Hey everyone, and welcome back to another blog post!
I wanted to try something new this year, which is to do dedicated review posts reflecting on the books I read! I really love posting on here, and as someone who blogs about reading, I figure I should play around with different ways I want to write book reviews.
I tend to like shorter and easy-to-digest reviews that give me an idea of what the book is about without knowing too much, as I find jumping into a book with as little information as possible fun 😂 I’ll keep playing around with different formatting as I write more reviews, but enough about that!
Here’s my first review of 2024; enjoy!
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell (2021)
Book Summary (Courtesy of Bookshop.Org):
What makes “cults” so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join–and more importantly, stay in–extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . .
Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,” revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish” everywhere.
As someone who finds rhetoric and language, as well as cults, super interesting, I loved reading this book and learning more about how people can be influenced into joining something “cultish” (or even some of the psychology behind people more vulnerable to joining one).
Even though it covered some information I’ve learned about through various documentaries I’ve watched about specific cults, delving deeper into the importance of rhetoric in cults was something I never heard discussed to this level. Whether it be completely changing your name, like the followers of Heaven’s Gate, so that you don’t have any ties to your past self, or the specific phrases and language used in Scientology, Cultish emphasizes how rhetoric plays an important role in cults being able to maintain control over its members.
| Highlights! |
| Also ideal for anyone interested in the psychology behind why someone might partake in a cult and the importance of language in getting people to join and be loyal. |
| Interesting examples used aside from popular cults such as Scientology and The People’s Temple (Jonestown), such as MLM’s and exercise studios. |
| Perfect book for someone who wants to read more non-fiction but might want a more approachable writing style. |
| Also ideal for anyone interested in the psychology behind why someone might partake in a cult, and the importance of language in getting people to join and be loyal. |
Overall, I really liked Cultish, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in rhetoric and language, especially how it pertains to cults and cult-like groups.
I got Cultish through Kindle Unlimited, but you can also get it on Amazon in other formats, as well as at Barnes and Noble, Blackwells, and Bookshop.org.*
*(Bookshop.org is my affiliate link, where I earn a 10% commission if you purchase through this link!)
That’s it for today!
Have you read Cultish? What did you think about it? Have any similar books you’d like to recommend? Then let me know in the comments down below!
On that note, I’ll see you in the next post!
-Erin (:
Eclectic Erin 
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