What makes cults so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? What causes people to join—and, more important, stay in—extreme groups? We secretly want to know: Could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has.

Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly vague talk of “brainwashing.” But the true answer has nothing to do with mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and an “us/them” attitude all comes down to language. In both positive and shadowy ways, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day.

Through juicy storytelling and cutting-edge reporting, Montell exposes the linguistic elements that make a wide spectrum of communities cultish, revealing not only how cult language affects followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate but also how it pervades our modern start-ups, fitness brands, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of Cultish everywhere.