This is a powerful memoir. Very well written with the objectivity of a woman who has processed her experiences and made her peace with the girl she was and the woman she is. Tara's childhood was filled with violence and extremist ideology. Her father faithfully read his scriptures and made interpretations that were extreme. He built a more strict religion than his Mormon neighbors yet continued to move the goal posts to fit his mood.

This is not a book about Mormonism. This the movement of one girl breaking free of the internal and external restraints that held her hostage. She gives a fair and balanced account of members in her family. None are cast as completely villainous or saintly. Yet the underlying current is that the home was ruled by a controlling father, deeply troubled by multiple mental illnesses left untreated and unchecked. Bipolar, paranoid, violent and, at times, psychotic, he preached anti-establishment, anti-government, and end of the world.

Additionally, the author experiences a complicated, contradictive relationship with an older brother that switched quickly from protector to violent protagonist. There is a parallel of sorts between the brother and the father. Both are capable of horrific abuse and neglect yet also of deep love. Neither are mentally stable yet the people surrounding them allow their reality to dictate their own existence. It is an extreme example of group gaslighting to the point that the sane questions his or her sanity.

In the same valley 65 years earlier, my dad stood and stretched his back after thinning sugar beets. In a moment of clarity, he saw his life if he stayed complacent; thinning sugar beets, hungry and poor. He quit that day and announced he was going to college. Without support or money, he worked whatever jobs he could get, joined ROTC, and eventually earned a Ph.D.

What the author so beautifully illustrates through her words is how she gained freedom through education, self analysis through historians and therapy, and how her journey, although still continuing, is one that she chooses and can enjoy.

This is one of the most harrowing books I have read. Every child should be protected by their parents and family. In many families, where mental illness is involved, this definitely doesn't happen. I was expecting to be dismayed by children not being educated, but this was so much more than that. I admire Ms. Westover for presenting her story so clearly and honestly. This must have been difficult to write. It was certainly difficult to read.

A heart wrenching memoir. The description for this book said “in the tradition of The Glass Castle” and while that is true on the basic level, it is so much more. This is the story of a young woman’s life and eventual triumph over her background and the way she was raised. When I started the book I was quickly brought into the constant tragedy that was Tara’s early life – and then it hit me. She was not writing about a third world country or even a long time ago – she was writing about here in the United States and she is just a little older than my children. This was all happening while I was happily sending my kids to school.
Tara and her siblings grew up with survivalist parents in the mountains of Idaho. Not only were they not educated in a school system, there was also no structured home school system nor did they ever see medical professionals. While Tara attempts to enter a difference world, the constant pull of family first holds her back in so many ways. This book immersed me in Tara’s world and at times I needed to set it aside to allow myself some emotional breathing room before I was ready to read some more.
The only thing I did not enjoy about the book is the cover. At first glance, and with the title, I assumed incorrectly that is was an education resource book.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Random House, and Dr Tara Westover for the opportunity to read and review this memoir - amazing.

This is a difficult book to read but an absolute amazing portrait of someone who was able to rise from the ashes of their family life and create a new, healthy life.

Tara was raised in Idaho by religious fanatical parents. They were Mormon but so far off from even that religion. The father did not believe in government interference of any kind - so no medical treatment, no public school, no birth certificates, driver's licenses, insurance - the list goes on. The mother was into homeopathic treatments - midwifery, essential oils - and had her own mind somewhere but still followed her husband's rules, including ignoring all of the abuse heaped on her and her sister by her brother.

This is a difficult book to read - the descriptions of the brother's abuse as well as what the father made his children do are not for the faint of heart. But what is amazing is that Tara is able to go on to get her PhD after never having set one foot in school!

I found myself so grateful to my parents for all the "normalness" I experienced - school, books, cleanliness. Amazing story!!

This memoir opened my eyes to an oft-unseen way of life. It was at times uncomfortable to get through but I think it's a necessary read nonetheless. It clearly emphasizes the importance of education and an open-minded approach to life, but it also demonstrates how complicated it can be to disentangle yourself from less-than-perfect situations - especially when they involve family that you love despite their flaws. I appreciated Tara’s viewpoint and courage in telling her story, and ultimately, it left me inspired. I think it would make an excellent book club choice.

A really intriguing memoir of growing up outside the system. After years of abuse and neglect, the author finally finds the strength to stand up to her father and attend college.

