Amanda Montell’s Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism promises a linguistic x-ray of how words recruit, bind, and radicalize. What you actually get is a brisk, darkly witty tour through classic high-control groups like Jonestown, Heaven’s Gate, and Scientology alongside modern phenomena that feel cult adjacent, from MLMs to boutique fitness to influencer micro-religions on Instagram. The big claim is clear: language is the lever that moves people, whether it is a sermon, a Slack channel, or a Peloton leaderboard.
What the book gets right
Montell is sharpest when she maps the verbal playbook that travels from pulpits to Pilates studios: insider jargon that signals belonging, euphemism that launders harm, repetition and chants that mute doubt, redefinitions that shrink the thinkable, and the tidy shutdowns she calls thought-terminating clichés. Once you clock phrases like everything happens for a reason, that’s your truth, boys will be boys, or brainwashed, you start hearing them everywhere and noticing how they freeze argument rather than resolve it. This is useful media literacy, and Montell delivers it with punchy prose and plenty of cultural receipts.
The book’s other strength is accessibility. You do not need a linguistics degree to follow the argument. The anecdotes move quickly, the tone is conversational, and the examples range from the lethal to the laughably familiar. Readers who want a smart starter kit on how rhetoric shapes group identity will find the core toolbox memorable.
Where it stumbles
Expectations matter, and the subtitle sets a high bar. Several readers have noted that the book is less a rigorous study of language than a lively survey of cults with a language lens. The result can feel scattered, with personal stories, LA scene-setting, and well-known case studies stitched together by frequent signposts like more on that shortly. Those hoping for systematic linguistic analysis, clear frameworks, and meticulous sourcing may find the scholarship thinner than the marketing suggests.
There is also the slippery line between cult and culture. Montell argues that MLMs, SoulCycle, or startup tribes recycle many of the same verbal tactics as high-control groups. That is compelling up to a point, but some readers will want sharper distinctions between coercive belief systems that demand total life reorganization and businesses that engineer stickiness for profit. The book occasionally blurs those categories, which weakens its most provocative comparisons.
Finally, although Montell spotlights the rhetoric that ensnares, the deeper question of why certain messages stick lands only partially. As one thoughtful reviewer observes, language preys on needs that already exist, from belonging to status to meaning. Knowing the tricks helps, but recognition alone may not inoculate someone at the exact moment a message answers a private ache.
The bottom line
Cultish is an engaging primer on the soft power of words inside groups that want your loyalty, your money, or your mind. It is best read as cultural criticism with a linguistic toolkit, not as a definitive academic treatise. If you are curious about how slogans, mantras, rebranded jargon, and closed-loop catchphrases corral behavior, this delivers clear patterns you will notice the day you finish the book. If you want deep linguistics or a tight, fully argued typology of cult versus cultish, you may come away wanting more.
Read it if you:
- Enjoy narrative nonfiction that connects classic cults to modern communities
- Want a practical checklist for spotting manipulative language in politics, wellness, and work
- Prefer crisp, pop-sociology storytelling over dense scholarly analysis
Curious to judge for yourself? You can find Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism on Amazon here: Buy the book.
