I love this book so much!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is one of my favorite books of 2025 and a must read for everyone!!!!!

(Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for my copy!) I love a thriller that involves a cult! Lee was the sole survivor of a cult disappearance as a child, and has spent the rest of her life trying to hide and distance herself from her past. She’s now married with a newborn daughter, but her husband doesn’t have any idea about her childhood secrets. One day, someone claiming to be her sister shows up, and Lee can’t believe that she’s been right for so many years – that her family wasn’t dead, but just in hiding. Some things, though, really are too good to be true – is this one of them? There were some parts of this that were a little too unbelievable for me (you wouldn’t even try to make sure it’s really your sister???), but overall, it was a fun ride!

Not at all what I was expecting based on the summary. Turns into a domestic thriller, and didn't give me the weird-cultish experience I was hoping for.

3.5 stars rounded up. This was a fun but mixed bag of a thriller for me. It held my attention and kept me guessing throughout. I was never really sure what was going on or which characters to trust - in a mostly good way. The ending was disappointingly predictable though. I was expecting a more exciting twist, but the journey was entertaining.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

Gahhhh, I wanted to love this one - I am a sucker for all cult stories, basically! - but this one was just middle of the line. It's dual timeline, which isn't my favorite. 3 stars.

This was a really entertaining read! The main character did annoy me like crazy sometimes because she was just so dumb.. like girl please don't be so gullible. But overall I was intrigued and eager to pick the book back up and keep reading.

An enjoyable read with interesting characters & storyline. I will be looking for more from this author! Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC.

I was looking forward to this cult based story as it is written by an author in my hometown and the book got a lot of hype. It is about a cult in flashbacks but it is primarily a standard domestic thriller with a helpless wife and an awful husband. Ophelia woke up at twelve years old in the old house that served as her family home which was in fact a cult. No one was in the house when she awoke and she was scared and left the compound to seek help. She was found by a police officer and brought to live with her aunt but never found out what happened to her her mother and little sister.

As an adult, Ophelia is now Lee and lives with her husband and baby girl Lucy. Lee is having trouble with postpartum anxiety and is also having flashbacks to her life in the cult. There is a lot of anxious inner monologue and it becomes repetitive after awhile. Her judgmental husband doesn't know anything about her past and is constantly pushing her to go back to work and to spend some time away from the baby for her own health. The story picks up when a young woman shows up at her door saying she is Lee's sister Mona, who Lee last saw as a six year old child. Lee wants to invite the woman to stay with them but her husband is against the idea and throws a lot of questions at the idea this woman isn't who she claims. There is gaslighting, mental illness and at one point Lee is placed on an involuntary hold at a mental hospital. I find myself not really responding to stories about women who are often confused and make bad decisions while someone in their life is gaslighting them. I also thought the ending wasn't really clear as to what happened in the cult and I would have liked more information on that as the aspect. I read this quickly and the writing is good but I felt this particular domestic trope is done a bit too often. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for review.

This was highly anticipated and I was so thankful to get to read an advanced copy. The tension and intricacies of the cult/commune and the pace of the writing kept me hooked and made this such a fast read.

I'll be honest, at first the cover turned me off, but I'm so glad I was still tempted to read it because it was about a cult. Holy cow, what a page turner! Thrilling to the end!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC for an honest review.

I enjoy things about cults (enjoy maybe not the right word but still) but I don't really like books about families. So I was torn. Overall it was fine but I think the family stuff outweighed the cult stuff.

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope There is more to come from this author! I am totally hooked!

really enjoyed this book and the journey of the main character and all that they went through. It kept me on my toes and what would happen in the story.

The Ascent by Allison Buccola is a thoughtful, slow-burn thriller that rewards patience with depth. Centered on a woman who survived a childhood cult only to have her past resurface when someone claiming to be her sister shows up, it’s less about cheap thrills and more about unraveling layered mysteries and buried trauma. Perfect for readers who like their suspense with substance—and don’t mind lingering in the shadows before the big reveals.

Fifteen members of a cult completely disappear one day and are never seen again. Lee, only a child at the time, was left behind for unknown reasons. The Ascent examines the aftermath of Lee's experience of being abandoned and how it shapes her own motherhood. This was a slower burn, but Allison Buccola's writing style is so addictive that I couldn't stop reading. I loved that The Ascent was less about the actual cult and its leader and more about the followers in the cult. The characters were so complex and I found myself relating to Lee as a mother and questioning whether or not I would make similar decisions. Buccola really knows how to create tension! The feeling of foreboding was so strong and the reveals and twists were shocking.

The Ascent was a wild ride. Also recommend the audio. It was an interesting story and kept me guessing about possible twists.

This book is a masterclass in how to end a thriller! An absolutely gripping read from beginning to end that’ll have you second guessing everyone and everything. With a jaw-dropping twist ending that will tug at your heartstrings and sit in your memory for weeks after. Buccola has cemented herself as an auto-buy author for me after this one.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. 5 glowing stars! SO gripping and suspenseful, I could not put it down - highly recommend!

Two decades ago, the mysterious Jacob Hill cult and their leader Christopher disappeared without a trace, leaving behind all of their belongings… and a single member – a 12-year-old girl found wandering in the woods looking for her family. Ophelia (known as Lee) is now an adult, married to a wonderful husband (who does not know about her past) with a 7-month-old daughter Lucy, whom she feels incredibly protective of because of her own dark childhood. Lee does not remember much of what happened or why her cult family chose to leave her behind. When a stranger shows up on her doorstep claiming to hold answers to the dark mysteries of her past, she must decide who to trust and how much to risk. The book alternates between flashbacks of childhood and present day, exploring themes of family, marriage, motherhood, identity, brainwashing, and childhood trauma, to slowly unfold the mystery of what happened.

I LOVE stories about cults and communes, I find them fascinating, so this read was right up my alley. It felt so realistic, almost like I was reading nonfiction of an actual cult and the true story of its lone survivor. This book is an intense fast-paced psychological thriller, attempting to solve mysteries of the past and mysteries of the present simultaneously. I was absolutely hooked from the very beginning and flew through this one just so I could find out what was actually happening. Lee is a relatable character, but also an unreliable narrator. This leaves you rooting for her to find answers but also leaves you continuously wondering if she is being completely honest about how much she actually remembers. There were so many insane twists and the story just kept getting crazier. The twist at the end is absolutely jaw-dropping and the outcome is perfectly poetic in my opinion. I truly could not recommend this book more highly and I will definitely be seeking out other works from this author in the future! Thank you to NetGalley, Allison Buccola, and Random House Publishing Group for the gifted ARC. This is a voluntary and honest review.

*Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

I freaking love a cult book. But it took me awhile to really get into the story. I don't know if it was because of the slow burn gaslighty elements or just because I was more interested in the cult story than the modern storyline. But past 80%, I was in it to win it and there were some twists that I truly didn't see coming. The ending though?? WTF!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC of The Ascent by Alison Buccola. This one was a ride! It pulls you in with an eerie kind of tension that slowly builds until you’re questioning everything and everyone. I wasn’t sure where things were heading, and that unpredictability really worked for me. It had a layered, almost haunting vibe that kept me flipping pages, and I love when a story can keep me in that kind of suspenseful headspace. Definitely glad I was able to get my hands on this one!