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Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'
Don't Call It a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM by Sarah Berman
21 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
miblette's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, 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
kellylynnthomas's review
4.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, and Gaslighting
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
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
hannahmci's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, and Gaslighting
jordanpoole1's review
4.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Confinement, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Abortion, and Gaslighting
Minor: Self harm