"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

This book was a fascinating look into a unique family dynamic. The author grew through the unfolding of the story which was an insightful progression. Even in later years as she fell back into old roles she owned as a child she was still able to acknowledge the slip. This story will make you reevaluate your own issues with your family and rewritten histories (it did for me!) and was overall a great story. I felt the ending was more about self-therapy and a plea to 'give her own side' to her family but I don't begrudge her that chance. Would have loved to have seen more about her thesis. While the story is mostly about relationships I did love to see her thoughts on education and what makes history a history and would have loved a bit more about her studies. Going to put this in my high school library as soon as it is released.

reviewed on Goodreads.

This author has accomplished more in the past 13 years than most could accomplish in multiple lifetimes. She pulled herself up and out of a fanatical survivalist family where she received no education for her first 16 years. At 16 she studied for the ACTs and was accepted and enrolled at BYU and eventually received her PhD in 2014 in Cambridge. Based on what she endured and overcame it is challenging for me to rank and review this book. Her spirt and achievements are a 100 (out of a 5 point scale)! The writing is good and mostly engaging but I did find it dragging during the middle third of the book. Her story was eye-opening to the horrors some children endure who are raised by severally mentally ill parents. Overall I encourage people to read this book. We owe it to these children to learn their trials and tribulations and to learn from their terror. We need to be aware so if we ever encounter it we can help. And, if you ever doubt you can accomplish something, read this book and think again - you can.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with an early release of this book.

A good memoir is like good fiction: the reader enters into the life of the author, feeling the emotions and experiencing the events. Educated by Tara Westover joins the club of great memoirs like The Glass Castle and Liar’s Club with a story of a girl who is part of a highly dysfunctional family but pushes through her doubts, her love and her distrust of herself to become her own person. Westover supplies visceral descriptions of her feelings during events so that the reader enters completely into the moment. Her descriptions makes the reader love her mountain, hate the smells and chaos of her home, fear the dangers of the scrapheaps and yearn for the towers of Cambridge. That it was possible for her to overcome her mis-education to earn her PhD is awe inspiring. Recommended for all book discussion groups.

Alternately Reminiscent of Jeannette walls and David sedaris in equal doses, Tara westover slyly crafts the tale of her childhood. She describes a home with doomsday preppers and homeopaths that leads you down a rabbit hole to another reality. A true Cinderella story is revealed as westover takes us from Idaho to Cambridge to Rome and beyond. A veritable treat!

I requested this memoir at the recommendation of a very bookish friend. Unfortunately, this one did not work for me. While I appreciate everything Tara Westover experienced, I found I did not enjoy reading about her life and, ultimately, did not finish this one.

Love, love, love this memoir. An honest and page-turning account of what can happen when knowledge supersedes blind faith, including breaking abusive and manipulative family ties, standing up for the truth, and creating a fulfilling life outside the bonds of her nuclear family.

Wow. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. Reminiscent of the Glass Castle, this is a page turner. How the author survived her hell and came out alive is the true miracle. Definitely recommending this one!

This book took me a little while to really get into, despite it being incredibly interesting. This is an account of the author's life within an extremely cloistered and religious household. Although the family is Mormon and live in a mostly Mormon community, due to the father's paranoia and delusions of government conspiracies, the family is more separated from the outside world than most of the community and the youngest 4 children do not even attend public school. As a teenager the author, Tara, decides that she wants an education so she studies for the college entrance exams until she can pass and applies for school. When she makes it to college she realizes how very cut off from the outside world she really has been. She doesn't know how school and studying really work and she is unfamiliar with the most basic historical events (which leads to some embarrassment). Her personal grooming and other habits set her apart from the other students and leads to some conflict with roommates until she learns society's general expectations for keeping up common spaces & hygiene. In spite of all of the extra challenges Tara faces in navigating a totally foreign world, she thrives on school and is soon encouraged to pursue further education overseas and eventually a masters degree. The more educated she becomes, the more she is removed from her family and their now over-the-top dogma. Family conflicts ensue and Tara has to choose between her family and her independence. Very well written and engaging.

