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The Black Book of Power

by Stan Taylor (Goodreads Author)

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Reader said: " I’m only on page 104 and I already feel like I wasted $99. I love books. I read a LOT, and I genuinely wanted to like this one. I went into it expecting something along the lines of 48 Laws of Power — something that would actually make me think diffe I’m only on page 104 and I already feel like I wasted $99. I love books. I read a LOT, and I genuinely wanted to like this one. I went into it expecting something along the lines of 48 Laws of Power — something that would actually make me think differently. Instead, this feels like someone took attachment theory, pop psychology, social media talking points, a little history, 48 Laws of Power, and a whole lot of dramatic metaphors and tried to make it sound like they discovered the secret operating system of humanity - that’s my biggest problem with it: there are pieces of truth in here, but he keeps taking a legitimate observation and then making a massive leap that the evidence doesn’t support. Schools influenced socialization? Sure. Childhood experiences affect behavior? Obviously. Media influences how people think about relationships? Of course. But then everything becomes “programming.” If you conform, you’re programmed. If you rebel, you’re programmed. If you’re successful, you’re programmed. If you’re anxious, programmed. If you avoid relationships, programmed. Apparently there is no possible outcome that doesn’t prove his theory. That’s not particularly deep. It’s a framework with enough loopholes that it can explain literally anything after the fact. Then I got to the Target pregnancy story- he presents it as the algorithm knowing a teenage girl was pregnant before she knew she was pregnant. Totally fabricated- read the Forbes article. The teen knew she was pregnant her father didn’t.
That’s not a minor detail. And then there’s the whole “Hollywood chose your acceptable identities” thing. Apparently Hollywood was also sitting around selecting my school electives. The marriage section is another one. He takes complicated historical, cultural, economic and relationship data, boils it down to “marriage is basically a property contract,” throws some huge percentages at you, and then presents the conclusion like he just uncovered a conspiracy nobody else has noticed. This book desperately wants to sound like it is revealing something hidden, but it sounds like a teenager learning about rebellion. That’s the part that bothers me most. It’s written to give you that feeling of “wow, nobody has ever explained this to me before.” But then you actually stop and examine the argument and realize you’ve heard most of these concepts before. They’re just wrapped in increasingly dramatic language about operating systems, programming, algorithms, factory settings, petri dishes, etc. bold language and if you question this book his methods you are a failure It’s trying very, very hard to be the next 48 Laws of Power. Except Greene actually gives you historical examples and develops his arguments. This feels like the author found a bunch of interesting concepts, connected them with metaphors, and then kept turning the volume up until everything sounded profound. And the irony isn’t lost on me that a book about power, influence and manipulation has a Facebook group where comments apparently have to be approved before they’re posted.

I’ve already found other people on Reddit who bought it, regretted it, questioned something, and then got removed or blocked from the associated Facebook group. So apparently I’m not the only person who got halfway through this thing and started wondering I paid for. Reddit shares this was created using AI - could account for the misinformation but also Stan is really an llc out of Brazil not a real person. I genuinely questioned the author himself before purchasing, but decided to do it anyways because usually even a bad book is still a book and I love reading. But every page has tremendous errors factually and theories that are leaps and bounds and unsupported.

Not even sure I can keep reading it because it’s full of so much misinformation But as of page 104: $99 was an expensive lesson to dig deeper before buying a sloppy book - writing this review anywhere I can as I have seen a lot of effort to remove any negative reviews or posts and if I save even 1 person the money ( because had I seen some honest reviews I wouldn’t have purchased this!) ...more "

Aug 23, 2026 04:59AM · see review

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