Westover tells the story of her isolated childhood and subsequent exploration into the world through education in beautiful, measured prose. Her compelling memoir is thrilling, but compassionate towards her family.

Distressing, depressing and hard to read at times, but definitely worth sticking with. Tara is raised in a fundamentalist Mormon household where she is taught that modesty and religion are placed above all else. She is "homeschooled" but her education doesn't go much further than Bible teachings. Her father, who she later recognizes as bipolar, is mentally and emotionally abusive and her brother is physically abusive to both Tara and other members of the family. Tara finally starts to pull away from the family after getting away to BYU for college, and then furthering her education at Cambridge and Harvard and realizes that her unhealthy family is causing her panic and crushing anxiety. But even as she pulls away from unhealthy relationships with her family in Idaho, she misses them and struggles with being estranged with them.

Very good read. And I'm so happy for Tara and her perseverance that came from nowhere but within herself for finding her strength to become educated and stand on her own.

Fascinating, captivating, spellbinding-and any other way to say that this book was hard to put down! I was immediately sucked in and read it in one sitting. Even for a kid from a "normal" family, Westover has accomplished a lot at a young age. When you factor in her unusual upbringing, those accomplishments become even more extraordinary. A must read.

NetGalley and Random House graciously provided me with this book. I’ve freely chosen to write a review, and my thoughts and opinions have not been influenced by this.

Educated is a great memoir from Tara Westover who did not go to public school, and was taught her parent’s version of the world, all in a tightly-held religious family community that started to raise question for her as she matured. As a teen, something deep inside begins to question everything she knows and was taught, and Tara embarks on a journey to discover who she is in search of the truth about what she’s experienced.

I could not put this book down. Many times, I had to stop and reflect about what I read because what was written resonated within me. We all identify with our parents views because it’s how we first see the world and begin to understand it. When something happens to bring those beliefs into question, our own understanding about ourselves and the world we live in comes into being. Tara’s journey takes us through much self-reflection, self-doubt, and self-assessment that ultimately culminates in a deeper healing and greater understanding of the outcome.

In the same vein as The Glass Castle, this is a great memoir not to be missed.

This is the author's memoir. She learned that she must tell her own story, not her sibling's story or her father's story, but her own. And in her own story she also came to know what it meant to be part of a family- "how a person ought to weigh their special obligations to kin against their obligations to society was a whole."

The author uses beautiful, somewhat complex language, which will inspire you to think and ponder, to paint her life as a young girl in rural Idaho and how this sheltered soul earned her PhD from Cambridge. Many of the scenes are focused on the mountain, Buck Peak, near her Idaho homestead, which guided her life.

Her father was like the feral horses that roamed this mountain. He could not be owned, and he could not be tamed. Her father was the incarnate of the Mormon prophets that he revered. He loved his family with the love and wrath of the Old Testament God.

Prophets in modern America have it hard and their families suffer even more. The author and her siblings lived the life that the early Western pioneers would have recognized- hard physical work, serious injuries, no formal schooling and limited contact with others. This Spartan life became another mountain for the author to overcome.

She was fortunate to be taught by world-class professors. One even called her his "Pygmalion" because she was basically a blank slate. While she achieved academic renown, she never reached a high point of hope. Her mountain always loomed larger.

"First find out what you are capable of, then decide who you are."
More than just a "coming of age" story, this is a "coming to be a new person" story. Highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC.

A powerful memoir of overcoming an isolated and restrictive childhood and family to become part of the wider world through college.

Educated follows Sara's journey from being "home schooled" to earning PhD and multiple degrees from some of the most prestigious universities in the world. Although her journey can be rough to digest, it was a fairly quick read.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review *

To Be Educated or Not
BY JANET FROM FL ON MARCH 16, 2018
Well, here is another disappointing book… “Educated” by Tara Westover.

This book is depressing. This is a memoir of Tara’s life. It is one bad situation after another. I kept reading thinking, surely she will get out of that situation soon. But no, she keeps circling back even after she finally tries to leave. Her parents are abusive. Her brother is abusive. A couple of them are crazy, literally. I question her sanity for putting up with all this and keeping it a secret for so long.

I finally reached 80% done, with no hope in sight. I gave up! The book was messing with my mind. I was getting depressed from her story. How could her family be so mean? How can she be so enabling? I don’t want to know what happens next, because it will probably be bad. Enough!

No one in this family is educated. Tara attempts to get some education, but she never seems to learn anything useful for her life. She is lucky to still be alive.

The negativity goes on and on and on… There are better reads out there. I am on to my next book!

