Nerve-wracking story of the lives of cult members. The story kept me captivated, although sometimes it felt like believability was being stretched to move the plot along more quickly. Overall, an entertaining read.

I love a good cult story! This one was especially fun because it was a past life that is catching back up with our FMC. This was a little bit dragged out for me through the beginning, but I think it was intentional to understand where Rebecca is in her current life and her past. However, it definitely starts to pick up and keeps the pages turning! This was really fun and the ending was wild!

Love a good cult book. I don’t know why I love the unraveling of these master manipulators so much. I’m just fascinated with the control these people have over others. Like how?! I’m always rooting for our protagonists. This was an entertaining read for my. Fast pace. Great narration. Would recommend. Thank you NetGalley!

If you like stories centered around cults, you’ll want to read this book! I could not stop listening to this audiobook. It had everything I wanted from perfect pacing to complex characters.
The authors did a really good job at showing the way cult leaders market themselves as life coaches or spiritual healers to target and draw in people who may be more susceptible to their tactics. They also did a decent job exploring the conflicting thoughts and emotions that victims of these systems experience.
But the real star of the show here is the story between Becs, the seemingly perfect housewife, and Danny, the unexpected visitor who causes reality to come crashing down around them.
Without giving too much away, I thought the progression of the women’s stories was true to what their experiences had been and I was pretty satisfied with the ending.

I also really enjoyed the narrator, Julia Atwood, for this book. Her voice matched perfectly with the characters and kept me easily invested in the story.

*Huge thanks to Miles Joris-Peyrafitte & Sara Sheperd, Blackstone Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced audiobook of this novel in exchange for honest review.*

I was excited to read this book about Rebecca, who has broken free from a cult and now has a family, being faced with potentially being pulled back in when her friend Danny shows up on her door step unannounced one day. However I was quickly disappointed. If this hadn't been an ARC that I committed to finishing I would have DNF it early on as I found it boring. I had no emotional connection to the characters at all, they were very one dimensional. I didn't especially care what happened to them one way or the other. I felt like the whole story was just being told to me rather than feeling immersed in it. It took so long to unpack the back story of Rebecca and Danny and what led each of them to join the cult, stay etc. And none of it was very surprising or special. It was also very hard to believe that Rebecca was able to convince Danny to leave the cult after being around each other for just a few hours. Every conflict just got magically resolved so easily and then it was all tied up in a nice bow at the end. This review will be posted to my Goodreads.

Holy shit. This book was a JOURNEY. A. Journey. There was never a point in time where I knew what was going to happen next and never a point in time where I wasn’t completely enthralled by the story. This was an amazing book. If you like twisty books that make you question basically every character you meet, this is the one for you.

Thank you, Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the free audiobook of Gaslight by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte and Sara Shepard.
This was an enjoyable read. 3.5 stars from me. It wasn’t the best book I have ever read but it kept me engaged and I appreciate that. Rebecca (aka Bex) was a bit insufferable, and I wish Dani had a bit more involvement in the actual bludgeoning scene. I would have also liked some better closure on Toby and Sophia.
I do wish there had also been a little more suspense in the story. It was a bit predictable, but entertaining overall.

I enjoy books with the subject surrounding cults. Fiction and non-fiction.
I couldn't get invested into this storyline. Like more than half of the reviews say, this is just a blueprint of the actual cult NXIVM.
From the branding, the type of leader as well as the members. I don't really have anything to offer in this review because it is not an original story.

Thank you to @netgalley and @blackstonepublishing for this advanced audiobook in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I was engrossed in Gaslight's story all the way through. The present day portion of the novel takes place over the course of just one day, when two women from a cult, one who left long ago, and one still a member, come face to face after years. This edge-of-your-seat ride is interspersed with flashback chapters, following them as younger girls first becoming involved with the cult.

The alternating between past and present is done incredibly well, never feeling like it is taking away from the action currently going on, but expanding on the characters and history in a thoughtful way.

As someone with ties to religion as a child, and have been impacted ans traumatized by it, I found this to be a compelling look at what ideals and faith can do to a person when coming from someone looking to exploit you for their own purpose.

The narration was fantastic.

I love a good book about a cult and this one is a doozy. Told in a fantastic dual perspective both in the past and present, this book really shows how a cult can gaslight you into thinking, and doing, terrible things. It’s infuriating, thrilling, even darkly funny at times, but very disturbing while keeping its humanity at the core. Highly recommend

I was foaming at the mouth for so much of this. Like oh my god. DELULU IS NOT THE SOLULU in this books case. I honestly didn’t, but also did, see the twist that happened.

I was recommending this book to people when I hadn’t even finished it yet because I was like I need people to discuss it with me. I need our thoughts to be spoken about in regards to it, and I got about 3 others to join me on the journey that is “Gaslight”.

This book delivers a tense and intricately woven story of secrets, manipulation, and the fragility of human connections. From the outset, Rebecca's life is painted as idyllic but is masking a turbulent past. When Danny, Rebecca's old friend, reappears, the story explodes. The tension is palpable from Danny's first arrival. The narrative deftly balances the uncertainty of her motives with the emotional unraveling of Rebecca, who is forced to confront her past. The ISB cult is not only a manipulative entity but also a representation of the ways individuals can become lost in the promises of salvation.

