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Thursday, May 27, 2021

Reader's Diary #2205 - Marianne Boucher: Talking to Strangers

I'm sure that when most of us hear about cults, we're fascinated and also over-confident that we'd never fall victim to such a thing. 

Marianne Boucher's Talking to Strangers is a graphic memoir about her experience as a cult member in the early 80s. She was a Canadian, fresh out of high school and off on her own in California to pursue a career in figure skating. That's when she had a chance encounter with a couple of Moonies on a beach. 

If I was hoping for more understanding of how someone falls for such people in the first place, I don't feel like I got it here. Perhaps that part was rushed, maybe not really giving enough depth to her psychological, emotional state at the time.

Granted, once she's in, Boucher spends a bit more time showing the brainwashing techniques. Again though, it felt somewhat emotionally distant to me. The art is good, though again I didn't really connect to it. 

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