"It's strange how you give the people you love so much power over you"

I am in the minority on this one, but this did not blow me away. I wanted to read this after seeing so many high ratings. I was expecting to love this book but ended up feeling meh about it. One thing I had an issue with is that her family is described as survivalists who educated their children at home - many of which do not even have a birth certificate - but then they had many modern conveniences. Her father has a junkyard and a huge distrust of the government. Her Mother becomes a midwife at her husband's urging and makes tinctures and uses herbs to cure those in her family and in their community. I do realize that the family acquired the telephone due to her Mother's job as a mid-wife but then I wondered how they paid for everything.

Tara grows up free or wild. She didn’t bathe that often, didn’t wash her hands after using the restroom, and is unaware of world history, and is quite comfortable living around bad odors and smells. She is abused by an older brother and no one seems to notice, intervene, or even care. They seem to be a reckless group - example: multiple car accidents, etc.

I had a hard time believing some of the information presented. Case in point the first car accident in the book, Tara's father offered to pay for the damaged tractor. Where did they get the money? Just how much does farm equipment cost? It's not cheap, I know that. Even if the farm equipment is purchase is used it must be pricey. Plus, the damage to their car would mean they would need to purchase another. Then the family has another car accident. More money, lots of injuries, possible need for another vehicle, etc.

Plus, this family seemed to be very accident prone, falling from surfaces, fires, head injuries. Was this because they were raised without any rules and became reckless, or did bad things just happen to them?

Tara does want a better life for herself. She does go educate herself at home, so she can pass the test to get into College. College isn't cheap, nor are book, nor is housing or food. Again, I wondered how she paid for all of this. Plus, once she got to college, she didn't seem to mind that her roommates were upset with the smell in their home. Dirty dishes, not bathing, not having clean clothes. I get if this is the norm, in the home she grew up in but when faced with other's displeasure, I would think a smart girl like her would have taken the hint that being clean and living in a clean environment is the norm, not how she was raised. Plus, at home a young man even pointed out to her that her home smelled as did she.

There was a part of this book that I did enjoy. Tara's thirst for knowledge and teaching herself and gaining entrance to college without a formal education. I appreciated her struggles and having to learn how to "learn". She went on to achieve a lot in her life and it is impressive and commendable. Having said that, there were just too many questions raised why reading this. I don't care if someone is a survivalist, I would think one would still want their children to be safe and free of harm. The turning the blind eye to abuse was despicable. The family also had a lot of modern conveniences which did not gel with my idea of what a survivalist family would own or not own. But I am no expert on survivalist families. Her father clearly had some mental health issues and they contributed to his beliefs and possibly to their way of life.

What worked for me in this book was Tara's drive for a better life. How with very little support from her family, she went out on her own and obtained an education. I appreciated her drive and determination. Her book is well written and I realize this is her account of how she remembers things from her perspective. I just was left with questions hence the 3 star rating..

I received a copy of this book from Random House Publishing group and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

See more of my reviews at www.openbookpost.com

I enjoy a good memoir and this one did not disappoint. It reminded me of "The Glass Castle" which I loved. Tara Westover grew up in rural Idaho in the 1990s scrapping for metal with her 5 brothers and sister and no education to speak of (not even homeschooling.) Her father suffers from some form of mental illness (i. e. paranoia, manic depression.) Her mother, though loving at points, does not protect her children from the wrath of older brother Shawn. At the ripe age of 16, after self-educating herself with books and taking the ACT, Tara decides to leave her dysfunctional family and go to college. She keeps returning at different points, finding it difficult to completely separate herself from her upbringing and continuing to wonder if she deserves the better life she's carved out for herself.

4 stars for the courage of Tara and the ability to tell her story
0 stars for the horrific content and my unease in reading

Thank you to Tara Westover, Random House and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this memoir. Published 2/20/18


Minutes ago I finished the book Educated by Tara Westover. I would like to have days, maybe even weeks. to mull this book over before even trying to put my thoughts on paper. However due to time restraints my review has to be now.

So much of this memoir made me mad. The further I read, the more rage I felt. It was a wonder than any of these children made it out of the Westover family, out of the grip of their fanatical father and lying mother. I do not follow the Mormon religion. However I do have Mormon friends and they are by no means as irrational or dominating as Gene Westover.

First let me say this is not the prevalent actions of a survivalist. The hording of weapons and food and fuel and the securing of a safe place to live - yes - a survivalist. The fanatical preaching of male dominating females and this stringent belief in the Bible and God are not, in my knowledge, characteristics of a survivalist. Those are the characteristics of a fanatic - a lunatic. My philosophy is 'live and let live', as long as I do not see harm coming to others. The structure of this family was ever bit as potent as the strong hold Jim James had on his "flock" or that David Koresh had over the Branch Davidians. The Westover children barely had a chance.

