A memoir of growing up with a parent with mental illness, that sidelines as a memoir growing up in a strict religious household.
Tara Westover’s family lived according to rules that stemmed from the Mormon religion, but morphed (by her father) into a tyrannical, suffocating, dangerous creed. The children didn’t go to school, have birth certificates for much of their lives, or get proper medical care for the litany of life-threatening injuries they experience due to their father’s worldview.
Tara finally takes her education into her own hands - this book tells that grueling tale. At times hard to read, this is an important story about mental health and the resilience of the human spirit.

Riveting! I was hardly able to put it down (had to because it's too close to Christmas and had other things to get done!). Tara Westover has written a brilliant memoir and takes us on her journey from a barely home-schooled young girl to her achievement of a PhD from Cambridge. But what a journey lies between. I'm still trying to process all that she has experienced, and am thankful that by the end of the book, she has achieved a healthy distance from those events.

Tara is the youngest child of 7, growing up in what is purported to be a strict Mormon home in Idaho. Her father is clearly disturbed, and her mother is a willing participant in his paranoid worldview. He doesn’t believe in public education or doctors; he declares that the children are home-schooled, and that means that he belittles them for wanting to learn from books, and has them working in his junkyard, or helping their mother with her herbal medicine business. (Ironically, three of the children eventually earn Ph.D. degrees; the others don’t even have a GED.) She is abused by one brother who nearly kills her, but the parents obliviously deny it. They have labeled the author as a tool of the devil and cut her off from the family, though she is still in contact with some members. She was so lucky to get help from some kind faculty members along the way, but clearly is scarred from growing up in this abusive situation. An intense and disturbing memoir.

It is amazing what one can do with the life they are given and this is shown fully in the life story of Tara Westover. This story is engaging, heartbreaking, and triumphant as you see Tara grow and change and take control of her life.

If I didn't know this was a memoir I would think it was fiction for how outlandish the story seemed at times. It was a great story of an interesting and intense life.

What a gripping story this was. Tara Westover's personal story of her unconventional childhood and how she rose above it was a very interesting, readable and inspiring tale. My only disappointment came from the fact that the book was slightly different than what I was expecting. When I chose the book, I did so because I was primarily interested in her educational experience. Her struggles and the effect that it had on her when her world started to open up. This was addressed in the book but was not the focus as I had expected it to be. However the focus on her family's story did not disappoint at all. It is the kind of book that opens your eyes and teaches you about the world while still being an engrossing read. This will be on my 2018 recommendation list for sure.

This memoir captivated me from chapter one and continues to haunt me long after I finished it. This is a compelling, can't-stop-reading story perfect for readers of all genres. Moving, emotional and uplifting!

Educated shows the downside of homeschooling, which many people are familiar with today because of the popularity of homeschooling megafamilies such as the Duggars and the Bateses. There's nothing wrong with homeschooling in and of itself, but it demands time and effort on the parents' part (not to mention a good education for themselves) as well as regular, strict, rigorous testing to be certain the homeschooled students are actually learning. Such wasn't the case for Tara Westover and her family. Their homeschooling consisted of their mom having a handful of outdated textbooks and letting them read them if they wanted. In reality, they spent much of the time they should have been learning working for their abusive and mentally ill father in his junkyard. In a family of seven children, only three would actually have a formal education. (All three eventually earned doctorates - no thanks to their family, but due to their own incredibly hard work and outside help.) In fact, one of the adult sons wanted to get a GED but when his tutor evaluated him, she found that he had the equivalent of a 4th or 5th grade education. He chose not to work toward the GED at that point. When Tara decided to go to college - having never set foot in a classroom before - she had to teach herself enough math and science to pass the ACT. When she began studying at BYU, she found that she had no real study skills, lacked basic knowledge that other students had about such things as American history, and only knew how to write in a stilted, formal, old-fashioned manner. The fact that she ended up with a doctorate from Cambridge University is amazing and wonderful. Still, it came at a great personal cost to her. Even though this is a book about personal triumph, it's also very disturbing and depressing. Even so, I can't recommend it highly enough.

