Customer Reviews

The Black Cloister: A Novel

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In 1991 when Elise Friedman turned eight her mom Catrina suddenly died. Raised by an adoptive father Steve, she grew up wondering about her biological dad and her mom's life in Germany before coming to the States. She especially thought about reasons her mom left her homeland.

Now seventeen years later, Elise obsesses over knowing the truth. In Berlin Elise meets her mom's best friend Ambassador Addison Wade, showing the stunned older woman a photo of Addison with Catrina. Addison wants to ignore Elise as she has buried the past especially since her next post will be American Ambassador to the UN. Elise explains discrepancies in her mom's past and Steve's story. Reluctantly Addison, understanding the resolute visitor and fearing for her going solo, takes her to Heidelberg where the quest of the Chosen began.

THE BLACK CLOISTER is a fascinating look at a cult from several perspectives. The story line is fast-paced from the moment a determined Elise arrives in Berlin and never slows with one twist after another as the danger mounts. Steve's refusal to explain anything leaves Elise taking risks that turn her into a target; yet remaining true to his vows just seems wrong. Still this exhilarating thriller will hook the audience as the present inquiry into the past turns dangerous.

Harriet Klausner

This brilliantly written novel is sure to educate and inspire readers. The insight Dobson demonstrates regarding the minds of cult leaders and their victims is incredibly accurate. In fact, this is the by far best book I've read that addresses this important issue. I've worked with abused children and pedophiles for nearly two decades and the way perpetrators view the world is clearly skewed by their own twisted desires. The author brings that out in The Black Cloister and shows why women stay in situations that are obviously abusive and why they often don't tell anyone who can help them get out. Dobson weaves a powerful and emotionally gripping tale that at times was so suspenseful that I would rather read the story than eat or sleep. The conclusion is also satisfying as it shows the power of true Godly love and how truth is more powerful than evil when you cling to His promises and minister to His children. I would love to read a sequel to this story.

Oh my good book, yawl! Don't even finish reading my thoughts, put this one first on your reading list.

This is so my type of story. Here I learned about cults while trying to unravel the mystery surrounding Catrina's death. There is political cover-up and a smidgen of romance added to just make an overall riveting read.

The story wasn't depressing nor graphic, just tense at times. The author offered enough cult information to make me uneasy but not grossed out. To borrow a book blogger's overused phrase: I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. So true, so true.

Not to be missed! What I can't shake even today is how easily someone can twist bible passages to manipulate vulnerable people. Shoot, you don't have to be vulnerable, just unlearned in bible truths. That's why we have to search the scriptures for ourselves and not leave it all up to our pastors.

This book grabbed at my heart strings right away. Melanie unveils a cult named "Chosen". Elise wonders how any intelligent person could ever get involved in an occult. She couldn't understand how people stayed in an occult once they knew what it was? When Elise gets right into the heart of the matter and faces the leader of the group "Chosen", she had no idea who she is messing with. She needs help but how can she go about getting it? She went to Europe with her own money and of her own free will. She lied to her family and friends about where she was going and what she was doing in Europe. Why would anyone search for her? Help her? What was she thinking when she went on this trip? Answers!! She should have thought about how to get out of a bind once she got into one. She had no clue as to how big and powerful this cult "Chosen" was.

How do cults begin? How do they keep going? This book does answer some of these questions for you. It also shows how cults twist the word of God in people's heads and get them to believe a lie. Elise is a young woman driven to find answers to her past. Who is she? Where did she come from? No one will tell her. She wants answers and she wants them now. Why won't anyone tell her about her mother? About her past? Her mother is dead and she doesn't know who her biological father is. Why won't her adoptive father Steve tell her? She has to take matters in her own hands. She has waited long enough.

Elise embarks on a mission trip to Europe to find information about her mother and her past. She doesn't have many clues to go on, but she knows that her mother's name is Catrina and she was born in Germany. She has told her adoptive family that she is off to Europe on a trip for school. She has made an appointment with her mother's closest friend Addison Wade, who has political connections and aspirations. While Elise is over seas she will find out the information that she is seeking (one way or other); Addison had to know something. It just might be the last thing she gets to do in her young life. Elise has no idea what she is up against and how dangerous it is, but she soon realizes that this might have been the biggest mistake in her life.

Elise has gone to college to study women's history. She feels it might be her mission in life to teach women about their past in history, so that they can overcome their circumstances just like the women before them did. Just like Katharina von Bora did. She was a woman that escaped from the abbey in Europe. She found freedom in Christ which lead to her marrying Martin Luther. Together they changed the world, and Elise also wanted to make big changes in her world. She knew that educating women was the key to such change. She would help teach a whole new generation of women about overcoming their situations like Katharina von Bora who have success stories against incredible odds of failure.

This story was an eye opener! It revealed the deep pain that is inflicted on innocent person when they become a cult member. Melanie felt the need to tell this story and raise awareness about how dangerous cults can be, and how they are not so easy to get out of once you are in. She discovered this affter her encounter with a woman that was raised overseas in an abusive religious cult. The message of this book is one of hope, and recovery. It will change the way you think about cults, for sure. This a story you won't soon forget.

Finding Hope Through Fiction
[...]

I read Melanie's book in a few short days! I was keep intrigued from the first page... this is a tough subject to explore, can be frightening even! but reading The Black Cloister was so well written that I couldn't put it down... The bible verses that she includes woven throughout the chapters were awesome as it gave me a better peripheral view of how easy Satan can and does twist God's truths, severing off people from His love. This book also reminds me to press on, praying and living out the grace and love of God as well as getting better acquainted with memorizing scripture again!!

I couldn't put it down - I read it start to finish during my kids naptime. Addresses a sad reality to the truth of child prostitution in our world, as well as the darkness that lies in the midst of twisted lies from truth. Definitely a good read!

It could be said this book is well written, has interesting and believable characters, and a plot that keeps you intrigued. That would all be true, but an important value of this book is the subject matter. I had previously not read any fiction about this delicate and relevant topic. The author jumped in to tackle a tough subject and my eyes were opened about lives I had never given much thought to.

And the all important litmus test for good fiction? I tried to squeeze it in during every spare minute! I stayed up WAY too late on several nights but truly wanted to know, what happens next? I hope you are moved by it also...

I live where we know what a cult is. We had to watch a Mother try to get her children away from the cult leader. So as I read this book, I could see the pain this Mother felt. This book may have been written in Germany but cults are still alive today and moving around just as they did then. I don't know if they have them prostitute themselves but I do know they have sex with them at a very young age. This book will make you stop and think and pray for our teenagers today. It will show you how easy it is for our young people to end up where they don't need to be because they just want someone to care and love them. If you have children and they haven't reached the teen years, I recommend you read this and pray with all your might for your children. The book will keep you in its grip from the very beginning.

The Black Cloister falls in the category of "disturbing but good." Disturbing because cults exist, and innocent people are taken in by them...children are raised by them. The book is good for many other reasons: Dobson's excellent storytelling kept me up much too late, and left me drifting to sleep feeling I was in a small town in Germany. Characters are well-developed and believable. And the book leaves you with hope for anyone who seeks truth.

As other reviewers have stated; this is a stand-out, suspenseful novel. The Black Cloister makes the reader ponder and realize how easy it is to become trapped, not only by a cult run by the devil in disguise, but other traps in life as well. In Elise's struggle to discover a father she never knew and the reason for her mother's suicide, she gets more than she bargined for and the reader gets a hard-to-put-down, fantasic read.