Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

Educated by Tara Westover

181 reviews

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

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

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

atdow88's review against another edition

emotional inspiring medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical trauma, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

samcsmith's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

goldenjunegem's review against another edition

informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

satsumaorange's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

5.0

Holy cow. What is it with me and reading books at the EXACT right time in my life that I needed to read them? This was phenomenal. Gut-wrenching. Hard to listen to at some points (I listened to the audiobook). It was scary to be in the midst of the deepest, darkest parts of the author's life, and then out of nowhere, she would describe an experience so incredibly specific, but so deeply familiar to my own life, that it caught me completely off guard. This book made me think deeply about what it means to think for yourself. Who do we allow to do our thinking for us? Who do we allow to construct our reality? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Blood, Antisemitism, and Grief

Minor: Ableism, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Dementia, Stalking, Death of parent, and Abandonment

If you are reading these content warnings and are concerned about non-consensual sexual content:

The author does not describe any sexual touching or rape scenes, only scenes of physical abuse that may have themes of body shaming and/or humiliation. It's extremely uncomfortable, but there are no descriptions of rape in this book, if that is a hard limit for you.

applejacksbooks's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

1.5

I really need to find a new library book club to go to. These books are not hitting. 

That being said, I should have DNF'd at like 30% when I thought the story was boring asf. I don't think that Tara really got past her Christian extremist upbringing once she started getting educated. This whole book reads like trauma porn of the ex-mormon variety and I hated it. Like yeah, it's sad that this was how she was raised, but how was she supposed to turn out differently when the government allows these people to exist like this? This book's pacing is incredibly slow. I had to listen to it at 2.25x speed just to get through it. 

Tyler should have taken custody of Tara as soon as he was able to, ESPECIALLY after he basically witnessed Shawn assault her. I said this early on in my notes about this book and then doubled down on it later on. It could have saved her a lot of trauma. Another issue I had with this book is the liberal use of the N-word in the middle of it. Like yes, i know that this was something that affected Tara deeply, but there was no reason to have it used that much in the story.  It just doubled down on my dislike of Shawn (lowkey Tara should have let his brains leak out during the motorcycle crash). 

This book was so fucking painful to get through that I had to download Ice Planet Barbarians to listen to afterward because I need a palate cleanser from terrible main characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

kpoppe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

inneriara's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

angela_iseli's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting