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al_sharnaqi's review against another edition
5.0
It is tremendously a powerful story.
What is a person to do, I asked, when their obligations to their family conflict with other obligations, to friends, to society, to themselves?*
What is a person to do, I asked, when their obligations to their family conflict with other obligations, to friends, to society, to themselves?*
jenns0226's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
genrichards's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
sereia8's review against another edition
5.0
I have so many thoughts and feelings about this book and it's going to take me a long time to sort them all out. Powerful story. Powerful writing. Unforgettable.
kitkat962's review against another edition
4.0
My expectation: a story about the author's education and how it expands her worldview
The reality: family dramas and Mormonism
I enjoy memoirs in audiobook format, and Educated feels intimate. It does meet my expectation as the book includes Tara Westover's journey from "homeschool" to Cambridge and Harvard, and how from history she learned and grew as a person. But I think this serves as a background to her family's religious influence, despite the introduction of the book "not about Mormonism", which is my reason for the 4 stars.
The book exposed me to the fundamentalist Mormonism's practice, and I was fascinated. Tara's accounts of the abuse and gaslighting felt genuine, and while I'm skeptical of all the injuries and miraculous healings (I mean, can you really survive a fall with brains oozing out? or an explosion that burned the entire upper body?), I don't blame her as a victim. She admitted herself in the book, that her memories are not perfect, and that several details are hearsay, but I don't think it discredits the book as fictional.
Finally, I want to commend Tara's writing. Memoirs can be slow-paced without an actual plot, and while I think her childhood was made much more dramatic than it was, the writing feels fluid and compelling to read
4 stars
The reality: family dramas and Mormonism
I enjoy memoirs in audiobook format, and Educated feels intimate. It does meet my expectation as the book includes Tara Westover's journey from "homeschool" to Cambridge and Harvard, and how from history she learned and grew as a person. But I think this serves as a background to her family's religious influence, despite the introduction of the book "not about Mormonism", which is my reason for the 4 stars.
The book exposed me to the fundamentalist Mormonism's practice, and I was fascinated. Tara's accounts of the abuse and gaslighting felt genuine, and while I'm skeptical of all the injuries and miraculous healings (I mean, can you really survive a fall with brains oozing out? or an explosion that burned the entire upper body?), I don't blame her as a victim. She admitted herself in the book, that her memories are not perfect, and that several details are hearsay, but I don't think it discredits the book as fictional.
Finally, I want to commend Tara's writing. Memoirs can be slow-paced without an actual plot, and while I think her childhood was made much more dramatic than it was, the writing feels fluid and compelling to read
4 stars
the_escape_artist_'s review against another edition
5.0
I could not put this book down. The story is so outlandish it’s seems like fiction and so authentic it must be true. Growing up as a rural religious homeschooler (who actually received a loving and full education) I knew many families who mirror this one. Where anything formal is distrusted to the point of fear, equating it with pure evil, where safety and caution are replaced with “trust that god will protect and provide”. Tara is an amazing resilient person, to rise above this abuse and share her experience. I believe her experience, and thankful I got to share it.