Tara Westover was raised in Idaho, the daughter of fundamentalist Mormon parents, in the wake of the tragic events at Ruby Ridge. Her father decreed that anything to do with the government was sinful, and kept Tara and her siblings from school and from access to medical care. Her mother, an herbalist and midwife, chose to be helpless to protect her children from his rages and turned a blind eye to the physical and emotional abuse one of Tara's brothers visited on Tara and her siblings.

As becomes increasingly clear in this riveting memoir, Tara's father and brother both suffer(ed) from undiagnosed mental illness, but because Tara truly didn't have exposure to anything else in her formative years, it was just her normal.

Another of her brothers, who did have some education and a bigger world view, recognizes Tara's undeniable intelligence, and encourages her to teach herself enough to take and pass the ACT. She is 16 years old when she does and her ticket out is secured--she is offered a scholarship to Brigham Young University. Her time there is not easy; a child who has never set foot in a classroom, whose only historical perspective is what was fed to her by parents who shunned all versions of the world and history but their own, has an enormous row to hoe. That she finds her roommates, who are fellow Mormons, to be uncomfortably worldly is testament to the rigorous and unforgiving standards under which she was raised. Tara's determination to work out a way to succeed despite setbacks of nearly Biblical proportions is tangible, and the reader can do naught but root for her.

Despite leaving home, despite years of higher education at BYU, Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard, Tara remains emotionally tethered to her own history, influenced by the judgmental battering she takes from her father and brother, and unconvinced of her worthiness to live the life she now has without feeling like an imposter.

Education has the emotional percussion of Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle Mary Karr's The Liar's Club. Highly, highly recommended.

I received a free download of this book from Random House, through NetGalley. Publication date is February 2018.

This book.

This book put a lot in perspective for me. I was not educated at home, nor did I grow up in a religious background. I have judged those that come from a place that Westover did, not understanding how they grew up, and why they feel the way they do about things. How can they be so ignorant?

I know now. It's not ignorance. It's just not knowing. It's being uneducated in the ways of the world. In the ways things happened in history. It's trusting faith before everything, and using that faith to shape your world view.

I specifically quoted a passage while reading this book (paraphrased) that says "... the past shifted... the memory was immediately changed, blemished, turned to rot. The past became as ghastly as the present." That really struck me, because I, like Tara, have let my present color my past. An evil man was always evil, but that's not really true. It's how I feel now, knowing what I know now.


This book.
Has changed me.

Thank You, Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC of this wonderful novel.
I cannot recommend this novel enough.

Absolutely stunning! Self-educated and reaching heights she'd never dreamed of, Tara Westover still has to come to grips with the baggage her past has left her with. From the mental illness of her father, the damaged older broter, to the strict Mormon upbringing, all left a mark on Tara that isn't easily erased. Without ever sounding self-pitying or maudlin, Tara chronicles her upbringing and her metamorphosis into adulthood. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and and Random House Publishing for an advanced company in exchange for this review.

I'm intrigued (and sometimes disturbed) by people who live off the grid. Educated is the story of Tara's life. She and her family live in the mountains of Idaho and are survivalists. Tara never saw a doctor, never set foot in a school, and was isolated from society. Her father did not trust the government and was convinced that everything mainstream was propaganda. As a teenager, she decides to go to school and ends up teaching herself so she can pass the ACT and attend BYU. I squirmed when she raised her hand in class and did not know what the Holocaust was. I was amazed at her dedication to school and her ability to teach herself when she lacked formal schooling as a child. I found myself rooting for her as she started to realize that maybe parts of childhood beliefs were not correct. Her strength in learning about new things and questioning her own knowledge in order to grow was powerful. It cost her family connections but she also gained so much. What an eye opening read. It signifies the importance of education.

Ms Westover describes in her book her early childhood on Buck Pearl Mountain. Her father suffering from bi polar and an indifferent mother. She could not attend school, because "that is where the government brainwashes people", she had no birth certificate until she was 14, and she took the ACT test to get into college by studying any chance that she got. Yet when she started to get accolades for her education, her father tried pulling her back into dysfunction. She resisted.
The authors description and life journey is one to be sipped slowly. Yet, I would gulp large portions of this book in one sitting. I found her story compelling, strange, and yet triumphant. I could relate to her story and her heartbreak of losing her family over her decision to better herself. Overall this is a great book and a story that needed to be told.