This is such an odd subgenre. I wonder if it's a Thing.

I currently suspect it's more of a "if I had a nickel for every time, etc., but it's weird it happened twice thrice" rather than an actual Thing - especially since, while Lafarge's and O'Neill's were both published this year and have not dissimilar themes, the Pulley was from 2017 and both a different genre/theme? - but I stumble across a fourth, I will have to reclassify??

One of my mom's ex-boyfriends is an architect who lived on Taliesin for awhile. It sounded like a weird combination of "kind of a cool commune full of smart people" and "absolutely a fucking cult," at least based on his description.

Wild! That's definitely the impression I'm getting through this book, yeah.