Going Clear's subtitle defines the book's structure. The first section pretty well covers "Everything you ever wanted to know about Scientology (and quite a lot you'd never have thought to ask)," and that begins with the rather colorful biography of its founder, the exceedingly prolific writer L. Ron Hubbard. Everything in Scientology's belief system comes directly from Hubbard's texts, some of which seem to be strongly influenced by his earlier science-fiction writing. That said, Hubbard grasped the human need for explanations and answers, and he devised some that have made sense to a huge number of people for over six decades.

If you ever want to be really angry and depressed about Scientology, I highly recommend this book. I knew I didn’t like the group, but I didn’t really know why. Now I do. I did think Wright did a nice job of not taking pot-shots at religion in general, or even alternate religions in general, both of which would have been easy to do.