A review by lilawsahar
Educated by Tara Westover

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.75

The last 75 percent of the book is what's going to stick with me for a long time.
Her brother had physically abused her as a child and adult. Her father took her brother's side and would not believe her experience without proof. (Her father also suffers from some sort of mental illness, which made him paranoid.) Not only that, but her mother, who had been too close to her father's sickness for too long, buried the truth instead of taking her daughter's side. That is horrifying. Then her sister had to recant her history of abuse from her brother to be accepted back into the family. It hurts so much that a family would hide one sibling's actions of trauma and neglect the one who was hurt by their actions. 
It hit way too close to home. I also related to her coping mechanisms of binge watching tv shows and trying to brainwash yourself into believing you can be who they want you to be.

She grew up without a proper primary education (preschool to high school). And the rest of her life she thrived to learn what she wasn't bestowed, which made her an outcast to her family. I am happy that she has made a new family to recover the one she had lost. But it sucks that she was the only one shunned for receiving one when her two brothers had also received an education. I'm glad they stood by her side though.

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