Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

29 reviews

remimicha's review against another edition

funny hopeful informative lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Gaslighting, Murder, Mental illness, Homophobia, Violence, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Racism, Suicide, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Fatphobia

rayowag's review

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

I enjoyed it just as much as her last book. This one had less structure than the last one and it did feel a bit weird in the beginning (I do think she could leave out a couple references to later in the book) but as I was nearing the end of the book I understood why she wrote and structured it this way.

Compared to her last book there was more storytelling in this one. While her last book was heavily leaning on interviews with and research by scholars and feminist history, this one went into stories of people in Cultish environments more and into behavior linked to linguistics. It only makes sense that this made for a more storytelling-centrered book that explains the basic linguistic concepts early on and shows how they work in actuality over and over again.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, and Fatphobia

lizjellig's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Fatphobia, Racism, and Child death

Minor: Sexual violence

daniellekat's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

2.25

As a fan of the author’s previous book, Wordslut, I was convinced that I would love this. The writing, wit, and humour were in style with Montell’s previous book, but this was just way too repetitive. The repetition was nearly unbearable and there were many times I considered DNFing. By the end of each section I was basically just skimming looking for new anecdotes. A personal pet peeve that really irritated me with this book was the constant call to upcoming content  (ex. “More to come on this in part 4, we’ll revisit this in the next chapter, we’ll see so and so again in part 2, etc.). It was so obnoxious and it caught my attention and took me out of the narrative every time. 
Although I’m complaining, the content was really quite interesting. I just think this book could have done with a more thorough edit. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Fatphobia, Body shaming, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment

seanml's review against another edition

funny informative medium-paced

4.0

Cultish is a fascinating look into the the social pillars that made up organizations ranging from Heaven's Gate, to multi-level marketing,  to QAnon. Filled with interesting anecdotes and stories from former 'cultists,' Montell's voice is unique and inviting enough to keep you engaged (but hopefully not devotedly so). 8/10.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gaslighting, Bullying, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Murder, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Classism, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Cancer, Gun violence, Self harm, and Suicide

tamara_joy's review against another edition

challenging informative

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Racism, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Fatphobia, Confinement, and Suicide

librarymouse's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

Well written and engaging, the narrator's voice is conversational while giving factual information and leaving space for herself to reflect on what she's learned. Amanda Montell comes at this information from an interesting perspective, being the child of a father who was raised in and resisted a cult before escaping as a teenager. The content centered around religion, belief systems, and process 1 and 2 thinking specifically really interested me. As a former catholic, I always thought that I was just a very cynical child because I didn't quite mesh with the religion in a way I thought my peers could. The author's explanation of prayer as perceiving one's own post-prayer thoughts as answers from God really put how I've relied on process 2 thought in religious spaces into perspective. This is a book that begs reflection from readers, but doesn't condemn piety or belief in any form it may take so long as it doesn't cause harm.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Death, Fatphobia, Trafficking, Suicide, Bullying, Grief, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Toxic friendship

moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition

informative reflective

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Suicide

Moderate: Racism, Murder, and Sexual violence

Minor: Fatphobia

montybonty's review against another edition

funny informative reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.0

Pretty interesting read! I found that the pace dragged in the middle and end and overall, the information felt pretty surface level, especially if you are already familiar with the groups the author discusses, but I was never disinterested. Nothing felt particularly groundbreaking but it was enjoyable nonetheless!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Racism, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Classism, Antisemitism, Gaslighting, Fatphobia, Suicide attempt, Cultural appropriation, Suicide, and Drug use

boneloose's review against another edition

informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

This book's writing was incredible. Paced perfectly, read in a conversational way that didn't feel informal at all, with descriptions contextualizing interviewees that could have been lifted from a fiction novel. Amanda Montell spun her myriad sources (30 page bibliography!) together in a way that made it read like a cohesive narrative. It was objectively packed with information yet never felt dense or overloaded at any point.

I personally went into it thinking it'd be much more of a linguistic focus (which... the title IS Cultish, of course it's primarily about cults) and wished there would have been more of a deep dive into linguistic theory as it pertains to cultish language (for example, I would have loved to see a thorough look into how the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis plays into language manipulation rather than just briefly mentioning it), but I'm not going to knock a star off an objectively incredible book because I had intially misunderstood what it was aiming to do. 

Highly recommend broadly, but especially to people who think they hate nonfiction, because the writing style makes it much easier to transition into!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Suicide

Moderate: Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Trafficking