One of the best memoirs ever

S.H. · 10 March 2018

Educated is a fantastic read. It's a very humbling memoir. This book is about one girl's determination to learn and to get an education. This book is about more than just learning though - it's about family, life, religion, being a woman and overcoming obstacles however great or small. Tara writes very eloquently. Her words flow with ease and easily evokes images of the scenery she is describing. At times you forget you are reading a memoir. Tara's way with words is such that she compels you to read to the end of the book in some haste. Personally I found it very hard to put this book down. Not always a comfortable read by any means but this is Tara's life. Her life wasn't all fluffy and sweet. Her life has had periods of darkness and that is reflected in the book in some depth. This book serves to illustrate that life can be tough and not everyone has the same luxuries in life. If we did wouldn't the world be a dull place? Tara doesn't ask for readers pity or tears she just wants people to read about her life and how you can achieve your dreams if you try and keep trying and never giving up. Tara achieved a great education in the end because she never gave up. She battled her demons and ended up richly rewarded. Tara's story is intense, very much focused on family and the love of those who are meant to love and support you unconditionally in life. Tara isn't a celebrity she's a normal girl finding her way in the world. For me that's what makes this book such a great read. This is a very personal story told with a mix of emotions. This book will resonate with people's emotions. There are times when you will want to cry or scream. This is certainly one of those books where one read is definitely not enough. Tara obviously has a knack for writing and putting her life story in print most definitely proves that. I cannot recommend this book enough. This is one of those books that will move even the hardest of readers in some way.

A gripping read and an incredible story powerfully told

M. · 10 February 2019

This is an absolutely riveting book that I couldn’t put down until finally I had finished it in the small hours of the morning.Tara Westover tells the story of her childhood and upbringing with such descriptive narrative that it’s easy to see the farm and mountain where she grew up and to imagine what it must have been like to be a young girl in her family house.When the first incidents start to appear one is held in a kind of shock. This is horrible, so wrong, so very wrong that she is treated like this and we wait for someone to recognise the abuse and intervene and put a stop to it.But the interventions never come and with each successive incident of abuse, violence and gross neglect we read on in increasing disbelief and horror that no one has stopped these people, called them out on what they are doing and stepped in to protect the victims.Tara tells her life story so skilfully, she somehow allows us to experience what she went through and yet disassociate from the worst parts simultaneously in the same way she did. It’s such brilliant brilliant writing technique to tell us and yet show us in the same sentence. Offering narrative of what her future self came to understand was happening to her, she relays at the same time perfectly how the young girl she was then lived it.With either carefully crafted intention or from therapeutic necessity (or maybe both) she leads the reader to flow through the story narrative smoothly and expertly and then stop abruptly when an incident happens. The way she writes and explains each incident forces a rereading of the paragraph more than once, for suddenly there’s a change in pace here and it’s relayed from a disassociated perspective whilst still remaining in the first person.I can’t help thinking that this emulates in part the way she herself must have visited and revisited these same incidents repeatedly in her head and in her journal to try to make sense of what has happening to her. Except she somehow found a way to normalise it so she could continue to survive and function in such a dangerous hostile environment.Truly it’s such marvellous intelligent writing and all the more painful for it. We feel a truer impact of her painful incredible story and feel for her in a way that is at once frustrating because we are powerless ourselves to step in and save her from the people who are her family. Or even perhaps to save them all from themselves.It’s interesting that this is domestic abuse and violence in full flow but Tara never calls it that in the book, save a indicative third party reference in the end. She reaches for instead repeatedly, an understanding of why her family behaved the way they did. Her love for them and need not to unfairly label them, even whilst recalling such pain, is obvious even here.In some ways the second and last part of the book are more heartbreaking and haunting. Whilst clearly all the physical wounds have healed and by the power of her own internal will, strength, resilience and focus and determination she has transformed her life into what any of us would applaud as a brilliant success (and most of us can only aspire to in our dreams), there is a feeling that this is all overshadowed by the pain of her cruel and unfair eviction from the family.She describes the effects of their gaslighting with disturbing clarity. Physical violence is one thing but to undermine and eradicate a person’s sense of reality and self belief is an abhorrent abuse that leaves no visible scars, yet has a destructive force that can demolish a life from the inside out.There’s a sense that even with her intellectual understanding, she still underneath it all keenly feels she’s had to pay a high price for her personal safety, success and happiness. That whilst more than half of her family have cruelly rejected and evicted her and continue to slander her in attempt to regain lost power and control, she still feels love and undercurrents of loyalty towards them even whilst she knows she can no longer concede to the abuse.The book is an excellent example of the devastating cost an absence of education and self-belief can have. What Tara Westover doesn’t emphasise and is notably non-vocal and modest about is her own inspiring inner strength and brilliance as a human being.One can’t help but feel that in the absence of having a family who appreciated their incredible good fortune to have such a remarkable daughter in their lives and who lived up to their responsibilities, she at some point is finally able to fully let go of them within herself. To fully let go of that innate desire to have the love and regard of her parents. Is this ever truly possible for a child, even an adult one? That’s debateable but if anyone deserves to be happy and free and lighthearted and at true peace within herself, it’s undoubtedly Tara Westover.

