In her formative early-adult years, Nicola Ranson was on a spiritual journey to better understand herself. She had no intention of joining a cult but that’s where she landed.

I’ve watched a handful of documentaries on the Rajneesh cult, as well as other cults. I usually feel the journey into joining a cult is not well discussed or understood. In sharing her personal story, Ranson sufficiently breaks down the bait and switch tactics used by cults.

Will you get all the nitty-gritty behind the scene details of Rajneeshpuram? No. This is one ex-member’s story. It largely focuses on how she found herself in a cult, despite an open and inquisitive mindset (and perhaps even because of it).

Now a social worker, and with years of time and reflection since, it is clear that Ranson is an intelligent woman with values held by many women. This vulnerable memoir is beautifully written. I suspect we’ll see more from her in the future.

A Slice of Orange is unsettling because Nicola Ranson does not write about Rajneeshpuram as if she should have known better from the beginning. She remembers the belonging, freedom, and idealism that drew her in, then shows how that world slowly became something she could no longer defend. That honesty makes the memoir much more interesting than a simple story about escaping a cult.

I have always been fascinated by cult memoirs because I want to understand why intelligent people stay, not just how they eventually leave. Ranson gives a real answer to that question. She followed Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh from India to Oregon, helped build Rajneeshpuram, and was on security duty when the FBI investigation exposed poisonings, wiretapping, and attempted murder within the movement. Reading about the largest domestic bioterrorism attack in modern U.S. history from someone who had believed in the community behind it is genuinely strange and disturbing.

Her later career as a trauma therapist also adds something valuable to the memoir. She can look back at coercion and persuasion with decades of distance while still remembering why the experience once felt joyful and meaningful. I appreciated that she allows both versions of her past to exist instead of rewriting the entire decade through the knowledge she has now.

My sincere thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free advance review copy.