It's Not a Cult

Glinda is a bit of a mess but she's a mess we can understand, she's a rape survivor and a recovering addict, she's grieving, she's trying her best but there's a lot of strain in her family relationships and she's being entirely blamed for it in a way that isn't entirely fair. Her only apparent ally appears to be her coworker/friend whom she isn't that nice to even though he is an adorable himbo seeming energy drink guzzling golden retriever energy having sweetie. She's a mess and she's ill equipped to but she has to extricate her mother and her home from the claws of a cult leader and mend relationships with her family.
It all sounds very bleak doesn't it? While there is sadness in this book the general tone isn't sad and it's really a thoroughly enjoyable and often funny read with compelling and if sometimes genuinely infuriating characters.
I found myself relating with Glinda a lot on how her intentions are almost always misinterpreted by her family, I don't know if it's because the author intended her to be read as neurodivergent (it's said that she had at least at some point a prescription for Adderall but ADHD people are more likely to forget to take their than to get addicted to it so I assume that if neurodivergence is implied it's not ADHD or there is a misunderstanding of the effect of Adderall on ADHD brains) or if it was just a side product of the strain addiction and grief can put on relationships but I liked that.
I received an eARC of this book from Alcove Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I just finished It's not a cult by Lauren Danhof and here are my thoughts!

Glinda Glass makes a mess of her life no matter what she does. After the death of her father things got worse. Her twin sister leaves her and is refusing to speak to her, she dropped out of school and now her mother is part of a cult.... The leader, Arlon, has his fingers so deep in her mother that they are now getting married.

She can't even find solace at work.... She is the wench who gets dunked into a tank... The only saving grace is Troy, her partner at the tank. Soon she learns her mother is allowing all of the followers to move into their home and her mother is acting weirder and weirder by the day. Soon a man comes to the house and dies under suspicious circumstances and the only person who may be able to do anything about it, is her estranged sister who doesn't believe a word she says. As Glinda faces her demons and races to save her mother she learns she has to trust someone but will that someone be lying to her as well?

I wasn't sure about this book when I first started reading. Glinda kinda set my teeth on edge and I am not a fan of unreliable narrators on the whole but I soon warmed up to her. The more I learned, the more I understood why she is the way she is. Grief does weird things to a person and Glinda didn't have it easy. I can see why her sister left her too. She definitely has issues.

The cult is insane!!! I couldn't believe the stuff that dude was getting up to. He wasn't even a very clever cult leader but I had to admit, he didn't need to be. He was getting it done.

Loved the characters' names and why they were named from the wizard of oz... too epic. I have to say I love the cult trope and this one wasn't just general fiction, it was funny as well. I loved that! Really made for an entertaining read. The whole book was told from Glinda's POV and I really enjoyed getting to know her. I also kinda loved her job. Working at a renaissance faire... How cool is that! She got to yell insults at people too. The author of this book rocked my entire world with this book. I can't praise it enough.

5 stars. Thank you @netgalley and @alcovepress for my gifted copy