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Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'
Don't Call It a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM by Sarah Berman
15 reviews
annieliz's review
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, and Gaslighting
robinwritesallthethings's review against another edition
5.0
Final Thoughts: I wasn’t sure this book was going to provide any new information after watching The Vow, but I felt like it did. It also presented everything in a more chronological order, which made it easy to follow. The ending felt a little rushed to me, perhaps, but I did read the last half of the book in one sitting, so that might have been why. I didn’t reduce my rating because of it since, ultimately, I feel like the book accomplished its goal of explaining how a group like NXIVM became what it was. If you can handle reading about the terrible things that happened, it’s an illuminating story.
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Cancer, Self harm, Abortion, and Pregnancy
makcrowley's review
3.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Abortion, and Sexual harassment
emmyg_photo's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
cotalf92's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Body shaming, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Trafficking, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Injury/Injury detail
meaglovesbooks's review
Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence
moonyreadsbystarlight's review
4.25
The writing itself is very engaging and this is thoroughly researched. There was intense background on Raniere along with the full scope of his network and how it grew, but Berman also interviewed many women who were in NXIVM and used information from the court case to show their stories.
The events of what happened are truely wild. At a few points, I had to take a break from it and even considered stopping about 3/4 of the way in because as horrid as things had been at that point, there were a few really intense experiences that they went into. But I'm glad I did finish it. I didn't plan it this way, but I think this was a good bridge from Hey Hun by Emily Lynn Paulson into some of the books on Scientology that are on my TBR (yes, Raniere was clearly inspired by both Amway and L Ron Hubbard, though he denies clearly being inspired by dianetics).
If you're interested in cults or social psychology (and are ready for the sort of content that is present when talking about such awful groups), I would definitely recommend this.
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Xenophobia, Trafficking, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Abortion
Branding, forced abortion, spiritual abuse, abuse under threat of deportationvalzsc's review
3.75
I love the way the story was told by the author. The fact that it is not written chronologically made it a lot more engaging, letting you know a little bit by bit until you get to the full story of each individual she interviewed or had context of.
As this story is really sad and dark, I don’t think it’s a book I would go back to (nor sooner, nor later). It is dark, twisted, and I feel bad for all the things these women went through. Really bad.
Overall, storytelling is great, it is engaging and entertaining and the story is heartbreaking. If you want to add to the mix you can also watch the show, it’s called The Vow, so you get the audiovisual experience (also getting to know more of Nancy Salzman’s side of the story, whom I think is not mentioned a lot on this book)
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Abortion, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment
growintogardens's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Stalking, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Grief, Abortion, and Deportation
Minor: Cancer and Alcohol
winnifred's review
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Mental illness, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Trafficking, and Stalking
Minor: Pregnancy and Alcohol