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A review by verityshillabeer
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell
4.0
I was pretty likely to enjoy this as linguistics is a special interest of mine. This was pretty good!
I didn't love her writing style - especially didn't like the repetition of 'more on this later' rather than fleshing out her point and creating more intersectional arguments. But ultimately it was an interesting read that gave me some things that I'll continue to think about after closing the book.
My main takeaway was that 'cult' isn't a super helpful word. Someone I'm close to is in a few situations that I've referred to as 'cultish' many times over (they're fun stories to talk about lol) but I'll definitely stop that as a) the situations are not as extreme as calling them 'cultish' makes them sound (in comparison to cults like heaven's gate or Jim Jones), and b) the word cultish can finalise any productive or caring conversation about the situations. Good to bare in mind!
I didn't love her writing style - especially didn't like the repetition of 'more on this later' rather than fleshing out her point and creating more intersectional arguments. But ultimately it was an interesting read that gave me some things that I'll continue to think about after closing the book.
My main takeaway was that 'cult' isn't a super helpful word. Someone I'm close to is in a few situations that I've referred to as 'cultish' many times over (they're fun stories to talk about lol) but I'll definitely stop that as a) the situations are not as extreme as calling them 'cultish' makes them sound (in comparison to cults like heaven's gate or Jim Jones), and b) the word cultish can finalise any productive or caring conversation about the situations. Good to bare in mind!