The most recommended books on the communes of France

Don’t be fooled by the initial MF pairing of this book, A Lady of Rooksgrove Manor is very queer and very spicy.

Kathryn Moon does a fantastic job creating a realistic example of a polyamorous relationship in a genre where most authors tend to just like creating conflict. Each partner to the main character has unique, well-negotiated relationships not only with the main character but also with each other.

These relationships range from sexual to queer, platonic, and scratches the itch that every queer person has to build a commune out in the wilderness with all their closest friends that they may or may not make out with sometimes.

This is a novel about a young woman, the titular Nina, escaping from a Maoist cult and it’s a terrifically absorbing and engrossing tale.

What makes it unique is that it’s as much about the protagonist reclaiming, or even forming, her own identity as it is about the cult that she’s wrestling herself free from. Both the storyline and the form of the book itself involves the reader in that journey into freedom. An excellent and under-rated book.

This memoir is not merely the tale of a woman—married, a mother—who ditches her family to follow the abusive guru, the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. That alone would have made for quite the saga. Instead, that woman’s daughter tells her own story, the one about the child abandoned again and again, as her mother can’t find the whatever-it-takes to leave the cult behind her. Ronit Plank writes without an ounce of self-pity. She lets the data speak for itself. 

Plant also goes into her relationship with her father, who played such a critical role in the neglect, showing the very real effect on a child of emotional abuse through negligence.

As a trauma survivor, I didn’t find the memoir triggering. Plank hits a great balance between necessary detail and consideration for her reader.

The book by Kyle McCord is a deep dive into the psychological nexus that drives young souls into the arms of cults and the cult leaders who exploit them. Once you get the characters worked out between their real names and their cult names, it is very difficult to put down. The cult members morph from bloodthirsty weirdos into real people driven by the same forces that affect the lives of non-cultists.

It helped me put the finishing touches on the adolescent behavior of two of the protagonists in my book. Most importantly, it gave me the background psychology for the evolution of my new book, which is rooted directly in my experience with the Children of God. 

Joshua is another author with multiple series, but Commune is a standout piece of literature. His style is subtle and suggestive, making the reader pay attention so they don’t miss the nuances and the snippets of backstory. That said, his action sequences are fast and brutal with a realism that hits home. The humour of the characters throughout is so genuine it’s a stroke of brilliance.

Full disclosure – I loved this series so much I’m writing more Commune with him!

Wallace puts a new spin on witches and witchcraft as she introduces us to a family of witches living in a small New England town.

The Warren witches have used their magic for good and have devoted their skills to protecting and helping the citizens of Evenfall for four hundred years. But when a guest dies at the family B & B, one of the witches becomes a prime suspect.

The main character has a rare talent that lets her commune with ghosts. But her skills are rusty, so she tries using her investigative techniques hoping that her witchy skills will be there if she needs them.

Magical thinking is fun, but the reader can see it’s love and family that’s the true story and the magic here.

Another incredible rewriting of Wuthering Heights and one that’s as dark and Gothic as Emily’s momentous original. In Ill Will, Michael Stewart picks up Emily’s narrative at the point when Heathcliff, having heard Cathy declare that it would degrade her to marry him, departs the Heights. Stewart unravels the tale of where Heathcliff went during the three years that he was missing from Cathy’s world and imagines what happened to him to make him return in such a vengeful guise. Ill Will is also a rewriting that takes up the issue of race, for here, Heathcliff is a young black man and his departure from the Heights prompts him to trace Mr. Earnshaw’s walk to Liverpool in the hope of finding out who he is. 

This novel tells the story of one person, Astrid, who grows up in a dysfunctional failed utopian commune in British Columbia, Canada.

The story of Astrid is told from multiple points of view. Each character paints a different picture of this child-who-becomes-a-woman, at different stages in her life. But what I like most about this book is its exploration of the aftermath of growing up in a failed utopian commune.

How does a person carry this ejected-from-Eden baggage with them over a lifespan? Is it possible to overcome it and fit into “normal” society again? The answers to these questions might surprise you.

For me this is an unforgettable, compelling story about love, romance, and magic! 

This book is a beautiful, metaphysical love story that opened my eyes to the possibilities of soulmates and that not only does love exists, but it can also be accessed through time travel, inter-dimensional travel, and leading multiple lives at once!

Reading it reinforced my belief that love never dies and that love is both pre-destined and has a free will component.

I love the adventures of bookbinder Brooklyn Wainwright. There are 15 books in the series and each one features a well-known book as a backdrop that is integral to the plot. The plots are clever with a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. Most of all I enjoy the interaction of the characters – Brooklyn was brought up in a commune and was named after the bridge beneath which she was conceived … which says it all really!