Veena Dinavahi recounts her slow descent into the True Happiness cult with heartbreaking clarity. After multiple suicide attempts, her desperate family turns to Bob, the founder of The True Happiness Company. As a last-ditch effort, they pay for a two-day visit with him in his home. What follows is a years-long nightmare of mental, emotional, and sexual abuse, along with relentless brainwashing and intimidation.

While Veena’s husband, Charlie, is also a victim of this manipulation, I struggled to feel sympathy for him. His treatment of Veena was infuriating and deeply upsetting.

Veena’s story is a reminder of how our mental health system fails people. Throughout her life, she just wanted to be heard, but time and time again, she was ignored and dismissed by nurses, doctors, psychologists, and psychiatrists. Her pain was minimized, and her cries for help went unanswered.

“Everyone wants to live. Some of us just don’t know how.” – Veena Dinavahi

When Veena began to find her voice and speak her truth, I felt such joy. Knowing she is now thriving and using her story to help others is inspiring.

One moment that stayed with me was when she recalled attending her cousin’s Hindu wedding in India. The celebration spanned a week, filled with daily ceremonies, and during one she asked, “Are they married now? Is it official yet?” She was told there wasn’t one specific moment like in American weddings. I found that so beautiful and meaningful.

Thank you, Veena, for sharing your story. And thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

How could you not be tempted by a book whose subtitle is “How a girl like me falls for a cult like that”?

This is Veena Dinavahi’s memoir. We meet her as a deeply depressed teenager in a well-off town that hasa long history of teen suicide. Her parents in a desperate attempt to save her life take Veena to a counselor in Georgia who becomes deeply entertwined in her life, influencing her education, her relationships, her decision to have children, and her religion. There are times you want to reach through the pages and shake her a little bit to help her see how harmful this man is, but it isn’t until many years in that Veena is able to recognize that she needs to free herself. She shares how difficult extricating herself from this is, and how challenging it is to trust yourself again after being taught that you couldn’t.

The conclusion is very conclusion-y- lots of life lessons wrapped up in the author’s well earned psychology degree, and I understand the desire to tie things up neatly, but I think this is where the book loses me a little- it feels a little more text booky and a little less like a memoir.

If you’re expecting a fundamental LDS cult with long dressses and poofy braids, you won’t find it in this book, but it is a reminder that cults can and do exist among us.

Many thanks to @netgalley for this ARC!

Wowwww.. this is a book that is going to stick with me for quite sometime. Veena's story of not only her experience in the cult is also such an important examination of the intersectionality of mental health and the flaws in our systems that care for people.

This was an incredible read. Memoirs are one of my favorite genres, and this book reminded me why.

Dinavahi does a great job guiding the reader through her mental state over a nearly decade-long period of her life. She makes readers truly understand her hopelessness and desperation, and how that made her vulnerable to external manipulation. It was also fascinating to read about this cult, and terrifying to see it through her eyes and understand how it is possible for such a dangerous, abhorrent organization to present itself as a one that cares about the people it is actually destroying.

This book is not only offers a great portrait into depression how it can change someone, but is also just a joy to read. Dinavahi is a brilliant writer — she is witty and reflective, but also speaks about some of her most difficult moments with grace and care.

This is a harrowing story of how a person tries to help someone and that "help" ends up taking over that person's life.

I thought that cult was a bit too strong of a word in the beginning, because it didn't seem like it there was that many people involved. I did wonder how Bob got to be so influential....there was no follow up at the end of the book about what happened to the cult.

When the author gets pregnant and decides to keep the baby...I was screaming inside my head...NO! STOP! DON"T DO IT!

When the author had to call bob every day, I again shook my head, NO! DON"T DO IT!

I really loved the self reflection the author did at the end of the book, it helped to explain what was happening and why it happened.

Overall, I thought this was an eye opening book. Being in a cult, usually doesn't happen overnight. Its gradual, its subtle, you don't realize that its happening till its too late.

This book should be read by ANYONE interested in cults and people who are worried that they may be in a cult.

This is one of the darkest memoirs I have ever read, if not the darkest. I definitely plan to read this, but need to pick it back up at a later time because this one is truly that dark.

With that being said, I can tell this will likely end up being one of my favorite books of all time. It's written really well, is captivating and there is a bit of dark humor thrown in. Even though I know I shouldn't read it right now, I really want to. I think having conversations around cults is also important. There are a lot of really important messages and bits of information to be told from this book, and it truly deserves to shine, it just definitely needs to be read when a reader is prepared for what's ahead.

I feel odd rating a memoir, so it gets 5 stars.

Content warnings: very detailed attempts of $ewuicide

Thank you for allowing me to read this in advance of its publication! This is my honest opinion I am leaving voluntarily.

This memoir is truly exceptional and an impressive debut.

I have nothing but positive praise. It is such an emotional, raw, and vulnerable opening to Veena's life and all that she has dealt with in regards to her mental health. I've seen tv shows about cults, I've read books about how people fall into cults, but never have I read such an emotional piece like this. Yes, it's about cults but it is so much more than that and really goes into detail what lead Veena to this cult starting at age 19. I was finding myself so happy when Veena experienced joys, and I was shaking my head and had my eyes filled with tears during some of the most gut wrenching moments of this book. It is extremely heavy at times. What a life this woman has lived and I feel so special for having the honor to read it (and so early too!)

The writing is very conversational and approachable and the pacing is fantastic. Also we need a special shoutout to the cover designer because it's gorgeous.

I can't wait for this book to be officially released because I can't wait to read what others think of it!

Thank you NetGalley, Veena Dinavahi, and Penguin Random House for the advanced copy!

What a fascinating book. I loved the way it was written - drawing us in the way Veena was drawn into the cult starting at age nineteen. What an eye opening book and a great conversation starter. It was easy to read, drawing me in with a conversational tone. I was invested in Veena's life, struggling with her when she was struggling, finding joy when she found joy. I loved how she opened her heart to the reader so we could walk the journey (and her healing) with her.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book through netgalley. I did not have to write a review; all opinions are my own.

If you’re a fan of books like “Cultish” by Amanda Montell, you’re going to devour this one.
This is single-handedly the best description of what it’s like and what forces are at play when being sucked into a cult and how insidious cult leaders are when playing psychological tricks.
This book honestly had be thinking, “yup that would have been me too” as I was reading it. I appreciated that Dinavahi purposefully allowed for confusion and emotion and intellect all to battle on the same plane - because this is truly what would be happening.

Definitely read this book - so well written

This might be my new favorite memoir? I've been speechless for a while now after finishing it.

The hook here will inevitably (IMO, unfortunately) be The True Happiness Company's cult status. There is no question the cult plays a huge roll here, but the underlying story was even more beautiful. But anyone here because they <i>only</i> want "the cult stuff", you'll be fine. It doesn't <i>feel</i> like you're invested until you're in too deep to put this down. How odd, as finding yourself a member of The True Happiness Company seems to happen the same way.

I'm torn between going more in depth in this review... or leaving it fairly vague until everyone has a chance to read it themselves so the amazement is firsthand. For now, I'm sticking with vague... But I have a strong feeling I'll be back and adding more to this soon...

{Thank you bunches to NetGalley, Veena Dinavahi and Random House for the DRC in exchange for my honest review!}