I have a tremendous respect for the courage it took Tara Westover to go against her "doomsday/conspiracy theorist" father who was a physical and psychological bully to her and the rest of her siblings and mother. This memoir was well-paced and easy to read. I'd definitely recommend this to readers who enjoyed memoirs like The Glass Castle.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-arc to review.

Where on earth did Tara find the strength and will to survive and grow as she did? I am sure it is true that some excel because of their background and some in spite of it. While I know not everyone could emerge as she did, her story will no doubt give encouragement and hope to others whose life may seem entirely hopeless. In time Tara was able to separate herself somewhat from her family physically. It was much harder for her to distance herself from them emotionally. Our parents have a very strong influence on us and Tara suffered with that, not being able even to tell others about her background. Therefore, she had no friends and no real relationships. She was not able to talk of her background for a long time. This is indeed a very powerful story!

This was a heartwarming story about a young girl who has a lot of courage and ambition. Tara Westover was one of seven children born into a very dysfunctional Morman family. The children were somewhat home schooled, but basically they were put to work by their father. They were made to work in very dangerous situations by their dad who was mentally unstable. Her mother, at the beginning was a little protective, but by the end of the book that had all changed. Tara realizes that in order to escape her life she has to go to college. So she studies for ACT and on her second try she gets a score to get her into Brigham Young University.

This book has all the ranges of emotions. At time you laugh at others you are sad and often I found myself angry at all of them. This girl worked hard and against overwhelming odds made an astonishing education for herself. This book is highly recommendable.

This is one of the best memoirs I have ever read. I felt so many emotions while reading this book from rage to hopelessness. This broke my heart in a million ways. I can’t imagine being so brave as Tara was to tell her story. There is so much in this book I feel like I will never forget.

This book wrecked me. Completely, absolutely wrecked me. I can't comprehend the child hood of Tara Westover nor can I fathom how she survived her child hood to live long enough to make it off Buck Peak. Buck Peak is the home of Tara, survivalist parents, and her physically intimidating brothers. This book is well written, the story is heart breaking, and this author is an amazing and brilliant survivor.

We are honored that Tara Westover shared her life with us.

Such a powerful book! I have always heard of these types of situations in the news or as fable, but to read a real account of such secludedness was eye opening. I really enjoyed the book, and it went by in a flash. Great read!

Born into a family of Mormon survivalists, Tara Westover spent her days helping her mother make tinctures and strain herbs, or performing manual labor in her father’s junkyard rather than attending school. She also endured horrific abuse at the hands of her older brother, Shawn, which was overlooked by Tara’s parents. At seventeen, Tara followed the lead of her brother Tyler and headed off to college, an accomplishment made more difficult because Tara’s birth was never registered, since her father believed any government involvement meant interference. Doctors and hospitals were an absolute last resort, as her mother’s herbal remedies were supposed to cure almost everything. Tara’s educational efforts were met with disapproval from her parents, and though she could have easily gone back to Idaho and begged forgiveness, she continued her studies at Harvard and Cambridge, earning her doctorate in history.

Wow. What an inspiring story. The amount of abuse from her brother, the lack of safety precautions in the junkyard, no medical or dental care outside of her mother’s self-taught herbalism, no formal education…and yet Tara was determined enough to seek out a different life for herself. Some sections are difficult to read because of the vivid descriptions of the abusive episodes or the injuries various family members sustained, but I could easily imagine the beauty of the mountain that sheltered the dysfunction of the family.

Thought provoking and all the feels inducing, Educated tells the story of Tara Westover and her family who lived in Idaho. Never living as most people do-- no birth certificates, formal education, or life outside their family-- Tara fights to accept her family and believe it is all normal. Until she leaves. And from there, we see as Tara grapples with guilt of leaving and being what she can be. Highly recommend. Full review will be on my website 2/11/18.

A young girl living in rural Idaho wirh her parents and brothers. A father who distrusts the government and will not let his children attend school. A mother who is a self taught herbalist healer. This story tells of a survivalist family who keep to themselves, live off the land and are always ready to flee should the need arise. Tara helps her brothers and father in his scrap business and even when she suffers many cuts, bruises and the after-effects of an explosion, she is not taken to a doctor, but is treated at home by her mother. Her father is a domineering man and runs a tight household. One son manages to get a good education and this spurs Tara to want to do the same. She finally goes to school for the first time when she is 17 years old. She has no knowledge of past history and literally has to read as much as she can. Coming from this backwoods upbringing, it seems impossible for Tara to ever get to college, but she does and she goes way beyond what anyone could imagine that she could achieve.

