Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

Educated by Tara Westover

133 reviews

pipcorn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexism

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Antisemitism

vireogirl's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

4.0

Such a tough book. So many terrible experiences. Twisted truth. Yet laced with the hope of change. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Violence, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Antisemitism, and Bullying

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Death, and Pregnancy

rumay's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Gun violence and Vomit

Minor: Genocide

madelinegl's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical trauma, Car accident, and Child abuse

Minor: Racial slurs, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Cancer, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Animal death, Blood, Cursing, and Death

jspain's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

i like books like this cause i am nosey

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death, Medical trauma, Medical content, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Misogyny, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Antisemitism, Car accident, Panic attacks/disorders, Confinement, Colonisation, Body shaming, Terminal illness, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Cancer, Blood, Racial slurs, Sexual content, and Classism

sasshq's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child abuse, Animal death, Bullying, Medical content, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Blood, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Sexism, Violence, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Torture

Minor: Antisemitism, Body shaming, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Cancer, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Death, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Grief, Genocide, Misogyny, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Stalking, Dementia, and Medical content

ger561's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Educated is a book that explores the themes of religion and how when taken to the extremes can become something akin to a cult. Tara the main character goes through her life as a young girl without going to school. She learns everything about the world through her family and grows up thinking that the outside world is evil. However when her brother helps her go to college she has to figure out how to differentiate the image of the world as she learned it to how it actually is along with a changing relationship with her family.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Medical content, Misogyny, Sexism, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical trauma, and Mental illness

Moderate: Violence, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racial slurs

Minor: Antisemitism, Cultural appropriation, Blood, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

samcsmith's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Cursing, Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Physical abuse, Animal death, Car accident, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cancer, Dementia, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

wooolesia's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

4.5

I underestimated how much violence there would be in this book. More striking even than the acts of intentional harm, which are numerous,  was the kind of casual, everyday violence of the scrapyard and farm, from lost fingers to blinded eyes to grotesque jobsite accidents to not one, but two near-identical road accidents— fruits of the negligence made possible when safety takes on a moral valence and survival is bestowed only by the angels who protect the righteous. Westover weaves together the brutality of her youth with its genuine tendernesses as warp and weft in the same, seamless “normal,” effectively allowing the reader to understand some part of why its horrors went  uninterrogated. Why would you push back against

your  older brother’s sadistic, misogynistic abuse

when 

your father was willing to impale you on some scrap metal for the sake of worksite efficiency

?

Westover also has remarkable magnanimity, extending grace to everyone from

that terrifying older brother, to her deranged father, enabling mother, even the also-abused sister who recants her testimony and denies her sister when the family starts to tighten the screws

. To some extent, this radical acceptance of her family members & abusers as whole persons who cannot be either wholly condemned or wholly forgiven, also leads to the memoir’s rare narrative failures. I found myself craving more curiosity in Westover’s authorial voice, more interrogation of why or how the people who hurt her did so. Part of me yearned fot a companion piece in the style of “Under the Banner of Heaven,” exploring the currents in the family’s community and culture that may have carried them to such grostesque shores—the same
community that defends them to this day, if Desert News’ recent puff piece is anything to go by (while, the family denied all allegations of abuse, they did so with such perfectly evocative phrasing that the article only strengthens Westover’s characterizations of their self-delusion). But while I as a reader may have felt there was something missing, Westover seems to suggest that only by presenting her experiences organically, without chopping them into pieces for searing analysis, could she tell the whole story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Animal death

Minor: Antisemitism and Racial slurs

marissaboone's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective tense

5.0

I debated my rating of this book but ultimately decided that any book that makes me feel so much emotion is deserving of 5 stars. Truthfully this is a very difficult read (especially if you do it as an audiobook, which I did). Some of the cruelties Tara faced - both as a child and a young adult - are unimaginable until you’ve heard them described. Her telling of a life filled with extremist religious views, misogyny, and abuse is very detailed and sometimes graphic. However there are also glimpses of her own loyalty, passion, and perseverance. I was left wondering about her family and her own future. It was an interesting experience to say the least, and I found myself sending well wishes to her, a stranger, many times when she described both her familial hardships and academic successes. This is a worthy read if you are interested in the power of education.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Violence, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Antisemitism, Body shaming, Sexism, Blood, Cancer, Gun violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, Death, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, and Torture