I read the same book as everyone else????? This book was such a bore!! I had no idea what was going on and I thought all the characters were just ridiculous.

I really enjoyed this one! What a fun (yet at times painful) read. This was a really gripping and entertaining mix of philosophy and healing, with some humor and.... Sci Fi esque elements. Definitely going to recommend to people!

Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley was a highly anticipated book on my list. The cover evokes drama and the name Cult! Classic! really piques my interest. I have to say that I was pretty disappointed with this one. Overall, I felt like the description and the visuals didn't entirely match the execution.

We meet Lola, a 30 something living in New York, who is out to dinner with her friends when she goes out to buy a pack of cigarettes. On her way back she runs into one of her ex boyfriends which stirs up some surprising feelings for her. What follows are more chance encounters with people from her past that suddenly begin to feel connected. Being faced with her past makes her question her future and what she really wants for herself.

Overall, I didn't quite get the spark that a lot of readers have from this book - and that could be a me thing! I loved the narration by Sloane Crosley herself - her voice is a little raspy and it was pleasing to listen to.

Thank you to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Cult Classic will be out 6/7/22.

I just listened to the ARC of this book!
First off: Narration. Crosley did her own narration for this book. I found it to be clear and understandable. The different tones for characters were helpful for knowing who was speaking but did not pull me out of the listening experience.
Plot: We follow Lola as she runs into one ex after another. We get to experience the confusion of seeing men from her past over and over along with the slow understanding of what is making this happen. The touch of magical realism in this book is spot on. It makes it seem possible but also just enough out of reality to be interesting.
My feelings: I found this book to be a quick listen and it was mostly engaging to me. There were a few places, especially at the beginning that it dragged a bit. I know our main character is supposed to have some personality flaws but sometimes I found her unlikable to a point that I wasn't rooting for her. I thought the meditation on relationship dynamics was really interesting and it made me reflect on how I have participated in past relationships.
Overall: 3.5 to 4 stars. If I thought someone would like a magical realism book, I would recommend this.

More of a razor-sharp essay on modern romance than an engaging story, while one can't deny Sloane Crosley's penetrating observation on the subject matter, and her unique way with prose, if you were drawn to Cult Classic primarily for the surrealist elements in its synopsis, you might be slightly let down by the trivial nature of their existence.

In some ways, Cult Classic is not dissimilar to Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol: through a series of strange events, the female protagonists has the opportunity to reunite with all the men from her past failed relationships, and reconcile her emotion. Another association I can make is Woody Allen's film Midnight in Paris, where the fantastical premise (time travel) is not the focus of the story, but simply the 'excuse' to have a diverse range of personas philosophizing and challenging each other's world view.

Cult Classic perfectly captures the Manhattan-living, middle class millennial's state of mind, but it is also a very specific one; I can see many readers be potentially turned off by its detached aloofness, the dry sense of humor (I did chuckle at a few places), and countless references to Manhattan as a city (it really helps with immersion if you have knowledge of the city's neighborhoods). I find my attention span fluctuates pretty drastically; there are times when sentences just wash over without much impact, and others where I'm fully engaged by its inventive passages, and its deconstruction on heartbreak.

Cult Classic is a cautious recommendation; objectively accomplished, but for a very specific audience. I myself find its high-brow, intellectual breakdown on today's state of mind fascinating at times, but also slightly bored by the slow pacing, rambling train of thoughts, and ultimately absence of a real story arc in others. Excellent to be appreciated in small dosage and let it marinate, but look elsewhere if you want something explicitly exciting and bingeable.

This story was cute … but just cute. I went in blind and think I was expecting more of a cult story. Not a love story. I did enjoy the writing and going through her exe.

Unfortunately I really couldn't get into this book. It felt very pretentious and untrue to New York (as a native NYer) in many ways, although I understand where she was going with some of the things she did and wrote. This was too all over the place and had very little plot, with very unlikable characters.