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hexedmaiden's review against another edition
5.0
Now on to the content of this book, I think Amanda did an banger job on this and I like this should be a book that everyone and their grandma reads. If you're like me and have been listening/reading/watching anything to do with True Crime you might be familiar with not only the cults in here, but even the language used that Amanda refers to as, "Cultish." I found this book absolutely fascinating and getting to see how powerful language can truly be, for the worse and the better. How that cultish language is used by genuine cults, politicians, multi-level marketing (MLM) corporations, to even workout gyms.
Graphic: Suicide, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Sexual assault, Death, and Murder
erinwolf1997's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Gaslighting, Death, and Suicide
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Cultural appropriation
glitterdeww's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Death, Violence, Cultural appropriation, and Suicide
thursdd4y's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Death, Police brutality, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Murder, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Violence, and Suicide
Moderate: Alcoholism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Drug use, Cursing, Terminal illness, Classism, Drug abuse, and Grief
michelles_book_nook's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, and Rape
growintogardens's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Toxic friendship
jennykre's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Suicide, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Classism, and Gaslighting
itsame_dio's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Death, and Suicide
marija_m95's review against another edition
2.75
The first three parts (the book is divided in 6 parts) were somewhat satisfactory, and the author had some interesting views on how cultish language works to lure a person into becoming a part of a cult and also into staying in it.
But parts four, five, six felt like reading a completely different book, concentrating on MLMs, fitness groups and online communities which we can agree are "cult like" but they are not cults in the negative sense of the word associated with groups like Heaven's Gate or Jonestown. And while it was interesting to read how these groups and organisations possess cultish qualifies and cultish language it felt far too removed from the main topic.
Other downsides of reading these were the author's writing style, especially the signposting. Reading lines as "more on that later"; "we'll discuss this in part 6"; etc. creates aversion to the book and it's not something I'd like to encounter in any type of book. It would've been more suitable if this was a research paper.
Another thing was how the author was excessively present in the book and her numerous mentions of her hate towards Donald Trump felt like she was imposing her own political views upon the reader. We can agree that politicians use language to gain following and therefore a good political orator can have many similarities with a cult leader, but when only one politician is mentioned repeatedly as a bad example the book itself becomes biased.
Overall, this book felt misleading and not what I expected. While there were some interesting points to take from it, it wasn't anything groundbreaking and nothing I haven't heard of before. There was no new knowledge or perspective to be gained from this.
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
Moderate: Death, Grief, Gaslighting, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Sexual assault
aglimpseinto's review against another edition
4.0
Moderate: Xenophobia, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, and Suicide
Minor: Religious bigotry, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Bullying, Death, and Misogyny