Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

Educated by Tara Westover

141 reviews

helenferg's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Violence, Medical trauma, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

hermithebs's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death and Antisemitism

leonormsousa's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

Educated was a punch in a gut that I was not expecting. I mean, all you need to do is take a look at the trigger warnings list to see that this is not some light reading. It’s violent and hard and, in my opinion, a book that’s in its basis about breaking free after growing up and living in an abusive and oppressive family. 

It’s sometimes hard, from an outside perspective, to understand how some victims have such a hard time leaving an abusive situation. And so one of my favourite things about this book is the juxtaposition of Tara’s thoughts at the time of the events and at the time of the writing. It allows us to better understand that although years after she can clearly identify herself as a victim, at the moment of the abuse it was not so easy to either see it or escape it. 

There are a lot of factors that can make you blind to what’s happening to you from your insecurities, to your (religious) education to the love you feel towards your abuser (that might never go away).
”You can love someone and still choose to say goodbye to them (…) You can miss a person every day, and still be glad that they are no longer in your life.”
”It’s strange how you give the people you love so much power over you.” 

Another topic that Tara exploits in Educated and that’s always a favourite of mine, is how your financial independence can affect your life, being a limitation for your education or trapping you in situations you want to escape from (like domestic violence).
”I began to experience the most powerful advantage of money: the ability to think of things besides money.”
“Curiosity is a luxury for the financially secure.”

The book still touches on feminism and mental health and, of course, covers the topic of Mormonism, although the author let’s us now from the start that this is just her story and that the experiences she lived don’t necessarily have a correlation with her family’s religion. 

The one subject that I think could have been a little bit more explored was her struggles in university as someone who’d never been to school and barely had had any home classes. It feels like she quickly goes from someone who’s highly struggling to someone who’s having great success and it would have been interesting to follow the process that she went through to make that happen. 

To finish great, I’ll quote Mr. Barack Obama and say that it is, in fact, “a remarkable memoir” and one I will definitely be recommending to people who are willing to read a book that will make them uncomfortable and revolted, but that will be, without a doubt, an experience to carry for the rest of their lives. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Racism, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Car accident

Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Antisemitism, and Pregnancy

neni's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

 This was amazing. The way the author writes is incredibly gripping and compelling. Her life and her experiences are so far from anything I’ve experience or even thought it was possible to experience nowadays, that I kept needing to remind myself the story was true and not some indredibly elaborate fiction. And yet I was still able to empathise and engage with the story on an emotional level, because the writing was so good.
 

It was painful and yet fascinating to read about her interactions with her family, with all the gaslighting and the toxicity, and yet experience some beautiful, wholesome moments with her too. I think the author did a fantastic job of telling the story in a way that felt just and appropriate to the gravity anfd complexity of the situation, didn’t diminish the validity of her experiences and feelings, and yet wasn’t an angry manifesto about how singularly evil her family was. There was pain and violence, but also compassion in there, and that made it an even more valuable read because people, and life, are just like that. Messy and incoherent and unresolved in a way that is not necessarily “satisfying” like fiction is. 

I was also just overall immensely impressed with her life’s journey. Having no access to an education and then ending up with degrees from Cambridge and Harvard, being super talented at writing, is just like WOW. Not to mention the ammount of growth, work and self-reflection that processing and getting through all that trauma must have necessitated. Truly astonishing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Islamophobia, and Dysphoria

grainjordan's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Antisemitism, and Grief

Birth

graphic moments of pregnancy and birth complications

captainwinter's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

It took me quite a while to get through this book, just because I had to keep putting it away every couple of chapters. It's raw, it's disturbing, and it's deeply emotional. I think it shows very well how victims of abuse sometimes adjust the recollection in their head to fit the story of the abusers and how mentally draining and challenging it can be to go against those stories. I would have liked a bit more detail in some cases (and some less detail in others, to be honest), but I think this was a beautiful memoir. What I specifically really enjoyed/appreciated where the notes, because it's nice knowing that events might not be completely accurate because people remembered different things. It tied in so nicely with the overall message of the book (whose story is the right one?) and I just thought that was a nice touch.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Toxic relationship and Antisemitism

maggie_hamel's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

5.0

I flew through this memoir with a speed that surprised me. I've never read something like this, that so accurately and painfully described human emotion and experience. I didn't expect that I would like it at all, let alone finish it but this book blew me out of the water. That's what I'd call an "Education"

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cancer and Antisemitism

smoothlikebutter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Antisemitism, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

quil's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Antisemitism

efsimpkin's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring medium-paced

4.5

I’ve been meaning to read this book for SO LONG, so I’m really pleased I finally managed to do so. I went into this pretty blind - I know it was a book about a girl not going to school and then trying to, but that was about it.

I rarely read memoirs, much preferring fiction, but honestly reads like it in places as the events are truly unbelievable. It’s hard to fathom how Tara’s parents could live as they do. The prose is really lovely and readable, and the pacing jumps around a bit, but I was hooked from the start of Part 2 and read the rest in one sitting. I was screaming at Tara in the final part to get help, and had to stop and remind myself that this is a real person - not a character! - that’s how powerful the story is.

I really enjoyed this despite some of the gorier scenes and some of the more difficult ones to read. It’s hard though, and not like, pleasant reading? Hence not getting the full 5 stars. As an educator it’s made me realise that I should assume nothing about my students, and I’ll carry that with me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Antisemitism