A review by jentang
Educated by Tara Westover

4.75

this book is exactly the reason why i am so exhilarated every single time i find a promising memoir to pick up. tara's life thus far has been nothing short of incredible, although not completely for good reasons. the odds of everything she's experienced playing out exactly like they did feel slim to none, and yet, tara's story exists here. at no point during the story (with obvious exceptions) did i know what was going to happen next. the happenings of tara's life were everything from outrageous to painful to tragically hilarious to infuriating to extensive case study worthy. i actually quite liked the disjointed style of tara's writing, with the beginning matching her scrambled, chaotic upbringing that was filled with nothing but people and moments in time and feelings, and the latter half transforming into more composed, chronological, sensical writing as tara herself matured into an articulate woman making her own way through the modern day world she had been barred from her entire life. i felt there was a great blend of material for readers to laugh and frown at, as well as psychoanalyze and puzzle over. tara's later education at elite universities also threw in a taste of the world of academia, which helped the book develop an overall more serious tone which it had previously lacked, even when serious matters were being discussed. although readers don't have to be well versed in the beliefs of the great philosophers or feminists whatsoever, i still think the juxtaposition of academic background as it happened in this structured memoir provided a lot. i didn't give this book 5 stars solely because writing-wise there was just so much going on (to be fair, this was necessary and not tara's fault) that i couldn't keep all my side characters straight. names came up repeatedly that i should've known, but they had not been incorporated initially in a memorable enough way that i could place them, thus making reading a bit confusing at times as i tried to match name with relationship with "side", if you will. just for the content of this memoir alone, though, tara deserves 5 stars for having had to face all that she did, and for soldiering through. she comes from a background so removed from the average person’s that i don't think anyone would have a lackluster time reading this, which is more than can be said for most books.