This book was excellent. Amanda Montell does a great job explaining the language of cults and how they draw people in in an engaging and digestible manner. I love learning about language. I was actually planning on being a linguistics major before I changed my mind to English. Also, while I’m not the type to listen to true crime podcasts or go out of my way to learn about cults, I do have what I think is a natural curiosity as someone on the outside. How do people who live generally “normal” lives get sucked into such bizarre lifestyles? I think the movie Midsommar does a great job showing this in a fictional scenario, but Cultish explains it from a more logistical level, and I found it incredibly fascinating to learn about how language can be used to manipulate people on both a small and large scale.

I also found it very interesting to learn about how there is no real definitive definition of “cult” and how many communities, even beneficial ones, can have “cultish” qualities. It made me think more deeply about communities that I have been and am a part of. I believe now as an adult I am pretty good at recognizing how toxic the communities I join can be if I go too far and I’m able to stop myself before getting to that point, but I look back on my internet usage when I was 12/13/14 and more naive and impressionable and I can see how toxic some of these communities were at times. I think this book does a good job encouraging us to be more cognizant of our surroundings and actions and the actions and motivations of those around us.