I thought it was amazing that Tara made it out of that family. She was sucked back into that black void so many times, brain washed, and abused with no one coming to her aid. She will forever carry the scars of this horrific childhood. I applaud her strength and courage to fight her way out.

A family just such as the Westovers, is the reason that my professors were unable to convenience me to spin my Masters Degree in Social Work towards working in Children and Family Services. The crime of Tara living under these conditions will haunt me for a long time, there is no way I could have faced this challenge on a daily basis.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for a preview copy of this book.

This was by far one of the most engaging memoirs I have ever read. The story of Tara's upbringing was hard to read. I cannot really imagine the emotional and physical strength it took to grow up in that environment and to leave it behind and forge a new life.

This was to me, both a history and an exploration of psychological issues and their effect on family. I had read a bit about the Mormons, but her account was nothing like what I expected. Growing up in a family with both a bipolar father and a mother who will not stand up for her children, or get medical attention for serious injuries or mental health attention for her son or husband, while seeming to recognize some of the cognitive dissonance between beliefs and reality, it amazed me that 3 siblings escaped the insanity.

Tara Westover's parents raised their 7 kids in Idaho to fear government, authority, institutionalized medicine, and pretty much anything but God. The father forced his little kids to dangle from metal thrashing machinery in the family dump, to work with flame torches while doused with gasoline, stating "God is here, working right alongside us. He won't let anything hurt you. But if you are hurt, then that is His will." For the first third of this book I was on board and riveted, but then Tara mentions the family has TV and I wondered, well then why do you not know anything about the Holocaust, or the Twin Towers, or North and South Korea? Despite living in filth, not being inoculated, and suffering catastrophic injuries without medical supervision, they all survive intact? These kids aren't schooled, and yet three of them earn PhDs? So, I finished the book still riveted, but maybe not swallowing it all hook line and sinker.

While I feel the author's anguish, and credit her with an outstanding memoir that successfully moves the reader and instills great awe in her accomplishments against great odds... still I had trouble following her attempts at rationalizing all the crazy in her life. Regardless of how many pages she spends angsting about distancing herself from her family or worrying that she's caused a sibling to be disowned - I can only see that as being a good thing for all involved. Her big brother Shawn (who murders his pet dog and doesn't "waste good bullets on bitches") is a dangerous sociopath, regardless of whether it's genetic or due to brain injury. I was so frustrated through the entire second half of this book, that Tara never launches all the ammunition she has in terms of truth, reality, world view and perspective, at her warped family. I wanted the satisfaction of her crushing them with that, but I have to assume it's happened off-stage, ultimately, with the success of this excellent book.

Excellent read. She told her story with vivid honesty and it was raw and beautiful. Her resilience and tenacity was evident in every page. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good memoir.

However you learn is an education. Tara Westover proves this in her incredible memoir....all her trials and fears are on the page for readers to savor....uncomfortable as they may be. Her unwillingness to lose her family is heartbreaking, but in her heart she realizes she must release them. These are family problems that we can all relate to on some level and that’s one of the things that make this book so touching.
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I normally shy away from non-fiction and memoirs but this was perhaps the best book that I have read this year. It is immediately gripping and keeps your attention rapt all the way through. It was difficult to read because of the subject matter at times but you just couldn't tear yourself away. Will definitely be recommending to friends and coworkers and just about everyone. This is a enrapturing read for all types of readers.

Heartbreaking, shocking and extremely inspiring .

Tara Westover, was born in the mountains of Idaho, she was raised in a Mormon family, I don't know who is worst, her father who thought the end of the world is near and that the government is part of the Illuminati so that's why he didn't believe in public schools or even medical treatment in hospitals (because doctors are trying to kill us right?), or her mother, who was a herbalist and honestly believed she could know what's wrong people just by touching them and then would give them some herbs, and yeah she would chose the herb by also touching it, if it felt right that means it would cure the person.

"Dad worries that the Government will force us to go but it can’t, because it doesn’t know about us. Four of my parents’ seven children don’t have birth certificates. We have no medical records because we were born at home and have never seen a doctor or nurse. We have no school records because we’ve never set foot in a classroom. When I am nine, I will be issued a Delayed Certificate of Birth, but at this moment, according to the state of Idaho and the federal government, I do not exist."


I have to say first that I read this in three settings, I was really busy but whenever I found time I grabbed this and would read for hours nonstop, I also was very hesitant in giving it a rating, some very few chapters were a 2/5, most of the chapters were 3 or 4 but I gave it a 5 because of the strong ending, because of how much I connected with Tara, how I felt her sadness, and how it made me realize: wow, just another religion used to oppress women.

