A review by maria_thebookworm
Educated by Tara Westover

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

"There's a world out there, Tara. And it will look a lot different once Dad is no longer whispering his view of it in your ear." 

This book will definitely stay with me forever and is one of my top books of the year so far. 

Educated is a remarkable memoir about Tara Westwood, who grew up in rural Idaho as the youngest child in a large Mormon family. Her father believed doctors were evil, so Tara never received legitimate medical attention as a child, despite needing it many times. Her father was also terrified of the government, so Tara (and some of her siblings) didn't have a birth certificate for years and her mother didn't even remember her real birthday. 

Tara had no education whatsoever growing up, as her father didnt allow her to attend school and neither of her parents legitimately homeschooled her. She got into college by studying for the ACT with the help of her brother. Tara writes in her memoir, "I don't understand why I wasn't allowed to get a decent education as a child.” 

Tara's entire childhood consisted of manual labor, including salvaging in a junk yard and working in construction. As her family didn't believe in going to doctors or hospitals, they suffered through many accidents (gashes, stabs, falls, multiple car accidents), with no medical intervention. Her mother was a midwife who believed in "energy healing", and she "treated" any medical issues with homeopathic remedies. Tara never took painkillers or over the counter medicine of any kind as a child. After a car accident, when Tara likely had a concussion, she only received assistance from an "energy specialist." 

The physical, emotional, and educational neglect was absolutely infuriating to read about, along with the descriptions of physical abuse that Tara experienced at the hands of her violent brother. The gaslighting and betrayal from her family caused deep self-doubt in Tara. However, Tara is incredibly resilient and defied all the odds to receive not only a university degree but also, ultimately, a PhD. 

Reading this book was a brutal roller coaster of emotions.

On a personal level, I related to Tara in growing up in a very strict religious environment with certain beliefs surrounding modesty and modern medicine. Tara had to distance herself from the radical beliefs of her parents and the culture in which she grew up, which is something I relate to, although not to the same extremes. 

The themes of growing up, moving away, forming your own beliefs, and realizing everything you've been taught is either narrow-minded, untrue, or simply evil, are powerful. Tara's incredible writing does not sugarcoat these challenges but rather reveals these experiences in her own life. Healing is not linear, and navigating one's way out of a cult is not easy, but Tara desrcibes her journey with raw and intense self-reflection.  

I highly recommend this book because you will not turn the last page unchanged.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings