Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Cults: Inside the World's Most Notorious Groups and Understanding the People Who Joined Them by Max Cutler

11 reviews

librarymouse's review against another edition

2.5

This whole book has an odd pro-Israel tilt, most directly addressed in the second to last chapter. The author notes the Zionist roots of many of the cults without ever considering or critiquing the role of Zionism in the destructive and deadly nature of the cults. Overall, this reads more like a poorly thought through encyclopedia of cult activity than the human-framed perspective promised by the title. In the chapters about the more violent acts committed by cult leaders or in the name of their beliefs, the author's focus was more on the act than the aftermath, which was unexpected with the title framing this book as focusing on the people who joined and the impact their respective cults had on them.
 I will not be listening to the podcast, and after the overt praise for Israel, I finished this book as a hate read.

The narrators of the audio version of the book pronounce religious terms like "vicar" oddly. There should have been some oversight to make sure a book about cults and religious movements that became cults had their terms pronounced correctly 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infertility, Antisemitism, and Abandonment

avonleegrace's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious sad slow-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

growintogardens's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and Sexual harassment

natgeographic's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad fast-paced

5.0

HOW DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Trafficking, and Cannibalism

doomluz's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

4.0

This was an overview on 10 different cults and their leaders. I had only heard of a few of these so it was interesting and disturbing learning about the history of all these cults and what might've drawn people into them. The only one I didn't really learn anything new about was the Manson one. Fortunately, it was the first chapter, so it sets the tone and style for the rest of the book well.
I'd recommend this to people who are interested in cults, but don't know a lot because it's more like a brief history of each, but doesn't go much deeper.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Murder

janetbarbosa's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

kylieabbynormal's review against another edition

dark emotional informative medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and War

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexism, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Stalking, and Abortion

Minor: Death of parent

hubes's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

3.0

Too much (armchair) diagnoses and not enough nitty-gritty of life in each of the cults

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

onmalsshelf's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

2.0

Oof I’m disappointed.

As someone who listed to the podcast Cults that this book is based on, this book reads just like the podcast episodes that cover each of these cults. Would not surprise me if they just took the transcripts, cleaned them up, and sent to the publisher.

Beyond that, all of the cults mentioned here are some of the most famous cults that probably everyone already knows about. With how many cults were covered in the podcast, I wish a few more lesser known ones were included here.

Additionally, again as someone who listened to the podcast it’s hard to fathom why the podcast hosts weren’t included in the audiobook narration cast. I found myself wishing Greg and Vanessa were the ones sharing everything as the book was basically just a large podcast transcript. 

Sorry to my true crime book club that had to read this for our October 2022 pick.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

boomwormbrittany's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

Cults is a nonfiction book that discuss various cults and the reasons why people join them. 
I picked up this book on a whim when I saw one of my favorite true crime YouTuber's reading it. I thought it was a really interesting read evne as someone who has studied a lot of cults. I listen to a podcast called Cult Podcast that talks about cults in depth and so I had heard of most, if not all, of these cults. 
I think this book would be a great one to read if you don't know as much about cults and want to start off by learning about some of the big ones. It was a really interesting read to get the backstory of the cult leaders and how they were able to influence people to join their groups. This discuss how cults meet a certain need that people are looking for and their, usually, charismatic leaders are able to pull them in with the promise of meeting those needs and more. Once the person is in, it's hard for them to leave due to that need being met and not wanting to lose everything they feel they have dedicated to the cults. 
I also liked that this book talked about some of the bigger cults but also interspersed smaller cults. While some cults were originally in the United States, it also discusses cults from other countries and showed how different belief systems were used to create a basis for the cults. I also liked that with cults that took from certain belief systems, they wanted to make it clear that not every person in that belief system practices the way that certain cults did and actually condemned how certain cults acted.
The reason this got four stars is that it talks about the psychology of cult leaders mostly. I don't like the self-diagnosis of cult leaders using psychologists previous papers that discussed narcissism and megalomania that didn't reference those cult leaders. I, personally, don't like self-diagnosing and while we can agree what these cult leaders did was egregious, I don't think we have a right to diagnose them without having a degree or background in psychology.
Overall though, I think this is great book to pick up if you are just learning about cults. It's a great jumping point to learn about their leaders, beliefs and get a general overview of cults. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Suicide, and Murder