*Advance copy provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.*

A book titled "Gaslight" has a fairly self-explanatory plot. I did feel engaged in the story and it was a thrilling listen, but it also felt like a list of examples of different gaslighting techniques. I think it was because it was a bit "too easy" if you know what I mean? The leader is so obviously evil and has no redeeming qualities, and the women who manages to get out are painted as heroes. What makes it most frustrating is that it's obvious the author has tried to make it nuanced, but it has for me the opposite effect. I've read some other books about cults that I feel deals with this a bit better.

This was a fun, suspenseful, quick listen. I love anything about cults and this one had all the good good bad stuff that I crave. And the TITLE? Perfect.

Two women who used to be best friends - both were trapped in a cult, one escaped and the other went all in...

When Dani shows up at Rebecca's door one rainy Saturday, the past resurfaces for both of them. All Rebecca knows is that she doesn't like it and she has no idea what Dani's motives are. Is she on the run or is she there on assignment. Rebecca's first priority is protecting her family and herself from both her past and the threat of what letting Dani in might mean for her future.

This book was an excellent glimpse into how cults 'gaslight' their members and manipulate them to serve their agenda. The story grabbed me right from the start. It was full of mystery and suspense. I loved the multiple POV from the different (very messy) characters and the complicated dynamics between friends and family.

Overall, this was an engaging read that kept me wanting to find out how it would all turn out. The audio narration was excellent too. If you're looking for a dark mystery/thriller - this book is for you!

I didn’t find this book to be perfect, but I was highly invested in the story. It does have darker points to it, so if you’re sensitive to violence and the darker side of a cult I would proceed with caution. I thought it did an excellent job of portraying the tactics that cults can use, how they snowball, and how insidious their leaders can be.

First a moment for this cover - isn’t it fabulous?
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This one is full of culty drama and mystery. Rebecca’s parents were part of ISB and as a teen she naturally followed. She brought in her friend Danny. As Rebecca gets a little older she starts to realize Ben, the cult leader, isn’t the god she believed. She gets out. Now she’s married with kids and a husband who knows nothing about her ISB days. Until a pregnant Danny shows up at her door. Will this blow her world apart?

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing for an ALC and physical copy.

Gaslight by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte and Sara Shepard

Fleeing a cult pregnant isn’t easy, staying under the radar so they don’t find you… The constant fear but when her best friend turns up at her door one day, pregnant and starving, Rebecca knows she can’t turn her away but why she is there now, she knows it could be much more sinister than she is letting on.

This one was great. The writing was really good and I loved all the cult stuff. Massively creeped me out and the psychological mind F-ing that Ben was doling out to his followers made me cringe. Those poor people. Rebecca’s husband irritated me a lot in the book and sometimes Rebecca wasn’t written as well as I would hope but all in all, this was a cracking novel and the pace was perfect. I listened to the whole thing in one sitting.

4 stars

This book is a story of lives before, during, and after being sucked into a dangerous cult. I have been interested in cults for many years, which made me excited to read the novel, but I think having a good foundation on cults may have been a hindrance for this book.

Many fiction books take from real life, there are several aspects that can tie back to real cults, which is great. That can help make the story more realistic. However, the cult leader was essentially a carbon copy of Keith Raniere from NXIVM. I don't want to spoil plot points to go into details, but his personality and behavior is completely spot on. The cult was local to me.

While I felt like having the leader be too much like a real person would take me out of the story, I did enjoy reading the book. The story was engaging and made me want to keep going until the end to see how everything resolved.

I'd like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing the advanced copy.

This book was very interesting. I found myself drawn in the beginning, but then I did start to lose interest in the middle, but then it picked back up in the end. Overall, I did like the book. However, I absolutely loved the narrator. She kept my interest the entire time and I’m glad that I chose to read this on audiobook.

Gaslight (Hardcover)
by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte
A dark look at the power of charismatic people. A set of young girls are gaslighted into a cult. They are drawn in through family and friends to the influential sphere of a very charismatic man. The poem in the book showing acrostic poetry highlights the nature of gaslighting. His manipulation and lies cause people not only to loose their money, loose their family, but even loose their lives. The book shows the nature of these guru predators and how they mold women, and influence men to do many socially morally bad things.

I wasn’t able to finish this before the publishing date which sucks because I was so excited to read this.

Rebecca thought she could escape her past but when your past includes a cult that controls women and much worse, escaping is not that simple. But she does for a while, meeting tom a good guy who knows nothing about her past. Until her past shows up at her door, pregnant and running from the same man Rebecca once ran from pregnant also, Ben. A man that is more a monster than a man and who believes his children are his property and his alone. And more can Rebecca really trust Danny when she abandoned her years ago in that monsters arms?

This was a amazing audible and novel in general!! I was hooked to my seat at every chapter. Lost in the mind of a madman and some of the women who were manipulated and controlled by him. Also I loved Tom and I loved his POV's as a outsider to this cult experience. Every POV given was perfectly added and made the story so realistic and heartbreaking. I was rooting for these girls the whole listen.

Murder, Cults, Finding yourself, and fighting for your own freedom! Thank you Netgalley. One of my favorite listens and novels this year. Miles Joris-Peyrafittle and Sara Sheperd thank you!

Gaslight is the book that i didn't know i needed, but now i can't stop thinking about. imagine if every cult documentary on Netflix, Hulu, and HBO decided to have a baby with The Handmaid's Tale, and then sprinkle in a little Gone Girl spice for good measure. that's Gaslight.

