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Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'
Don't Call It a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM by Sarah Berman
29 reviews
kimia_hyperfocuser's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault
annieliz's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, and Gaslighting
miblette's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Gaslighting
robinwritesallthethings's review against another edition
5.0
Final Thoughts: I wasn’t sure this book was going to provide any new information after watching The Vow, but I felt like it did. It also presented everything in a more chronological order, which made it easy to follow. The ending felt a little rushed to me, perhaps, but I did read the last half of the book in one sitting, so that might have been why. I didn’t reduce my rating because of it since, ultimately, I feel like the book accomplished its goal of explaining how a group like NXIVM became what it was. If you can handle reading about the terrible things that happened, it’s an illuminating story.
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Cancer, Self harm, Abortion, and Pregnancy
siobhanward's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Pregnancy
kellylynnthomas's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, and Gaslighting
cotalf92's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Body shaming, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Trafficking, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Injury/Injury detail
lizmarasse's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Abortion, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Deportation
applesodaperson's review against another edition
4.5
I also really liked how easy it was to remember who was who. The author repeated full names a lot, and gave context if it had been a while since they were mentioned, which made it really easy to keep track of all the people in this story.
I loved how over and over again, the pattern of people being coerced into the cult until they were too far in was highlighted. It really showed how exploitative Keith Raniere was, and showed how people got roped into doing crazy and horrible things for the cult.
Plus I just learning about cults and cult psychology in general, so this book was right up my alley. I think it was really well done and interesting. Overall, Keith Reniere sucks and is an absolutely terrible person.
Listened to on Libby.
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Sexual assault
Minor: Abortion
moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition
4.25
The writing itself is very engaging and this is thoroughly researched. There was intense background on Raniere along with the full scope of his network and how it grew, but Berman also interviewed many women who were in NXIVM and used information from the court case to show their stories.
The events of what happened are truely wild. At a few points, I had to take a break from it and even considered stopping about 3/4 of the way in because as horrid as things had been at that point, there were a few really intense experiences that they went into. But I'm glad I did finish it. I didn't plan it this way, but I think this was a good bridge from Hey Hun by Emily Lynn Paulson into some of the books on Scientology that are on my TBR (yes, Raniere was clearly inspired by both Amway and L Ron Hubbard, though he denies clearly being inspired by dianetics).
If you're interested in cults or social psychology (and are ready for the sort of content that is present when talking about such awful groups), I would definitely recommend this.
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Xenophobia, Trafficking, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Abortion
Branding, forced abortion, spiritual abuse, abuse under threat of deportation