Review: Educated by Tara Westover

Title: Educated
Author: Tara Westover
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: February 20, 2018
Edition: ebook (352 pages)
Genres:

• Nonfiction
• Autobiography
• Memoir

Literary Awards:

• Goodreads Choice Award for Memoir & Autobiography (2018)
• Reading Women Award for Nonfiction (2018)

My Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Tara Westover did not attend public school, nor was she home schooled by means of a standard curriculum of any sort. As a young girl, she assisted her mother, an herbalist, and by age ten, was working as a member of her father's crew salvaging scrap metal to sell. Her parents, survivalists, believed that the government was coming for them, and hoarded food and ammunition so they could defend themselves against future attack. Her family life was unconventional, to say the least, often populated with episodes of emotional and physical abuse.

Conflicted between loyalty to her parents beliefs and a strong desire to know more about the world, she studied textbooks, took the ACT, and was accepted to BYU. She is now a PHD. This book is her story, in her own words. It's a story of overcoming. It's a story of the quest for something more. The search for truth. The search to become her own person with her own ideas and beliefs. And, it's also the story of what that journey cost her. The price was high.

This book has been on my TBR list since May, 2018, so I decided to read it as my first book of 2019. The story is compelling, and one I am not likely to forget. It's one I cannot fully process in a day, or maybe even ever. The emotions it evokes in me are so strong. Absolute heartsick sadness; anger at those who profess to love her; and an admiration for her because for every step backward she took, she also took two steps forward. I also enjoyed the prosaic writing. It flowed and came together to reveal character, courage, and, ultimately, an undaunted spirit.