Absolutely incredible! I devoured this book in a day. The strength that Tara had to do what was best for herself and no one else is astounding. A beautiful display of a courage and inner strength makes this a book I'll always come back to. I've already recommended this book to a dozen people, I encourage everyone to read it if given the chance.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a phenomenal memoir! When I requested a copy I thought I would enjoy Tara's story, but I had no idea it would be so gripping. She was raised in a strict Mormon family with a bipolar father, an abusive brother, and not much contact with society. In fact, she was taught that most people aren't as religious as her family because they do things like drinking coke and shopping on Sunday. Most startling is the fact that she and her siblings were not provided the opportunity to have an education, either at home or in any organized school. I am astonished that she and two of her brothers broke out of the system and have been incredibly successful in the post-secondary school setting.

The heart of the novel's message, at least from my perspective, is that of a woman deciding who she wants to be, how she would like to shape her life, and standing up for those things even when it meant losing the love of her family. Her determination and perseverance are a testimony to the fact that no one is ever "stuck" - we all have within us the power to change, even when the roadblocks seem insurmountable.

Thank you Tara for sharing your story!

This is an INCREDIBLE memoir. I was gripped from the first page and stayed up late to finish. Westover tells her impossible story in vivid, yet almost detached detail. Her writing style creates a fast-paced read with unexpected moments throughout. One of the best books I read this year. Highly recommend.

I am so grateful to NetGalley and Random House for making this book available to me. This is one of those rare, special books that I'll never forget. I still find myself, long after finishing the memoir, thinking about Tara and her dysfunctional family. Her story was gut-wrenching, brutal, shocking, yet inspirational...difficult to read, but harder to put down. It's provides a great life lesson--for both adults and teens--that anyone can rise above a bad situation. I can't wait to recommend it to my teacher friends.

This memoir had an effect on me and I want to recommend it to everyone. Educated by Tara Westover is a memoir about family obligations, systems of control, and the power of education. It was a hard, but good read.

Westover grew up in a strict, Mormon household in rural middle America with parents who had their own interpretation of Mormonism that they proselytized to their children and used to condemn others’ interpretations of divine faith, including other Mormons. The parents did not trust the government, which extended to not birthing most of their children in hospitals because they were part of the evil “medical establishment”, not legally recording most of their children’s births until many years later, not immunizing their children or permitting them to visit doctors for care in favor of homeopathy, and not enrolling their children in schools for fear the schools would brainwash their children with nonsense. The denial of all of these things to their children, particularly access to an education as the children weren’t really schooled at home either, was a way to indoctrinate the children into the parents’ belief system, bound the children to their parents’ sphere of control so that the children may never leave, and limit the children from access to other ways of thinking that would allow the children to be able to question their family’s way of life.

Westover’s tale highlights how important access to an education is as she details the life circumstances of her siblings — those who managed to be admitted to college, after secretly studying for standardized testing, went on to receive doctorates, whereas the others never received high school diplomas or GEDs and subsequently had limited job options and continued to be employees of their parents’ businesses as they had been since they were children. The memoir is broken into three parts, beginning with Westover’s childhood, transitioning into Westover’s teen years when she enrolls in an undergraduate program, and the last pieces include her venturing to another part of the world for education purposes and having her worldview expanded even more than her undergraduate experiences initially opened. While education definitely plays a central role in this memoir, a large part of Westover’s story involves controlling family dynamics, the emotional abuse that often rains down from the controlling heads of household, unfettered physical abuse that family members conveniently ignore or outright deny because acknowledgement of its actuality could challenge their pleasant forms of reality, and outright misogyny about a women’s place in the family and in the world that is shielded from question by religious morales.

While Westover’s education granted her access to many things, it also created many conflicts with her family and led to estrangements from certain members. Becoming “educated” isn’t always cost-free and Westover’s story illuminates some of the challenges that can be associated with advancing oneself, whilst one’s family tries to hold them back. This was a book that I needed to read and I hope that it is enlightening for others.

Everybody loves survivors' memoirs. We especially like to cheer them on their way to freeing themselves and finally making it. Tara Westover's story is one such survivor's tale. What's unique about it is how she used the power of her intellect. This fantastically gifted, talented and brilliant young woman was deprived of a conventional education through normal schools by her extreme, paranoiac, religious zealot of a father who saw conspiracy of iluminati everywhere including public school system and healthcare system. His children were pulled out of schools, or never sent to one, never allowed to use doctors and hospitals even in the most life-threatening circumstances. She was educated instead through her life experiences within this very dramatic and abusive family whose particular brand of religion served to cover the subjugation and abuse of women. Her lessons were about paranoia, subjugation, fanaticism, humiliation and helplessness. The cognitive dissonance between what she was experiencing and what she was told her experience was, led her to a loss of herself. The fact that she kept journals helped her to discern what was real and what was not, but in view of eyewitnesses denying her accounts, she often was unsure and kept doubting herself. The required demanded loyalty to the crazy family almost destroyed her. Only through unbelievable power of the intellect and discerning thinking, when she finally decided to leave and enroll in college, she was able to start making sense of her life. I have never before read such heart-stopping and heart-wrenching book. I was reminded of Edward St. Aubyn's Patrick Melrose novels in which he reworked his particular trauma. Tara Westover is a gifted intellectual, an analytical thinker to whom a professor at Cambridge University referred as "pure gold" speaking of her power of thinking and reasoning. Through study of history and historians she was able to see many view points and discover that her own perspective was a valid thing. She then started to write her own history. It is a fast read, hard to put down page turner although at times one needs to stop, simply because the degree of intensity of terrible things happening is so high that the reader needs to take breaks. I am in complete awe of the power possessed by Tara Westover and her ability to overcome such deep trauma. All those who helped her, various professors along the course of her studies, deserve a great deal of appreciation for recognizing her abilities and giving a helping hand. Ultimately she obtained her education at Cambridge and Harvard universities which elevated her into the peaks of scholarly thinking and placed her among great thinkers as an equal. The revenge was sweet. However Tara Westover never stopped loving her family, she did her best trying to remove herself and to understand. This is simple a feat of marvel. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to read about adversity but also about intellectual pursuits.

Thank you NetGalley for loaning an electronic version of the reader's copy of this title.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for making this copy of Educated available. All opinions are my own.

The Glass Castle meets Gap Creek and earns a PhD.
Can I give this six stars?? More in-depth review to come.

UPDATE:
It took me about a week or so to digest and live in the words of this book and the incredible story of Tara Westover growing up with extremist parents that were against all things "unnatural" and how she eventually earned a PhD from Cambridge.
If you are having a bad day or a pity party, read this book. If you are having financial problems, read this book. If you think you can't make it another day, read this book. If you think your job is miserable, read this book. Tara Westover grew up at the base of a mountain in Idaho within a Mormon family with six siblings and a mother and a father. However, she didn't receive much parenting as a child. Her father was a strict enforcer of Bible verses and her mother deferred all decisions to him. When her mother acted as a mid-wife, (because her father thought it would be a good idea) Tara became the assistant. When her father needed assistance with pulling and throwing scrap metal, Tara and her brothers were the employees.
I'm no wimp and certainly not afraid of work, but the extreme and and incredulously unsafe practices of this family living "off the grid" kept me predicting someone's certain death. From car wrecks with brain injuries to motorcycle accidents to second degree burns, all ailments were treated with tonics, poultices and herbal oils. Anything associated with the government was off limits, which meant, school, doctors, hospitals, laws, taxes, Pell grants, etc...When her father hears of the nearby Ruby Ridge siege, Tara and her brothers have to prepare, and sleep with a "head for the hills"bag.
When one of her older brothers defies his upbringing and goes on to college, he encourages Tara to do the same. At the age of 16, she takes the ACT test, fails, then teachers herself trigonometry to earn an acceptable score to attend BYU. At 17, she becomes a freshman at BYU, alienates her classmates and roommates with her "strange clothes" and "strict beliefs." Thankfully, a professor takes interest in her, senses her determination and helps Tara adjust as well as find ways to further her education.
This book probably could have been twice its length, but Westover has chosen just the right events and woven them seamlessly into a page turner quest for a different life. Through her experiences, she takes the reader with her as she revisits her life through physical abuse, poverty, survivalist and religious beliefs, her exclusion by some of her family and her determination to overcome it all.
Educated should be a must-read for teachers, students and anyone. Gillian Anderson is right, "You can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance and facing your fears." Tara Westover's story is this quote in living color.
#netgalley #Educated

