Subverting Cult Tropes in ‘The Other Lamb’

By Sara Century

The Sacrificial Lamb by Josefa de Óbidos

The narrative around cults both in fiction and the real world is that the paternal figure gains power only to drag his followers down, and that arc certainly has real-world precedence that would be impossible to ignore. Cult leaders, from Charles Manson and Jim Jones to any number of lesser-known figures, tend to revolve around a central, often male, leader who gains power…