Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism

Cults and Cult-like followings are ingrained into almost every part of our society, from mundane Instagram followings to the more extreme and downright dangerous cults such as Jim Jones's Jonestown and Marshall AppleWhites Heaven's Gate among many others. Cultish seeks to uncover the language and how these very prominent cults rise and maintain power over their followers. However, what this book fails to do is introduce its audience to any new ideas or way of thinking about Cults.

This book presents ideas about cults as if they are new ideas, such as how many of their "charismatic" leaders are white males, and usually get away with their behavior on that merit alone. I felt as if the cults themselves and their fanaticism were overlooked to discuss and seemingly punch down on its followers. More focus was put on the followers of different cult-like movements (not even cults themselves in reality) Yes the followers of these movements are a key to these movements' success, but more focus was on the money they spent on brand-name clothing or how outlandish their mantras were, versus the abusive, misogynistic, and borderline racist environments the leaders and creators of these 'cults' fostered.

I felt as if the cults themselves were mentioned but never actually talked about, especially cults that are still in existence such as The Church of Scientology. While the book's main focus is on the language these cults use, I feel as though you too need to understand what these cults are, how they operated, rose to prominence, and sometimes sustained prominence. Different cults were discussed in the text but were never given a clear or in-depth backstory, especially Scientology which is still popular among many celebrities, despite the church being accused of abusing its members, the children with the church, and covering up abuse in the church. Its new leader David Miscavige is barely even mentioned when he is at the forefront of the church's new leadership.

This is a great read if you are new to researching cults or just want to gain a surface-level understanding of cults, cult-like followings, and the language of cult followings. However, if you already have an understanding of cults or have done research into them, this book will not tell you anything you probably don't already know.

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unluckycat13's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

4.0

This is not a true crime book, this is a sociological look at how cults and the rhetorical/linguistic techniques affect the average things in life; and when it becomes a problem.

I'm unsure what people want in regards to intersectionality. You could probably go into depth in a lot of topics, but the author does talk about a lot of things that affect minorities of all sorts even when she's not directly shouting that group out. She does directly shout out minority groups often though.

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apoppyinthewind's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

3.5

It was a little tricky to rate this one because while I found the subject matter fascinating and engaging, at times I found the narration & the structure of the audiobook took away from the experience a bit. The book is divided into parts and the parts have numbered sections but on the audiobook I listened to, the number sections aren't listed in the contents or marked as chapter breaks so it can start to blur together.

Also, the audiobook highlights the "More on that later" pattern that other reviewers have pointed out which became irritating.

Aside from those issues though, it was a fascinating look into the word cult, what we generally know/think about cults, and how language evolves around cults. There were a few personal anecdotes which I found interesting though I could see them being off-putting if you were looking for a more academic-style text.

One element I especially appreciated was the way Montell tried to destigmatize the way folks are drawn into cults, and any scorn in the book was aimed at the manipulative cult leaders, not the ones who were drawn into cultish groups.

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mi7sma's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

It was a very insightful book. You know those types which you're intrinsically aware of the things being discussed but you don't actively think about when it actually happens irl. Amanda retold a very profound series of accounts from survivors of various cult groups and presented them in a very digestible manner. The premise of the entire book revolves around cult affiliation(group affiliation), human psychology, brainwashing, unjustified prejudice, glossolalia, genocide and language performativity theory. It also tells us how everyday people end up in cults just to find a meaningful connection as we(humans) are programmed to be seekers of the unknown and social communes are a way to satisfy our emotional and religious needs. The book was written in the light of the writer's father's experiences which gave it a personal and professional outlook. Overall it was a good read but it was long overdue due to uni.

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courto875's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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zoinkie's review against another edition

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challenging funny informative reflective slow-paced

2.75

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