Westover's memoir is lyrical at times, conversational at others, but always compelling. Her story of overcoming abuse and neglect to achieve educational success is astonishing, yet Westover never lets bitterness, self-pity, or anger color her story. At points, I lost a sense of her timeline but overall this story is a stunning one written with heart, honesty, and bravery.

Outstanding story of individual patience and perseverance. Excellent read, great characters and terrific writing. Reminds me of Jeannette Wells "The Glass Castle" and "Half Broke Horses". Look forward to reading more from this author.

Writing: 4.5 Plot: 4.5 Characters: 4
Disturbing in places

A remarkably level headed tale of the “education” the author received growing up. The youngest of seven children born to an ultra strict Mormon, survivalist, anti-government, and probably bipolar man and his wife in rural Idaho, Tara Westover never went to school, never saw a doctor (even for life threatening illnesses and accidents), and was not allowed to wear a seat belt. She was called a whore if skin showed accidentally or if her father or older brothers determined she was acting in a “whorish” fashion. When she wanted a birth certificate, the family could not even agree on the day that she was born.

This memoir takes her from birth through receiving her PhD from Cambridge at the age of 27. Her PhD topic: “The Family, Morality, and Social Science in Anglo-American Cooperative Thought, 1813-1890”, including a chapter on Mormonism as a social movement. The story is gripping, both in the details of actual events and in her reflections on how to become the person she is meant to be when there are such strong voices in her head telling her about government plots, whorish behavior, and false history. Homeopathic remedies, work in a scrap metal business, Y2K scares, some physical abuse and the lies people build around themselves - all told in a matter-of-fact style that lays is out without over-emotionalizing.

Great for fans of Jeanette Walls or Jill Kerr Conway.

Overwhelmed with this wonderfully written book, stopping often to digest the neglect the author experienced.

The author, Tara Westover, describes her childhood that includes no formal schooling, yet rises above this to earn her Ph.D. She writes about her efforts to educate herself, beginning with the problem of getting a birth certificate at the age of 14. Home births, herbalism and no medical care made her undocumented in her own county and state government. Ms. Westover writes about the daily neglect that her bipolar dad inflicted upon her family and to describe the deepening paranoia surrounding the government and outsiders.

The book has been compared to the Glass Castle, which I adored, although this memoir has additional features of having national significance, being associated with the Ruby Ridge case of Randy Wheeler. Ms. Westover describes her struggle to obtain her education within a paranoid and neglectful upbringing.

"Educated "has the feel of a book written for those who need inspiration to become their best selves. Highly recommended for adults struggling to find themselves in a sea of self doubt.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

#NetGalley . #Educated

The overarching theme of the redemptive qualities of education are spot-on and are the only thing that saved me from disliking the book entirely. The elements of Westover's life including her lack of education because of a religious father who was also fearful of the government and waiting for the second coming were all fascinating individually but it didn't flow together in a seamless memoir.

I was reading and then it literally felt like I missed several chapters because it moved to another element of her life, upbringing, or family without any warning or understanding of their connection. So I was disappointed that I couldn't relate to Westover more in her telling of her story. She does what books like Hillbilly Elegy are doing, which is shining the light on social dynamics, geographical and religious boundaries that are drawn within the United States, and the fragility of a family structure.

"There’s a world out there, Tara,” he said. “And it will look a lot different once Dad is no longer whispering his view of it in your ear.”