Because I live in the middle east I hear a lot of stories of women who were forced to do this or do that in the name of religion or how if they don't obey God they would be disowned or would dishonor the family. Even though I think religion should be chosen by the person and not forced, but just for the sake of the argument I would say okay I don't mind you want to spread religion and virtue to your kids that's fine, but why do you only do that to girls/women and whenever a guy/man is not obeying God they would say, he would change later, or start to give him excuses. That fact hit me so hard when Tara tried to talk to her parents about her brother Shawn, and how her family disowned her just because she decided to peruse the path of education, and stood with her brother who in the name of God would abuse his sister, his ex-girlfriend, and his current wife.
What's wrong with people?!

"Sometimes I was sure God wanted me to go to college, because He’d given me that twenty-eight. Other times I was sure I’d be rejected, and that God would punish me for applying, for trying to abandon my own family."


I really felt for Tara, because she almost failed her PhD and went through a breakdown just because her parents disowned her, she loved this this much even though they mistreated her all her life. Her story is really inspiring.

Tara Westover had a harrowing upbringing, as the seventh child in a fundamentalist Mormon family in the backwoods of Idaho. Her childhood and teenage years were peppered with car accidents, work accidents, and other mental and physical trauma and abuse.

Despite all that and despite lacking any education and she was never sent to school or homeschooled, she ends up getting a college education and eventually, a pHD at Cambridge University in the UK.

The writing style, some niggling gaps in the story and some things that didn't quite add up kept me at a distance, so I never really got a sense of who Tara Westover really was.

I know things have been quiet around here for the past few weeks. I have not fallen off the face of the earth, but have been struggling hard to break out of a nasty reading slump! 😐 I think I must have started reading at least a half a dozen of books during that time, which by itself is very unusual for me – I’m the kinda gal who would stick with one book to the end. But when none of the books I started captivated me I knew it’s time to call the big guns! So after clocking many hours binge-watching Netflix comedies, I was ready for something serious and I decided to go with Tara Westover’s recent memoir Educated.

Educated is an extraordinary memoir. Tara grew up in a small town in Idaho raised by a father who firmly believed the world is coming to an end and did everything in his power to keep his children away from the government’s clutches, dangers of the world, and most of all the Illuminati. That meant the Westovers were living off the grid, so Tara didn’t have a birth certificate, a social security number, or a formal education even though she was supposed to be home-schooled. As a young child, most of Tara’s time was spent helping her parents at her father’s junkyard business and her mother’s midwifery practice. However, as time passed by Tara began to test her boundaries. With her mother’s help, she first enrolled in a dance class – Tara’s first contact with normalcy. But it ended when her dance recital received her father’s condemnation for being whorish! Without letting it put her down Tara, however, managed to take small steps towards her liberation, which ultimately gained her admission to Brigham Young University at the age of seventeen, and later on to the University of Cambridge for her PhD.

Coming from a country where education is a fundamental right and not sending kids to school is a punishable offence, at first, I was so pissed off at Gene Tara’s father for at least not homeschooling her. I say Gene because I felt Tara’s mother Faye didn’t have a voice in these matters. Gene was the family prophet, and Faye referred to him even when it looked like Faye didn’t buy into Gene’s explanations, which I later came to realize was stemmed from Faye’s belief that her role in the household was somehow subordinate to her husband’s. But then somewhere along the line, I started feeling less angry at Gene. Sure Gene was an eccentric and a religious nut. His crazy no-doctors rule put his family in harm’s reach more than once. But moments like when Gene pleaded Tara not to attend the University of Cambridge and stay in America so he could come to fetch Tara to safety when the world came to an end made it clear Gene was operating out of love and paranoia and not necessarily out of evilness. The fact that he resorted to words to convey his dissatisfaction towards the path Tara had chosen also confirmed my view – I think if Gene was acting out of malice he could have simply locked Tara up. But later on the way Gene handled the whole episode with Tara’s abusive older brother, who had brutalized Tara and her sister when they were young made me reevaluate him. Gene believed Tara was betraying her family by unfairly accusing her brother and thought it was all a result of Tara being possessed by the devil! So it’s no wonder why it must have been like the straw that broke the camel’s back to Tara which made her sever ties with her parents. Nonetheless, Educated is Tara’s sad reality, which in a way I suppose makes it our sad reality too to know that it’s not inconceivable that one might grow up without any idea of the things we take for granted every day even in the US; the wealthiest nation in the world…

Diificult to read at times, but hard to put down. Powerful!