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alexblackreads 's review for:
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
by Amanda Montell
To be honest, I was pretty disappointed by this. It wasn't a terrible book by any means, but I was expecting a lot more. I took a few linguistics classes in college and found them interesting so I was stoked to read a book about the language cults use. Honestly, though, it just came across as really bland and basic. Like there wasn't much information in here that was new to me and she didn't go in depth on any of the linguistics. I'm not trying to say I'm some kind of linguistics expert. I took two and a half (dropped one lol) classes in college. But that's kind of the problem. I only took two classes on linguistics and already felt like I wasn't gaining anything new from this book. I expected a cool deep dive and got really basic information.
It seemed like about half of this book was just basic descriptions of the cults themselves. That could've been fine, but for how many she included in this book, it meant none of them got very much time. She interviewed members of cults and various mildly fanatical groups, but again, just didn't spend much time delving into their experiences. Everything got kind of a brief overview.
It also got really preachy in some parts. Not that I disagreed with basically anything she said about linguistics, cults, psychology, or politics, but it's not very fun being preached to. Especially when it felt like she was kind of talking down to me. Maybe it wasn't intended in that way and other people didn't take it that way, but that's how it felt to me.
The most interesting part of the book for me was when she was talking about MLMs. It kind of seemed like maybe the whole book stemmed from that idea because it seemed to have the most depth and interesting, and the only part of the book where I felt like I might have gained anything.
This wasn't bad. Like the information was fine, it was just so bland and kind of simple. Maybe for people who haven't read much on cults and/or linguistics, this would be a lot more interesting. But if you're looking for a fascinating deep dive, I'd recommend giving this a pass. The most enjoyable part of this book for me was the various people and cults mentioned. I'd pause the audiobook and do a google deep dive myself and got a lot more information than Montell included in her book.
It seemed like about half of this book was just basic descriptions of the cults themselves. That could've been fine, but for how many she included in this book, it meant none of them got very much time. She interviewed members of cults and various mildly fanatical groups, but again, just didn't spend much time delving into their experiences. Everything got kind of a brief overview.
It also got really preachy in some parts. Not that I disagreed with basically anything she said about linguistics, cults, psychology, or politics, but it's not very fun being preached to. Especially when it felt like she was kind of talking down to me. Maybe it wasn't intended in that way and other people didn't take it that way, but that's how it felt to me.
The most interesting part of the book for me was when she was talking about MLMs. It kind of seemed like maybe the whole book stemmed from that idea because it seemed to have the most depth and interesting, and the only part of the book where I felt like I might have gained anything.
This wasn't bad. Like the information was fine, it was just so bland and kind of simple. Maybe for people who haven't read much on cults and/or linguistics, this would be a lot more interesting. But if you're looking for a fascinating deep dive, I'd recommend giving this a pass. The most enjoyable part of this book for me was the various people and cults mentioned. I'd pause the audiobook and do a google deep dive myself and got a lot more information than Montell included in her book.