Reviews tagging 'Death'

Una educación by Tara Westover

129 reviews

soupqueen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

amy_park's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

3.5

This memoir was not what I expected. From the blurb and title, I thought we would follow Tara's path to education as within her early childhood there was no opportunity for her to encounter mainstream learning due to her family's beliefs, which caused restrictions on access. In a sense this book does look at this but it's not the sole basis of the book, which was slightly disappointing for me.
To be honest, I found the book quite disconnected from her path to education as some areas didn't make sense and too me maybe wasn't believable. There was no exploration on how she got into Cambridge, and a disconnect on how a person who doesn't go to "traditional" school and be able to acheieve a PhD at Cambridge within 10 years! Finances was briefly touched upon at the start but after getting to England it wasn't, this is a big when looking at access and achieving a higher education, by not discussing this again, I found irritating.
I also think this book centred on way way way too much injury and accident detail, I felt every other chapter focused on an accident (not including the abuse, which was horrific in it's self). Maybe listening to this on audio made the details even more harder to stomach but this wasn't what I expected, I felt injury and accidents were more the main focus of this book than Tara's education.
This all being said, I did think this was a good book. Tara's childhood and family life was surreal to read about. I also like the discussion on recollection at the end of the written book and how memories, recollection and stories differ from each person's point of view, especially when facing a traumatic event. 
If you enjoy memoirs, do read! But there is a LOT of gruesome injuries along the way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death and Religious bigotry

kennaisreading's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

summerashley's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

I wish I could rate it higher.  Honestly this was a powerful story. Recommend everyone reads once! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

elderwoodreads's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

I was a bit hesitant to read this as I feel memoirs in this genre (person denied education receives education) can be a little one note. This is the book of the genre. Westover is an amazing writer both in her storytelling as well as her reflection. Must read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Vomit, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Dementia, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

tattedtrashreader's review against another edition

challenging dark informative tense slow-paced

3.0

Tara Westover is a great writer and I appreciate that her childhood and adolescence was difficult and what she has overcome. I also understand that removing yourself from abuse is excruciatingly hard and that often survivors go back because it’s familiar. She’s incredible for overcoming her situation to get a doctorate and make her life her own. To preface my review, I grew up in a home similar to, but significantly less intense than Dr. Westover and I could relate to her feelings and to the messages pushed on her as a child because I heard similar ones. 

I, however, struggled with the repeated acts of violence that were ignored, justified, and manipulated by her parents and siblings (and her a lot of times) and that her siblings that left did not support or help the others get out who wanted to. I wanted to hear more in-depth about her studies, what she discovered for the first time but that was rarely touched on. 

The repeated head injuries, car accidents, and major trauma that they each endured without seeing a medical professional is astounding to me. 

I have many of the same concerns as others who read the book and wondered where their family got the money and how her mother’s tinctures became so popular (that they became millionaires?) and why no one in their town ever said anything about the abuse and such going on, even when they “hired” the other women to work (but apparently women aren’t supposed to work) for their tincture business. I don’t understand how there were basically no witnesses ever. 

I wanted to understand how her worldview changed when she got to college and learn about how she overcame her education challenges but that’s not explored deeply in the second half of the book. It’s just parental abuse. The abuse is the main theme of the book, not getting an education. 

I found myself getting increasingly frustrated with everything her parents and Shawn did to the point where I just wanted the book to be over. Idk. About halfway through I was over it and hate-finished it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

ajnagle's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

booksoversecondbreakfast's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

I share so much of my story with this author. We have so many shared experiences and I had never heard those experiences expressed so clearly until I read this book. She made me feel like I was there beside her throughout her life and she summarized the main points she was making very thoroughly. I really liked this book, and subtract a quarter of a star only because of how negatively she cast a light towards being uneducated. It made me feel a bit too uncomfortable how angry she was, but I remain understanding of it due to the fact that she has been through so much. There were so many quoteworthy parts to this book, however, and I expect it will be a book I come back to throughout my life. She shared so many great lessons and ways of seeing the world, and I'm really grateful for that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Miscarriage, Blood, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Colonisation

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

Humans are such wonderful and terrifying beings, which I think this book really spells out. They can be so incredibly hurtful and so helpful and dangerous and damaging and also somehow make it out okay. This book is really shocking, but it also shows how deeply mental illness can affect a family and community. I'm really proud of Tara for making it out. This book was a wild read because most memoirs are on lives that happened before Google and you can't actually buy essential oils from their parents at this very moment. The writing style wasn't my favorite, but I thought it was fitting for the story and subject. Definitely a book that I would recommend folks to read. I think it got the publicity that it deserved. I just feel for all the children (all the children) still trapped in that family system. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, and Alcohol

Big content warnings about bodily injuries.

geegee98's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Antisemitism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Terminal illness and Dementia