The character development is exceptional. Rebecca is torn between the lies she's told to maintain her new life and the unraveling trust in herself and those around her. Danny is equally compelling, walking the line between victim and potential threat. Emotionally, the book is harrowing. It doesn't shy away from the pain of fractured relationships or the vulnerability of people searching for connections. The themes of control, trust, and self-deception explore the lengths people will go to protect what we love and how much of ourselves they are willing to sacrifice. Be warned that this book is an emotional rollercoaster.

The audio version created unforgettable characters and breathed life into a painful, raw, and beautifully written story. The narrator captured the tension-filled narratives and the desperation.

I received an ARC audiobook for my honest review. Thank you, NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing.

This was a fantastic read! This book follows a number of individuals all involved in the same cult from a very young age. If you have ever been interested in cults, this book definitely will satisfy your curiosity. The behavior of the leader is exactly what you would expect as is the behavior of his loyal followers. Each one looking for a place to fit in. And wants to do whatever is needed for the “family”. I highly recommend this audiobook. The narration was perfect.

Couldn’t stop listening to this book! This was such an easy and interesting listen; I was hooked from the start.
The plot definitely kept me on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what happened, loved all the different points of view. This story also felt so realistic, especially the brainwashing and gaslighting Ben was doing to the ISB members (creeped me out a bit).

I loved Julia Atwood’s voice, anytime I will see her as a narrator in a book I will instantly buy it! Such an amazing voice.

This book gave me some stress. It was one of those books where people were making bad decisions, and you wanted them to stop, but they kept ignoring the red flags.

WOW!!! This book is BONKERS!

Rebecca is a wife and mother, living a simple life. However, something feels off and her husband (a former addict) who once bared all of his demons with her, couldn't figure out why she couldn't reveal any of her skeletons with him. Why? That is until, a mysterious visitor, Dani, rings their doorbell, looking emaciated and refers to his wife as Becks.

Who is this woman? Why does she refer to his wife as her former best friend when Rebecca's husband had never heard of her? He didn't know of any past life before, as she never discussed it. What is going on?!

When the two of them leave the house together, her husband starts digging and he soon finds something that is the scariest thing to believe of this woman he calls his wife. What is it?
Read this book!! The title and subsequent text/written words in here are so fascinating and have been the subject of scrutiny for decades, but also felt so relevant to today and our current culture.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review. I would gladly read another novel from this author!

Rebecca is living a peaceful life in Nevada with her husband, Tom, and their two young children. Her cult-related past is in the past, until her old fellow member, Danny, shows up on the doorstep one morning. Rebecca tries her hardest to figure out what Danny wants, but all Rebecca seems to find are layers upon layers of deception.

Not all books featuring cult as the main plot worked for me. In fact, they mostly didn’t. But this one did! I think it was because it played more with the action thriller elements rather than the cult aspect itself, even though the ‘past’ chapters did get into the usual cult recruitment process quite a bit.

The audio drama was fantastic. I really enjoyed the narration, and it delivered the suspense well. The start of the book was more of a psychological/domestic drama, but it crescendoed into action-packed thriller, and I really had fun. Would recommend to everyone!

Thank you to Netgalley, authors, and publishers for giving me an audio arc.

I literally could not put this book down. It had me hooked from the prologue. I remember watching a documentary years ago based on the NXIVM cult, and I'm pretty sure that's what this books is based off of. I am really loving this era of stories from the women's (victim's) perspective. Like Bright Young Women which is also a favorite of mine.

This story follows Becca and Dani - two best friends from high school who joined a cult when they were young. It's a story of them reconnecting under suspicious circumstances and weaves us through a roller coaster of past and present, understanding and brainwashing... I just loved this so much.

Also, the narrator was immaculate. Excellent choice. And despite not having the physical copy, I am obsessed with the cover art!

Highly recommend!

Gaslight
Miles Joris-Peyrafitte & Sara Shepard

4.25 / 5

This novel reminds me of the incredible movie 'martha marcy may marlene'. The tension is palpable.

I started the audio version of this novel after dinner, and couldn't go to sleep until it was completed. It was a late night.

Great writing. Feels extremely claustrophobic and anxiety inducing. I was hooked from the start.
As we learn more through the flashbacks, it all felt so perfectly paced. It kept me intrigued and thoroughly engaged.

If you're looking for a tense thriller/ character study, check this one out.

Rebecca is living with her husband Tom and two young sons in Nevada when one day, an unexpected guest shows up at their home. It’s Danny - an old friend from Rebecca’s life before children and marriage. The life she has tried so desperately to forget. The life she lived as an influential member of a cult. With Danny’s reappearance in her life, she knows she has the chance to try to make things right, get Danny to safety, and try to put an end to the nightmare for once and all.

I definitely enjoyed this audiobook. I would classify it as suspense, and it definitely kept me on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what happened. There are multiple points of view and everyone is somewhat unreliable, which always makes for an interesting story. The ending was slightly ambiguous when it came to Danny, which I liked. Thank you so much to @blackstoneaudio for my #gifted copy - I absolutely recommend this one.