ADVANCE PRAISE

“A staggering achievement, synthesizing rigorous reportage, incisive cultural analysis, and a deeply compassionate gaze into a propulsive and unforgettable narrative. Its gaze is both intimate and expansive: attuned to the texture of individual lives even as it surveys the broad, unsettling sweep of American freedom. With nuance and integrity, Harrison Hill takes a story many people would feel more comfortable banishing to the fringe and instead asks us to see the ways it illuminates all of America. All the way through, The Oracle’s Daughter is as gripping as it is humane; I picked it up and barely put it down until I’d finished. I'll carry this story with me always.”

–Leslie Jamison, New York Times–bestselling author of Splinters and The Empathy Exams

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"From the opening scene of a young woman’s midnight escape from a religious cult run by her mother — that’s right, mom’s the messianic leader — unfolds a decades-long saga that reveals an America of both darkness and light. Troubling, uplifting, heartbreaking, unforgettable — tapping into seminal issues of our increasingly divided nation — Harrison Hill has written a masterwork of narrative nonfiction. A must-read."

—Ron Suskind, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Hope in the Unseen and Life, Animated

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“With dogged research and rare access to victims and their stories, Harrison Hill has created a riveting portrait of one of the strangest American cults in recent memory. The Oracle’s Daughter takes the reader deep inside the female-led AMCTC, describing in harrowing detail the exorcisms and bizarre rituals while also laying bare the psychological and physical abuses inflicted by the cult’s autocratic leaders. With a cast of unforgettable characters—including courageous former cult members who broke free—the book offers compelling insights into the makings of religious cults and why their allure is increasing in our hyper-polarized, grievance-infused age.”

—Joby Warrick, author of Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction

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“Harrison Hill's The Oracle’s Daughter does far more than delineate in vivid detail the alarming story of the Aggressive Christianity Mission Training Corps, surely one of the most frightening cults in modern religious history. Hill also provides essential cultural context, focusing not only on what happened involving that quasi-military group but also on how and why such a group can emerge. Anyone trying to understand religious cults should consider The Oracle’s Daughter required reading—it's that comprehensive and excellently written besides.”

—Jeff Guinn, author of Manson, The Road to Jonestown and Waco

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“A propulsive reckoning with a mother, her daughter, and the extremism woven through the story of American religion. Beautifully told, un-put-downable, and urgently necessary, Hill offers a novelesque account of a cult that pushes beyond familiar narratives, asking us to consider just how far we truly are from the most radical edges of American life.”

–Heather Radke, author of Butts: A Backstory

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“The Oracle’s Daughter is both an intimate portrait of one insular group and a revealing exploration of the broader cult history woven through America. Harrison Hill has written a gripping and deeply-researched account of belief, belonging, and betrayal. If you've ever wondered how a person could fall prey to a high-control group, or what it takes to get out, this book is essential reading.”

–Rachel Monroe, author of Savage Appetites

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“A moving, true and complex family story that sheds light on individual struggles for freedom. Hill traces a line from American hippie culture offshoots, through 1990s and 2000s paranoia and outsider movements, to militant fanaticism within families and closed communities. Anyone seeking to understand how extremism and coercion can touch all of our lives would do well to read it. I couldn't put it down. Intimate and expansive, it is both disturbing and hopeful.

–Suzanne Joinson, author of The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things

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