I opened up Educated last night, just as I was about to go to sleep. Bad idea. Do not do this, because you won’t be able to put it down.

Tara Westover writes with immediacy, beauty, and power in an astonishing memoir of her own journey from uneducated isolation to earning an education from the world’s most prestigious universities.

Westover’s father feared the government and resisted all its intrusions on his personal autonomy. He drove an unlicensed, uninsured car, did not register his children’s births, and did not send them to school. He did not believe in traditional medicine, encouraging his wife, an herbalist, to study midwifery. His antipathy to government expressed itself in antipathy to anything resembling safety. He removed seatbelts and operated equipment without safeguards and with reckless disregard. When his kids were injured, their mother treated them with her homeopathic junk and herbal tinctures and salves and her spiritual power.

The children were “homeschooled” which meant they were mostly unschooled. They learned to read, write, and do basic math. They were mal-educated in science and history, what little they were taught was paranormal bunk and conspiracist garbage. Despite all that, Tara wanted to go to college and with great determination, she made it to BYU, the famed Mormon university where she soon learned how incredibly uneducated she was.



Educated is an amazing memoir. It is more than a journey from ignorance to education, from unschooled to a doctorate, but from the prison of superstition, patriarchy, and fear to the liberation of self-worth and knowledge. Tara is fascinated by history and the great thinkers. She learns about Isaiah Berlin’s negative liberty and positive liberty intellectually, but her real journey is finding that positive liberty in her own life.

There is a lot of pain in this memoir. There is also a lot of love. Her parents loved and love her. She loved and loves them. But love is not always enough. To be a free person, she has to love herself enough to free herself and this the memoir of that journey.

Educated will be released February 20, 2018. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

Educated at Penguin Random House
Tara Westover author site

I grew up with my nose perpetually in a book. So, the idea of not being able to go to school, of being deprived of an education, hit me really hard. It was hard for me to grasp that things I take for granted, like knowing what the Holocaust was or who MLK, Jr. was, were black holes to Tara.

Tara Westover is the child of a religious fanatic, someone who sees the government as pure evil. And by government, he means schools, hospitals, vaccines, seat belts, car insurance, etc. Everything we think of as civilization. His family awaits the Days of Abomination. There is a similarity here to The Glass Castle. Once again, we see how a mentally unbalanced father holds sway over an entire family. He thinks he speaks for God. Tara struggles with the knowledge that for her to go to school will mean a total separation from her father because he will never acknowledge that his ideas are not the correct ones.

Parts of this book are cringeworthy. I found myself shaking my head that folks would allow severe suffering rather than a trip to the hospital or the use of real medicine. I’ll warn you that some of these sections are not for the faint of heart. The descriptions are sickening.

I know little to nothing about the Mormon faith. Certainly, the faith of this family is not the true Mormon faith. But you get glimpses enough to also realize that there is a strong anti-woman bias in the faith and that women are definitely second class citizens. Broodmares more than humans on a par with men.

This book doesn’t sugarcoat things. It’s not an education makes everything better kind of story. Tara continues throughout the book to struggle to find her way, to stand up for her beliefs. Hell, to find her own beliefs.

This is an amazing book. It makes you realize how easy your life is. And how strong folks like Tara are to be able to rise above their beginnings and be able to fight back against the attempts of family to hold them down.

I’m willing to bet this book makes it onto a lot of best of 2018 lists. It will certainly be on mine. Highly recommend!

My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

Wow. I have immense respect for Westover who through the sheer force of will has done something few who have had public (or private for that matter) education have been able to do. This book made me wonder how many other Taras are out there and what we're losing as a society as a result. If this book can make one person reach out to help a struggling kid trying to get an education, then it's worth everything. This is beautifully written in a prose style that pulls you along. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Read this!

This memoir is gripping from page one. We get a glimpse into the life of a girl who was raised without a mainstream education. At seventeen, she took matters into her own hands, studying enough to get accepted to Brigham Young University, then to Cambridge University and Harvard. She shares every struggle, triumph, and heartbreak with extreme detail. Some of the scenes will take your breath away. After all that she went through, I didn't get a sense that this was supposed to be a "tell all" book about her extremist parents or that she was bitter in any way. She writes with candor but also with a deep understanding of her family's actions. The last chapter was the most touching as she returned to her home. It shows that even after making a new life for herself, she still longed for a connection with her family. The end is not what you expect. I recommend this to anyone who has struggled with their identity and still looking for their place in the world. This story will give you the courage to break free of what is holding you back.