Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

21 reviews

louisegraveyard's review against another edition

challenging dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Child death, Murder, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Cancer, and Chronic illness

casually_booking's review

challenging funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

If you listen to the Sounds like a Cult podcast, you will like this book. Amanda’s tone is the same- caked in sarcasm and random quips about all things culty. I enjoyed the brief chapters because they provided some nice shape and guidance throughout the book. I also enjoyed how she wove in her personal experiences with cults and culty things along with interviewee’s stories and of course historical facts and academic sources. We are all a part of certain societal “cults”  but some “cults” come with deadly consequences and financial ruin. By sharing her own experiences with cults, she adds a layer of relatability. Definitely recommend for a digestible read about some difficult topics. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Body shaming, Gaslighting, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cursing, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

sunn_bleach's review

funny informative mysterious fast-paced

4.0

Another awesome Montiel book. This one is a little less outright funny compared to “Wordslut”, likely due to the heavy subject matter within. Great elucidation and discussion on cultish thinking and how the language used impacts predilections we all have toward that kind of idea. Only bit complaint it a very very weak conclusion that’s at odds with the rest of the book.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cursing, Sexism, and Racism

ashleycmms's review against another edition

challenging informative fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Suicide, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Cursing, Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Racism, Death, Confinement, Cancer, and Emotional abuse

aguattery's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

My only need is that sometimes the sections within the parts seemed to end on a random note rather than tying things up nicely. Other than that, the context was fascinating and I loved that the author brought in her own experiences on top of the academia of it all. Really recommend this. It also felt like she wasn't talking or looking down on people who joined cults, but rather putting the owness on American culture and cult leaders which was refreshing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Suicide

Moderate: Gaslighting, Violence, and Cursing

Minor: Sexual assault and Trafficking

nickoliver's review against another edition

informative fast-paced

4.25

As a language/linguistics freak, I found a lot about this book very interesting! Admittedly, it wasn't quite as focused on the vocabulary of cults as I expected - a lot was simply about some infamous cults or cult-like things like MLMs or QAnon -, and I did find some of the writing a bit redundant (you don't have to tell me that something was coming in a later chapter when you're already halfway through the book), but it didn't bother me all too much (maybe also because I listened to this on audiobook and didn't read it physically). 

Montell did state that she focused on the US because US-Americans apparently were more into cults than other countries, but I still would've liked to see the way other countries' experiences with them. Because truth to be told, I've never actually heard of cults that weren't based in the US, so it would've been extremely interesting to see those. Though I guess it might be hard to talk about the language used in cults when the language used isn't English and you're an English-speaker from the US. 

Despite what I've read in reviews, I don't think it was bad that she talked so much about cults like Heaven's Gate or Jonestown, because fun fact, not everyone knows about them outside the US. For example, I personally have only heard of the former, and only because I saw a video talking about it once. So I was glad and thrilled that she explained what exactly had happened.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Murder, Racism, Body shaming, and Death

Minor: Sexism, Sexual harassment, Cursing, and Child death

dealingwithdragons's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Bullying, Child death, Child abuse, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Fatphobia, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Ableism, Body shaming, Classism, and Cursing

Minor: Abortion, Addiction, Cancer, Confinement, Stalking, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Vomit, Alcohol, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Racism, and Trafficking

Cults and "cultish" organizations do a lot of terrible things.

yeojinqueen's review

informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Drug use, Misogyny, Rape, Addiction, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Murder, Pedophilia, Slavery, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Mass/school shootings, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Self harm, and Toxic relationship

aklovekorn's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Racism, and Toxic friendship

lindseyrenee's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

I found this to be very interesting. I’ve known cultish language is used for cults and MLMs but this made me think about the language used in seemingly everyday conversations or when being “sold” on something. So many things I never thought about that I am more aware of now.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Classism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cursing, Fatphobia, and Racism