Book Review | Don’t Call It A Cult by Sarah Berman

Don’t Call It A Cult by Sarah Berman

They draw you in with the promise of empowerment, self-discovery, women helping women. The more secretive those connections are, the more exclusive you feel. Little did you know, you just joined a cult.

Sex trafficking. Self-help coaching. Forced labour. Mentorship. Multi-level marketing. Gaslighting. Investigative journalist Sarah Berman explores the shocking practices of NXIVM, a global organization run by Keith Raniere and his high-profile enablers (Seagram heir Clare Bronfman; Smallville actor Allison Mack; Battlestar Galactica actor Nicki Clyne). Through the accounts of central NXIVM figures, Berman unravels how young women seeking creative coaching and networking opportunities found themselves blackmailed, literally branded, near-starved, and enslaved. With the help of the Bronfman fortune Raniere built a wall of silence around these abuses, leveraging the legal system to go after enemies and whistleblowers.

Don’t Call It a Cult shows that these abuses looked very different from the inside, where young women initially received mentorship and protection. Don’t Call It a Cult is a riveting account of NXIVM’s rise to power, its ability to evade prosecution for decades, and the investigation that finally revealed its dark secrets to the world. It explores why so many were drawn to its message of empowerment yet could not recognize its manipulative and harmful leader for what he was—a criminal.

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For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #18: An apostrophe in the title)
2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

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The Reason

I’ve been curious about the NXIVM story for a while, and I was very interested in this book when it first came out, but I wasn’t in the frame of mind to read true crime at the time. This book was available on audiobook a couple days ago, and I just decided to finally read it since I signed up for a nonfiction reading challenge anyway.

My Thoughts

I initially thought I’d just dip my toes into the book, because I didn’t have other audiobooks available at the time, but I started listening and I was hooked. I couldn’t stop listening, I wanted to know more. I was fascinated, and horrified, at everything that happened, and especially with how it happened.

Honestly, I was worried about my own thoughts about it, in the beginning. When Berman wrote about the organization and how it was initially presented as an empowerment group, and then giving the examples of people who actually benefited from the techniques Raniere and his people used… I was like, it doesn’t sound so bad, it seemed like it actually helped some people overcome their fears. And then I read more, and it got worse, and worse, and worse, and I’m like, hey, I get it now.

It’s the boiling frog analogy. They pull you in with the good stuff, but then they increase the temperature, slowly, oh, so slowly, and before you know it, you’re boiled alive! It’s scary!

I also thought it was interesting how Berman mentioned that some of the techniques demonstrated to her were actually very useful and helpful tools, but in the wrong hands, Raniere’s hands, they were used to cause a lot of damage.

My Feels

My biggest feel from this book is fear. And doubt, and uncertainty. Also disgust. I’ve always thought of myself as insusceptible to cults and cultish thinking, but reading this book and seeing their methods, their processes… I wonder if I would be sucked in, attracted to all the good stuff they promise, and then slowly boiled alive. I would like to think that I’m smarter than that, or stronger than that, or whatever, but many of the women involved were smart and strong too. My disgust isn’t towards the women who were also victims of manipulation, although I agree that they were responsible for many of their own abhorrent actions, but Raniere knew exactly what he was doing and it is yucky. Ugh!

My Rating

4/5 stars. I was completely engrossed in the book. I think Berman did a great job telling the stories and presenting it to the reader. I’m glad I finally read the book.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?