Don't Call it a Cult
By Sarah Berman
By Sarah Berman
By Sarah Berman
By Sarah Berman
Category: True Crime | Religion | Biography & Memoir
Category: True Crime | Religion | Biography & Memoir
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$17.00
Apr 20, 2021 | ISBN 9781586422752
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Apr 20, 2021 | ISBN 9781586422769
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$17.00
Apr 20, 2021 | ISBN 9781586422752
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Apr 20, 2021 | ISBN 9781586422769
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Praise
One of Oxygen.comâs Best Crime Books of 2021
âSarah Bermanâs Donât Call It a Cult is a thoroughly reported work that details a staggering amount of relevant information the TV series left out.â
âThe Atlantic
âThis investigative endeavor is riveting from start to finish.â
âHuffPost
âInvestigative journalist Berman front-loads her startling, comprehensive exposĂ© on the NXIVM group with key information on how the association became popular yet remained elusive to law enforcementâŠthe authorâs engrossing reportage meticulously reveals the tumultuous rise and fall of NXIVM after numerous criminal indictments and prosecutionsâŠFile this alongside Lawrence Wrightâs Going Clear and Jeff Guinnâs The Road to JonestownâŠAn incendiary, serpentine report on criminal manipulation of staggering proportions.â
âKirkus Reviews (starred review)
âInvestigative journalist Berman debuts with the definitive look at the NXIVM cult, which victimized dozens of women for more than a decade ⊠This deep dive behind the headlines isnât to be missed.â
âPublishers Weekly (starred review)
âBerman demonstrates the tactics cults use to manipulate and control without casting judgment or blame on the victims. Truly gripping, this is the definitive book on NXIVM.â
âBooklist
âJournalist Sarah Berman brings her signature gimlet eye and impeccable reporting to the story of the NXIVM women in Donât Call It a Cult, a chilling true crime accountâŠDonât Call It a Cult is the nightmarish, unflinching true story of the women who survived NXIVMâand the women who didnât.â
âForeword Reviews (starred review)
âA new book reveals the shocking ways that âself-help guruâ Keith Raniere trapped women into his sick scheme.â
âEric Spitznagel, The New York Post
âThis true crime is for readers of stories about cults and anyone looking for a deep dive into the recent news stories regarding NXIVM.â
âBookriot
âBoth captivating and frightening, Donât Call it a Cult will astonish most readers.â
âNew York Journal of Books
âHer [Bermanâs] engrossing narrative style humanizes the victims in a way not fully realized during the trial itself, and most certainly not allowed during their involvement in NXIVM. She skillfully incorporates personal testimonies from the women targeted by Raniere, probing issues of power, consent and agency on an individual level while also zooming out to investigate the nature and dynamics of what we call cults as a whole.â
âLaw & Crime
âDonât Call It A Cult is the most detailed, well-reported, and nuanced look at NXIVMâs history, its supporters, and those left destroyed in its wake. If you want to understand NXIVMâand other groups like itâreading Sarah Bermanâs account is essential.â
âScaachi Koul, bestselling author of One Day Weâll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter
âSarah Berman is absolutely fearless in Donât Call It a Cult. Her determination to not only tell the difficult, often disturbing story of NXIVM, but tell it right, shines through in every aspect of this gripping book. I simply could not put it down.â
âAlicia Elliott, A Mind Spread Out on the Ground
âBerman has crafted a tour-de-force and powerful homage to first-person reportage. A riveting page-turner, Donât Call It a Cult is a must-read for anyone who is fascinated by the long term effects of cult culture, abuse, and pseudoscience.â
âLindsay Wong, author of The Woo-Woo
âSarah Bermanâs reporting on the inner workings of NXIVM and its secret, coercive âwomenâs groupâ fully elucidates how scores of incredibly talented, smart young women fell under the spell of a mousy, volleyball-playing con man. Donât Call It a Cult is an incisive, empathetic page-turner.â
âAndrea bennett, author of Like a Boy But Not a Boy
âDonât Call It A Cult is a thorough and compelling examination of a terrifying organization. Berman understands and brilliantly conveys the complexity of abuse, assault, and the lasting effects of each, and delivers a book that says as much about human nature as it does about NXIVM. Required reading!â
âAnne T. Donahue, author of Nobody Cares
âDonât Call It a Cult explains Raniereâs dark charisma and why so many people were attracted to NXIVM and stayed on, even as the manipulation, exploitation, and abuse got extreme. A thoughtful, deeply reported take on a sensational story, one that I wonât soon forget.â
âRachel Monroe, author of Savage Appetites
âBerman lays bare this longest of cons: lost souls and ambitious young people drawn into NXIVMâs vortex of sexual assault, child exploitation, fraud, manipulation, and blackmail. This too-crazy-for-fiction tale is expertly spooled out with journalistic precision and a screenwriterâs sense of scene and story. I couldnât put it down.â
âLorimer Shenher, author of That Lonely Section of Hell and This One Looks Like a Boy
SHORTLISTED for the 2022 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize
FINALIST for 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book
Table Of Contents
Cast of Characters
Prologue: âThe Most Ethical Manâ
PART 1: THEORY OF EVERYTHING
1 â Secret Sisterhood
2 â One in Ten Million
3 â Mothership, New York
4 â âMoney Spilling into Your Walletâ
5 â When Keith Met Nancy (and Lauren)
6 â Albany Shrugged
7 â The Girls
8 â Us vs. Them
9 â Sunk Costs
PART 2: SOME VERY POWERFUL HUMAN BEINGS
10 â Mission in Mexico
11 â The Heist
12 â What the Bleep
13 â âCracked Openâ
14 â An Ethical Breach
15 â Golden Boy
16 â His Holiness
17 â Spy Games
18 â Room
PART 3: A PLACE OF SURVIVAL
19 â The Act
20 â Slave Number One
21 â The Call
22 â The Vow
23 â âThis Is Not the Armyâ
24 â âMaster, Please Brand Meâ
25 â Reckoning
26 â âMe Tooâ
27 â In Character
Epilogue: Vanguard on Trial
Appendix: Letter to Raniere