Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

32 reviews

siebensommer's review against another edition

dark informative lighthearted medium-paced

3.75

the conditioning to automatically trust the voices of middle-aged white men. Over the centuries, we've been primed to believe that the sound of a Jim Jones-type voice communicates an innate power and capability — that it sounds like the voice of God.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Gaslighting

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, Body horror, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide, and Sexism

meggswest's review against another edition

informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide and Suicide attempt

alex1's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

missrosymaplemoth's review

4.0

Informational and educational. Would have rated it higher if it 1. Didn’t trigger my anxiety 2. Didn’t include the author patting herself on the back every few pages for being too good and enlightened to join a cult, & 3. Had regular page formatting instead of a skinny indented body of text.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Suicide, Death, Mental illness, Drug use, and Suicide attempt

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

lovest's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

montybonty's review

funny informative reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.0

Pretty interesting read! I found that the pace dragged in the middle and end and overall, the information felt pretty surface level, especially if you are already familiar with the groups the author discusses, but I was never disinterested. Nothing felt particularly groundbreaking but it was enjoyable nonetheless!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Racism, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Classism, Antisemitism, Gaslighting, Fatphobia, Suicide attempt, Cultural appropriation, Suicide, and Drug use

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Toxic friendship, Murder, Blood, Body shaming, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Suicide attempt

catrickbateman's review against another edition

slow-paced

3.5

(listened via audible) 
really enjoyed the first half, the cults such as jonestown, heavens gate, 3ho and more were fascinating and hearing a different take on them through linguistics was refreshing but past that the exercise “cults” and MLM schemes became repetitive and didn’t seem to offer any new information or viewpoints. also struggled with how often the author says “more on this later” and there is actually very rarely more on it further in the book? overall an interesting sociological read/listen, but if you are already clued up on cults and MLM schemes you could give it a miss 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, and Body shaming

mari_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.25

This book really surprised me. I didn’t expect to be as engrossed as I ended up being. I thought the authors focus on language, optimism and human curiosity made it easy for the secular reader to bite into what she was explaining. For me, the only negative points were she spent way too long talking about Soulcycle when there are other better examples. I felt that within chapters sometimes her focus was unequal and glossed over important connections to move on to the next topic (ex: QAnon to Instagram quote accounts). The ended for me didn’t do the research of the text justice in my view, but could just be me. But over all, I loved the interviews with cult/ group members. This book raised a lot of important questions and I look forward to reading more from this author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, and Torture