irvine_reads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
3.5
emilygaynier's review
It feels weird to rate this books. It's a history of horrible experiences and world changing events.
I found this book to be interesting and horrifying. I liked the bite size histories as there were some cults that I did not want to learn more about (ex. the Ant Hill Kids)
I saw one review that bashed this book for focusing on the gory details, but with the set up of this book, that makes sense. It's a brief summary of 10 of the most infamous cults in history, there's really only time for the most intense details when they're each given 50 odd pages.
Along side that, I feel like we didn't get to the actual understanding those who join cults.
I found this book to be interesting and horrifying. I liked the bite size histories as there were some cults that I did not want to learn more about (ex. the Ant Hill Kids)
I saw one review that bashed this book for focusing on the gory details, but with the set up of this book, that makes sense. It's a brief summary of 10 of the most infamous cults in history, there's really only time for the most intense details when they're each given 50 odd pages.
Along side that, I feel like we didn't get to the actual understanding those who join cults.
hrk's review
The subtitle claims to be about "understanding the people who joined them". Nope. The focus is on the leaders and the crimes. There also isn't even an attempt at cohesive analysis - there are 10 chapters summarizing one cult each, and then the book just stops.
rpotyen's review
2.0
It had an interesting collection of different cults however the way it was written was astonishingly frustrating. The amount of detail we got for certain points in the writing was widely varied. At one point there was a single sentence dedicated to the issues of violence towards women in one cult and then was quickly followed by an in depth description of how the cult got around building permits for the land they had purchased. I would argue that in a book discussing cults and the people who joined them the violence that the cult had perpetrated would be more important than a building permit.
The author had odd interjections of their own opinion as well. While most of the stories seemed to be factual every once in awhile the author would add a sentence describing why a person in the cult/the leader may have felt in that moment. At one point they even blamed a person's career choice as an actor as to why they would be susceptible to being in a cult? These interjections were just odd and irrelevant.
2 stars tho because the author had some pretty good burns of the cult leaders every once in awhile.
The author had odd interjections of their own opinion as well. While most of the stories seemed to be factual every once in awhile the author would add a sentence describing why a person in the cult/the leader may have felt in that moment. At one point they even blamed a person's career choice as an actor as to why they would be susceptible to being in a cult? These interjections were just odd and irrelevant.
2 stars tho because the author had some pretty good burns of the cult leaders every once in awhile.
sdreading's review
informative
medium-paced
2.5
This book was a bit of a letdown. I am interested in the subject matter but the way the material was presented was dull and not what I expected. I was hoping that it would go into more of the social psychology of cults but it was very surface level on each leader and not much about members at all.