Excellent non-stop read!

M.S.K. · 7 April 2020

Tara Westover writes a very powerful memoir detailing her life growing up within a Mormon family. She describes her traumatic childhood years and the challenges she faces with her siblings, her relationship with her mother and father and the way of life she has to endure. Her life, in those early years, is dictated and brainwashed by her dominating father who has an extreme anti-establishment view and plans meticulously for the end of the world. Tara knows no different and thus accepts this as normal. Her controlling brother frequently mentally and physically abuses her, sadly her mother chooses to turn a blind eye. She spends those early years with no formal schooling and spends her time labouring on the family junkyard with her siblings or helping her mother develop natural herbal remedies. Finally she has the courage, with the help of one of her brothers to make the break from her family and successfully attends a string of educational establishments, including Oxford and Cambridge, surprising herself at her achievements but also realising she is going against everything her father has taught and wants for her. Inevitably she is forced to make a difficult choice, her family or her education.This memoir is a very real representation of how our parents can influence our minds using their ideals to infiltrate a child's mind. It is only when that child becomes an adult can they question these values and make their own informed choices about the world. Tara Westover made some difficult choices and is living with those consequences today. I do hope she can become reconciled with her parents and they are able to accept her way of life without being judgemental, I fear though this may never happen.Her story will remain with me on so many levels, I applaud her honest frankness and courage to write this excellent book. A very worthy 5 stars.

Educada

I.M.T.C. · 6 December 2019

Adorei o livro. A história é incrível. Uma menina, que é educada em casa, passa no vestibular e conta suas memórias familiares, da universidade e, depois, do seu doutorado em Cambridge. É uma trajetória impressionante.A rotina familiar é maluca. O pai um mórmon radical que vê comunistas debaixo da cama. Não admite que os filhos frequentem as escolas para não serem contaminados pela "doutrina socialista". Da mesma forma, não permite o uso de medicamentos, muito menos de ir se tratar em um hospital. A mãe, uma parteira, prepara "poções mágicas" para todo tipo de doença. Por incrível que pareça, a família se torna um sucesso comercial e renega a filha bem educada.A experiência de uma jovem aluna, sem nenhum contato prévio com a escola, nas salas de uma universidade é contada de forma agradável e engraçada. Para um professor, como eu, percebe-se uma autonomia muito maior nas universidades americanas quando comparadas com as nossas. O apoio da igreja, do estado e de bons professores é determinante no seu progresso. O livro é um sucesso. Foi recomendado pelo Bill Gates e pelo Obama. Eu também recomendo fortemente.

Worth reading

B.b. · 18 December 2025

Awesome book

Amazing book !

C.P. · 4 September 2024

A bit intense at times, but very interesting reading

Loved this book. Read it.

A.E. · 22 June 2021

This is one of the most memorable books I’ve ever read.!It is interesting and so well written. Is a very intimate and honest read. With non pretentious notes.The second part is more agile than the first, but the book in the whole is amazing.I liked so much as is this portrait of a family living in a religious community and how a girl so in need of learning and reading and being educated, deals with so much prejudice and social pressure.After I finished the book I was so interested that I went on line to watch Tara Westover interviews and talks about her autobiographical experience.One of the books I will definitely remember for ever.

Story

L.J. · 7 March 2026

Really a gr8 book. This book really touched me.