Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Educated by Tara Westover

521 reviews

pranjuli's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

I wanna know more and lesser at the same time. Tara has a gift - this is undeniable, and her story is one of inspiration and abandon at the same time. I am horrified as well as gratified. 

Weirdly, despite being a story so away from our lives, Tara doesn't come across as an alien when discussing about her feelings and fears and how she felt when thrown into new situations after living a completely different life for 17 years. She doesn't feel unnatural, she doesn't come across as miraculous either. 
She is a woman, just like any of us, who had to grapple with so much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

miorinsa's review

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

4.75

This memoir is powerful, challenging, rage inducing, and transformative. Tara’s journey from an emotionally, mentally, and physically abused child to a strong, confident, educated woman is awe-inspiring. The way she tells her story of how she grappled with being loyal to her family versus loyal to herself is difficult to witness, but something we can all identify with, even if on a less severe level. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, and Animal death

nightpath's review

dark hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

I absolutely devoured this as an audiobook. Whelan is an excellent narrator and added so much to an already highly intense narrative. The book really doesn't speed up or slow down it just stays at 100% right until the end. 

Tara Westover is a truly talented writer, and clearly a deeply reflective person. To have spent so much of her life journaling to no end and learning at a steep cost to her wellbeing, it is amazing that this book even exists. 

There are few stories that allow you to see so clearly how much of a certain experience you have taken for granted, but this book takes you out of yourself entirely and shows you in absolute clarity what it is you have been given, simply by receiving an education. 

My only note is to trigger warn - the book is intense and graphic and it may not suit everyone!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, Death of parent, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

maggiemcfly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Animal death, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Misogyny

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

papaveriepapere's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Bullying, Gaslighting, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, and Violence

marissasa's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

3.0

This memoir is a testament to the author's strength and resilience, and the ways in which education and the way we are raised really shapes who people become. Although this story is often harrowing and tense, the author had a bit of an emotionless matter-of-fact writing style that made it such that I wanted to keep reading but I never felt truly moved or emotional. This style makes sense though as she speaks about the way she learned to not let it show that the trauma and abuse she experienced got to her and to not outwardly show her weakness. I do really admire the courage she found to live life on her own terms and to write this book without the support of most of her family members.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cursing, Bullying, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Cancer, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Violence, Animal death, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Medical content, and Mental illness

slascano's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, Self harm, and Physical abuse

Fundamentalist Mormon isolation resilient

lilbuthod's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racial slurs, and Child abuse

paytonwaddell's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Animal death, Blood, Sexism, Mental illness, Car accident, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Medical content, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, and Child abuse

Moderate: Body shaming

hannah_wilson315's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

What a story. It’s incredible to hear about Tara’s life and all she was able to overcome. Her story so sad in many ways but also very eye opening and inspiring. For me it put into perspective how someone could believe such unbelievable things if it was all they were surrounded with. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, and Gaslighting