Insightful and disturbing look into some of the world's most infamous cults. ( )

More a Wikipedia-style overview of cults from the Manson Family to the Rajneeshees, from NXIVM to Heaven’s Gate. There’s nothing new to learn here if you’ve read about or watched documentaries on these cults and their infamous leaders. In fact, you would likely know more than the overview that’s given here in these pages.



While Cutler and Conley appear to have based this book on their popular podcast (to which this reader admittedly never listened), I would imagine that the podcast is more interesting in this instance than the book. I’m immensely interested in the psychology of cults, so this book’s subtitle—which includes “Understanding the People Who Joined Them”—piqued my interest quite a bit. However, there’s more on the biography of each cult leader, positing why or how they became the way they did, rather than much (if anything) about the members, why they joined, why they stayed, and why some might have left and, if so, what repercussions or trauma they suffered after leaving life in the cult. 



For this, I imagine Janja Lalich’s Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults would be the better choice; I look forward to delving into that one soon. ( )

This book is heavy. It describes horrendous abuse and torture of all kinds, and some very grisley murders. I found it hard to wrap my head around many of the decisions made by the people involved. Critical thinking is critical, folks. ( )

1.75 stars. it's actually quite fascinating to read about these cult leaders but this was much more of a voyeuristic look at them than i would have liked. i expected (because of the book's subtitle) to learn much more about the psychologies of both the leaders and followers, and to find out more about the why of what happened. instead, the author seems to rely on generalizations. each of the 8 or so cult leaders (serial killers, all) and their followers are described, in what seems to me to be a compilation of information already out there; it didn't seem to be original research. and since there wasn't any real psychology to speak of, this just felt like rehashing of other books and articles. i hadn't known about all of these awful people (not all men!) so i did learn stuff, but i was hoping to learn more about the psychology, and less about the horror. although i admit there is a weird draw to this sort of story. ( )

The writing is engaging and as someone who has done a lot of research on cults, I still learned quite a few things from this book. I wasn't bored nor did this book read like a textbook. I loved learning about the psychology behind the phenomenon. ( )