Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Educated by Tara Westover

7 reviews

alisonannk's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Child abuse, Cursing, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Racism, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Torture, Violence, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexism, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Bullying, Grief, and Medical content

Moderate: Confinement, Classism, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer and Dementia

val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

5.0

• Happy International Women’s Day! I didn’t plan to read this for this day, but I’m so glad that I did because Tara Westover is such an strong woman.
• This book was so powerful. This was Tara owning her story and telling it the way it was from HER perspective, the way she lived her life. I have so much respect for her, this was published in 2018 and I would not be surprised if she's still healing.

"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."
-Tara Westover

• I'm genuinely surprised she didn't talk about menstruation. And I have to admit I was so scared for her when she was a child that Shawn would rape her, then I was scared he would kill her. Can we talk about how she barely looked or talked to boys and yet when Shawn said she had a "reputation" they were horrified of her being pregnant, SHE thought she was pregnant and looked at herself in the mirror... The lack of sexual education. And then when they confirmed she wasn't??? I'm scared of just thinking how they confirmed it.
• I feel so so sorry for those kids of the siblings who don't support her. but especially for the ones of Audrey and Shawn, because they are just the living image of their parents which means their childhood will be just like hers unless they run.
• She is right by mentioning that this is not about Mormonism. Maybe religion played a role in this, but her brother and parent’s evil in my opinion belonged to them, not to any Satan and of course is not the will of any God they believe in.
• I have to admit that I didn’t cry. I understand the moments that I “should’ve”, I understand why other people would’ve cried. But I’ve never lived abused so I can’t say I was reliving something, and I’ve always been the “strongest” child who didn’t cry easily because I had a “cold heart”, that’s how I view myself and maybe there’s something wrong with me too that I can’t see, but that’s the truth.
• I didn’t cry, instead I was shocked, stunned, angry, I could not believe it, it was all just so crazy. When you think of stories of more kids living like this, that’s it, they’re just stories you hear of someone else living far far away, they didn’t happen to you, you don’t read about them with more detail in a book. It’s is eye opening to finally read this story and realize “this is real, this has happened, this is still happening not only in her family but probably so many others”
• I can’t stop thinking on how powerful this book is and how more people should read it, yes it was Number 1, yes it’s acclaimed, yes it has Awards, and somehow it’s not enough. It will neve be enough.
• I want this book in my library, highlighted with tabs, with annotations written by me and other people, I want to have discussions around it, I want to check on it from time to time. I want to highlight with a pencil all the obstacles, and with colors her support system, her quotes, her growing up and changing her mind. There’s so many things to point out, so many things to discuss.
• I feel so overwhelmed by this whole book. She’s powerful, she’s brave, she’s inspiring. She got over the obstacles, she got her education. Education IS a privilege and it could be life changing for some.
• The fact that she dedicated this to her brother Tyler, because he was always nice to her, he always supported her, he is the one who kept telling her to go to college.
• This is so far away from my fantasy books, hell I WISH this was some dystopian shit, but it’s a MEMOIR and I just can’t stop thinking about it. This is not fantasy, and yet this is one of the few examples of why I must keep getting out of my comfort zone tbr every once in a while, to discover stories (fiction or not) like this one.
• I want to keep reading so many reviews now, from all the ratings. I need to read more opinions. I even want to read the thesis she presented for her PhD.
• This makes me think of the kind of parent I would be, consuming books, blogs, podcasts about parenting the second I learn I was pregnant. I almost want to study psychology just to help kids.
• I'm thankful my healthcare and education were priorities in my family. I'm thankful I was not forced into any religion. I'm thankful I was loved. I'm thankful I didn't live an abuse like this and I pray I never will, thankful that I can recognize the signs of when something is wrong and I must ask for help. I'm thankful for my family (we are not perfect, and of course I have many complains about them lol but I'm thankful for them)
• I keep thinking and thinking and thinking, and there is no denial to me. I can’t rate the same way I do my fantasy books (or any other fiction book for that matter). I can’t even compare it to other non fiction I’ve read because they are self help, and I’ve read just a couple of memoirs. So this is a very unique book to me, and as such it has to be rated for it’s own reasons. At the beginning I thought how difficult it would be to rate it, but now I think it's a 5 ⭐

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Sexism, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Medical trauma, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, and Car accident

Minor: Mental illness, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Drug abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

Please read the trigger warnings before reading the book (there might be spoilers here):

- Emotional abuse / Physical abuse / Child abuse: The way the mother and father (especially) raised the children had me sick, the emotional and physical abuse those kids had to endure…

- Domestic abuse / Violence: Her brother would beat her up and humiliate her.

- Gaslighting: I swear her parents were living in another reality, all the stories they got in their heads and the lies of how the world worked (the end of the world, how the government was evil and it was dangerous to go to school or the hospital)

- Racial slurs: Her brother kept calling her by the N word because when she worked with them she got her face dirty…

- Animal death / cruelty: Her brother killed his dog with a knife, who the fuck does that.

- Injury detail / Blood / Fire Injury: When she was a child she had to help her brother with his leg because there was another “job incident” with their father. And later her father is near an explosion and ends up pretty bad. Her other brother also injured his head twice.

- Mental illness: She’s convinced her father is bipolar.

- Car accident: As children they had not one but TWO car accidents. And then his brother had yet another car accident on his own.

- Sexism / Misogyny: Basically what her father and brother are. Her father treating her like shit inside the house because she was a woman and she could not even have short sleeves. I don’t know a lot of stupid ideas about women and how they should behave.

- Medical trauma: From all the injuries, accident, simply being sick and going to the hospital for the first time.

- Panic attacks: She experienced this at college.

- Cancer: One of her grandmothers had cancer and died of it.

- Adult / minor relationship / Pregnancy: Her brother was like 27 with a 17-18 yo he ends up marrying. And later she has two dangerous pregnancies.

- Drug abuse / Alcohol: Her brother, of course.

- Toxic relationship: Pretty obvious with who (her family)

thekiwibibliophile's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring tense medium-paced

4.5

A well written memoirs, I actually thought it was fiction for the first chapter!
I was hooked from the start & really loved the message. Everyone needs to read this!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, and Gun violence

Moderate: War and Terminal illness

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Antisemitism

evreardon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

This was very well written. I listened to the audiobook and it was well read, too. 

Tara did not have an easy childhood/ early adult life. She wrote about it unflinchingly and with such poise. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Gaslighting, Animal death, Violence, and Sexism

Moderate: Alcohol, Gun violence, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

Minor: Dysphoria, Islamophobia, and Adult/minor relationship

catalinapinzaru's review against another edition

challenging hopeful medium-paced

3.25

This book is not about education at all! It is about an abusive family, a complicated life of someone who learned how to become part of the society. For a book which claims to be about education and the importance of knowledge - it disscuses to little about the learning process and the author tells us how hard it is in general to study and does not explain or truly show how education has changed her life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit