Son of a Cult: A Longitudinal Study

Son of a Cult mesmerizes me! Allen Jones writes vividly and viscerally about childhood experiences and about life as an adult exile from the cult in which he had hundreds of aunts and uncles. These poems tell their stories without sensationalizing even the most intense events. I believe in this book.

-Katie Manning, author of Hereverent



Son of a Cult is a beautifully narrated memoir-in-verse that manages to be both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. Told with unflinching honesty, childlike innocence, and with a deep desire to heal unconscionable wounds, Jones' story glows with resilience, determination, and youthful nostalgia. He takes us places few will ever experience, or even fathom, in a deeply human, sympathetic, yet never sentimental poetic journey that inspires and haunts beyond the page.

-John Sibley Williams, author of Scale Model of a Country at Dawn



Son of a Cult is an astonishing debut, a lyrical look at the poet's unconventional childhood in California in the 1970's. While these poems are rooted in a particular time and place, they invite us to gaze back to the misty land of childhood and remind us that "life is a dark antlered beast/dashing from our blind spot."

-Lisa Chavez, author of In an Angry Season



Exploring a past filled with pain and promise, boyhood lust and death, confusion, clarity, and every single type of human love, Son of a Cult is a hymn to the author's beloved state and the secret darkness and joy of a close family that remains close despite many challenges. The book leaves one breathless, filled with a warm sadness, and an unrequited nostalgia, if there is such a thing.

-Alejandro Escudé, author of The Book of the Unclaimed Dead