Reviews with content warning for Murder - Cultos

About the language used by cults, and defining what makes something culty.

The first few chapters hewed a bit too close to true crime for me (I am very squeamish and the Jonestown murders are deeply distressing), but it picked up a bit in the chapters in MLMs and SoulCycle.

I'd greatly enjoyed Montell's first book Wordslut, about linguistics from a feminist lens, and was really keen to read this. It has its moments, but overall this is the weaker book, I think.

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divine529's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

Cults are something I've been finding myself fascinated by more and more lately, especially given how much we hear about them on a regular basis. This is an absolutely fantastic book and a topic I've been interested in for awhile - language. This book really opened my eyes to a variety of things, expanded upon things I've believed, learned about and understood for awhile, and allowed me to view choices and experiences I've made and had in a different way.

That said, tread lightly if you have triggers as this book deals with heavy and difficult topics at times.

I highly recommend this to everyone.

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remimicha's review against another edition

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funny hopeful informative lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced

4.0

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trippyotter's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

4.0

This book... I knew about several of the things mentioned, but the few I didn't, yikes...

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alsoapples's review against another edition

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dark funny informative fast-paced

4.5

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gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

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informative reflective fast-paced

3.5

I thought this was a fairly entertaining and informative book about cult like language is created, used, and is pervasive in things not traditionally thought of as cults.

I think overall, it could have been stronger. I thought that each chapter kind of ended just as I thought it was starting to get juicy.

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cady_sass's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but don’t join that MLM.

In all seriousness this is EXPERTLY done and I’m blown away. I’ve always been drawn to cult history and I really, really appreciate the work the author did here to include “cultish” behavior (hence, the title) of non cult entities- MLMs, fitness & CrossFit culture, MAGA, etc.- along with the obvious identifiable cults like Jonestown, Heavens Gate, and Nxivm, among others.

Super important to give language to the behaviors and vernacular that are big red flags 🚩 so people can engage carefully and make informed decisions. Highly, highly recommend.

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