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Reviews tagging 'Abortion'
Don't Call It a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM by Sarah Berman
19 reviews
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
lizmarasse's review
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Abortion, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Deportation
applesodaperson's review
4.5
I also really liked how easy it was to remember who was who. The author repeated full names a lot, and gave context if it had been a while since they were mentioned, which made it really easy to keep track of all the people in this story.
I loved how over and over again, the pattern of people being coerced into the cult until they were too far in was highlighted. It really showed how exploitative Keith Raniere was, and showed how people got roped into doing crazy and horrible things for the cult.
Plus I just learning about cults and cult psychology in general, so this book was right up my alley. I think it was really well done and interesting. Overall, Keith Reniere sucks and is an absolutely terrible person.
Listened to on Libby.
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Sexual assault
Minor: Abortion
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
mondovertigo's review
4.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Trafficking, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Abortion and Pregnancy
Minor: Cancer, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts
jordanpoole1's review
4.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Confinement, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Abortion, and Gaslighting
Minor: Self harm
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
paigicus's review against another edition
4.0
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Abortion