Rebecca’s life is perfectly stable in nevada—husband, kids, all the suburban dream vibes—until her old friend Danny shows up and decides to wreck her peace. Danny’s connection to ISB, this wild cult led by a too-charismatic leader, means nothing good for Rebecca, especially since Danny’s arrival threatens to reveal the secrets rebecca's been hiding from her husband, Tom. and honestly, Danny keeps you guessing. is she trying to escape, or is she here to drag Rebecca back into the mess she ran from?

the tension is nonstop. between Rebecca losing her grip on what’s real and all the twists involving Danny, it’s a rollercoaster of manipulation, secrets, and drama. it’s dark, it's twisty, and every chapter just adds another layer to the craziness. i need a movie adaptation, stat. this story begs to be on the big screen.

if cults, messed-up friendships, and unraveling secrets are your thing, Gaslight is one you don’t want to miss.

thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Audio for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
I have to say I didn’t love this audiobook. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t much different than other books out there on cults and escaping one.

*4.5 Stars On My Instagram Account*

"They find you when you are weak."

Whew! If, like me, you are obsessed with cult documentaries, movies and books, or you love a nail biting escalating tension filled thriller, then Gaslight by the incomparable writing duo of Miles Joris Peyrafitte and Sara Shepard is a must experience.

Rebecca "Bex" has a happy suburban life with her loyal hubby and two young sons. Then a knock on the door begins a trip of nightmare memories and truths that were better left untold.

On the other side of the door is Bex's best friend Danny who she hasn't seen in years since she ran away from the ISB cult. She always meant to come back for Danny but the lies her new life is built on made it feel impossible.

Danny says she needs help and Bex wants to believe her but all the fears, the dangers from the cult leader Ben, leave her with one goal. Get Danny away from her family, especially her oldest son. The one she was pregnant with when she escaped Ben.

Voice actress Julia Atwood has just the right inflections of young Bex and Danny looking to be loved and prime for the gaslighting perfected by Ben.

The authors got it perfect on how these con people get into people's heads:
G is gradual distortion of truth
A is avoiding responsibility and shifting blame
S is sowing doubt
L is lying and manipulating the truth
I is invalidating what you feel and experienced
G is getting you to question your logic and thinking
H is hiding true intentions and maybe more
T is twisting reality to suit the narrative

Sounds a lot like politics. This thriller shows that cults fulfill a need to belong, to be loved, a cry for help. Gaslight is a fun thriller but an even scarier look at those who take advantage of our weaker moments.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from Blackstone Publishing Audiobooks via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you so much netgalley and Blackstone Publishing Audio for the audiobook.

The narrator did an amazing job telling this story.
I love a good cult story and this brought just that. It shows how the leader brainwashes and manipulates the members into doing everything he wants.
Rebecca escaped the cult and is living a normal life being married and having children. Until a person from her past shows up at her doorstep and her life gets turned upside down.

**3.5 stars**

This was a pretty straightforward novel about a cult, specifically what happens when an escaped member and a current member who have a lot of history with each other reunite under suspicious circumstances.

I feel like because I have read a decent amount of Shepherd’s other books, I was expecting a little bit more wow at the end which I did not get. The story DOES have a climax, it’s just not as twisty as Shepherd’s other works, and that’s okay (plus it was also written by Joris-Peyrafitte, so it makes sense that this book would be a little different). I really enjoyed this still! The less crazy ending just made it seem more realistic, which I throughly appreciated.

If you want a fast-moving and well written cult novel that is still decently realistic, I would 100% recommend!

For the most part I really enjoyed this--the story was compelling and hard to put down. At the same time, it was predictable. Another reviewer called this a "basic cult story" and I was like "how is that possible?" but it totally was. At times I definitely spotted inspiration from the Twin Flames documentary. It's like the authors watched every cult documentary and listened to every cult podcast and then whipped this up.

Some things felt very "super easy, barely an inconvenience" to the point where it wasn't believable. Both Rebecca and Danny changed their minds so quickly that it didn't seem realistic. Ben was almost cartoonishly evil with almost no nuance or evidence of the charm that made people fall into his cult. Similarly, Rebecca and Danny don't have much depth to them. One is former cult girlie with parents who don't care about her and one is still in cult girlie with a mom who loves her but she grew up poor.

I'm glad Roscoe was saved, of course, but damn he was an annoying kid LOL.

Entertaining and enjoyable, just not the most gripping, surprising, deepest, or realistic piece of fiction I've ever read.

Every once in a while, I love losing a weekend to a thriller, and Gaslight was the perfect fall weekend read. With perfect pacing, escalating tension, and plot twists that kept me on edge, the audiobook of Gaslight was just what I needed. This book has it all: a cult, a commune, misogyny, family and friendship drama, and strong, courageous characters.

Many, many thanks to Blackstone audio and NetGalley for a free copy for review!

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for an audio copy of this book.

Maybe it's just me and my fascination with anything cult-like, but I really enjoyed this book. At one point, I really didn't know which way things were going to go and it's scary to think that this happens SO much and so many don't even know it.
I really enjoyed this read, the narration was very well done as well.

Gaslight was a very interesting cult thriller. I enjoyed how the story was told through dual timelines, with Rebecca reconnecting with Danny present-day as well as flashbacks to their childhoods and how they came to be involved in the cult. It's an engaging one!