The above quote is true, in a sense, for all children but more so in certain families. This was one of the most captivating memoirs I have ever read. Ideas can be dangerous, and children are nothing if not always at the mercy of their parents. They are our Gods, they rule the universe until we are able to fully think and decide for ourselves, but how do you do that when you’ve been conditioned? What about being kept out of school, taught to distrust everyone that doesn’t share your parents beliefs? Here is the truth, when your world is small and contained you are so much easier to control, to manipulate. Maybe all parents poison the minds of their children with their ideology, often not meaning too. We can’t be right all the time, and aren’t as progressive as we imagine. Every parent has allowed their prejudices to bleed into their children, well meaning or not- born out of fear or from horrible experience that colored our thoughts and those things can wreak havoc for life on our children, carried well into adulthood. How do we purge the rot and nurture the seeds of good our parents have placed inside of us? As with all of us, Tara Westover spent much of her life sifting through her education, life lessons, religious beliefs, etc. A child of survivalists, believing the end of times is always around the corner, forced to prep endlessly, that the rest of the world is full of sin, forbidden to be seen or treated by doctors (because God and nature heals, not man) barred from school (because it’s brainwashing) her father is first and foremost a faithful servant of God. Early on he has episodes, everyone must fall in line to his demands, even her mother forced into midwifery and healing. Her brother is brutally abusive, and abuse is something no one really understands until they’ve lived through it. Good, Bad… how do you make that separation with nothing to compare it to? You can only dissect things with what you are aware of, what do you do when it’s been drilled into you that all you can trust is your family, forced to view the entire world as ominous and evil?

Tara, of course has an inborn feeling of right and wrong and an intelligence beyond what is ‘acceptable’ but there is a struggle with religion and the love she feels for her family. While her father has spent his life sure the rest of the world is a threat, out to brainwash godly people he himself is guilty of such. Be it an unamed illness in him or manical faith, a label changes nothing when behavior is enabled and beyond anyone’s control. Yes, any sane person would be horrified by the things she and her siblings were forced to do, things even strong grown men would be hardpressed to take on, and why does she see it through? Because parents are in control, there is no other option, and later to protect others. It does dawn on her that her life is hardscrabble and brutal, and as quoted above, when one of her brothers seeks a different way of life and escapes (which is a mean feat) she finds her own way out.

Being out is a loaded thing too. Chosing anything other than the life her father has mapped out for his children is to be excommunicated! It’s siblings having to chose sides, it’s relying solely on oneself. Tara is one hell of a strong woman, and the madness of it is her parents, in all their outrageous expectations and teachings still are a part of the reason she turned out the way she did. What a thing to chew on! We become, either in spite of or because of, don’t we. We discard what’s been forced upon us, embrace it, or ulter it until the fit is right. Even the most horrific of things we have survived are a part of our evolution, so to speak.

Tara loves her parents, there is no doubt but that doesn’t mean she can’t see their flaws. It’s a miracle anyone survived her father and his ideas, and her mother- because she allowed it, she took part in it. The dizzying moments come when things do turn out, when her parents have success or share a scrap of tenderness, that’s the confusion for her. Surely, if they are right about this than maybe she is the bad one?

I can’t even begin to do justice to this memoir, it’s so hard to review them anyway as you feel like you have someone’s life in your hands, such an over-exaggeration I know, but really, this is a raw account of Tara Westover’s heartbreaking and inspiring struggle to free herself. Do not be fooled by the cover, it isn’t just about education nor off the grid survivalists and religion. I couldn’t put it down, and spent so much time collecting flies with my mouth gaping open in shock. There is a lingering sadness inside of me, even for her brother whom wronged Tara in so many ways, and that is how it is for her.I could write paragraphs about everything I felt and thought along the journey of this memoir, but the best I can do is tell others to read it! I hope there is another book one day, she is someone you long to check in on, that you’re rooting for. I don’t think I could have found my way as she found hers, it takes courage and something more that so many of us are missing. It’s so much easier to play possum and just accept the devil you know, but I kept hearing ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ and ‘rely on yourself’. She sure did!

Yes, a must read for 2018!

Publication Date: February 20, 2018

Random House