Sample
  • Don't Call It a Cult

  • The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM
  • By: Sarah Berman
  • Narrated by: Ewa Wolniczek
  • Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (350 ratings)

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Don't Call It a Cult

By: Sarah Berman
Narrated by: Ewa Wolniczek
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Publisher's summary

As seen in Season Two of the HBO docuseries THE VOW

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 labor. Mentorship. Multi-level marketing. Gaslighting. Investigative journalist Sarah Berman explores the shocking practices of NXIVM, a cult run by Keith Raniere and many enablers. Through the accounts of central NXIVM figures, Berman uncovers how dozens of women seeking creative coaching and networking opportunities instead were blackmailed, literally branded, near-starved, and enslaved. 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.

©2021 Sarah Berman (P)2021 Steerforth

Critic reviews

*SHORTLISTED for the 2022 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize*

*FINALIST for 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book*

*One of Oxygen.com's best crime books of 2021.*

"...Sarah Berman’s Don’t Call It a Cult is a thoroughly reported work that details a staggering amount of relevant information the TV series left out."—The Atlantic

"...investigative journalist Berman front-loads her startling, comprehensive exposé on the NXIVM group with key information on how the association became popular yet remained elusive to law enforcement...the author’s engrossing reportage meticulously reveals the tumultuous rise and fall of NXIVM after numerous criminal indictments and prosecutions...File this alongside Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear and Jeff Guinn’s The Road to Jonestown...An incendiary, serpentine report on criminal manipulation of staggering proportions."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Investigative 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 isn’t to be missed."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)