Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Una Educación by Tara Westover

875 reviews

clovetra's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

5.0

wow oh wow oh wow. i did not expect to love this as much as i did.

i usually am not the biggest fan of nonfiction, and memoirs especially are a hit or miss for me. but my god was this a hit.

this was such a fascinating read, not only as someone raised secularly, but as someone who isn’t american. to not only read about how far religious bigotry goes, especially when you throw in some good old fashioned mental illness, plus the paranoia was astounding to me. after every few chapters i’d go up to my mum and be like: “that book i’m reading about that woman who lived in idaho? she got her first birth certificate at 9 years old. and she only learnt what the holocaust was in college. and instead of taking her mum to the hospital after a severe car accident they left her at home and she had migraines for months. and multiple times someone was set on fire and they didn’t go to hospital.” 

reading this for me almost felt like a sick perversion, as i grappled with understanding that this is not fiction: this is real, this is how some people live, and this is a true story of a true family. 

there are so many facets of this book that are intriguing: life on the mountain, her father’s beliefs, her mother and her complacency, but the character at the heart of this book (in the worst way) other than tara is shawn. my god. i was horrified reading this. the amount of gaslighting, shoving things under the rug, ignorance. gobsmacking. before this book i thought americans were being a bit dramatic, and highlighting the worst parts of fanatics. reading this truly brought to my attention that no, those videos you see online of republicans spouting vile remarks and being supported by those around them are not far and few in between, and the stories are not dramatised. holy shit.

i get i probably sound a bit naive, but truly i didn’t realise just *how bad* it was. the delusions, the twisting of history to fit a narrative, the cognitive dissonance, the religious bigotry, the violence, the mistrust. just. wow.

truly a remarkable book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Medical trauma, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racial slurs

sam_reads77's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

kinleydoes's review against another edition

emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Cancer, Genocide, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Colonisation, and War

lovetlr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Interesting & heartbreaking account. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racism, and Antisemitism

jennyisareader's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Violence

in_the_pines_'s review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Blood, and Car accident

lylajolie's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

This story took me along the journey of the struggle of living with such a terrible family. I felt for Tara every step of the way and loved that she escaped and grew. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, and Gaslighting

Minor: Car accident

jsanders05's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.5

I still don’t understand the whole ‘point’ of this novel. Was it to inform people that they can change their lives for the better? Was it to make us feel bad for the author? Was it to enlighten people about the crazy Idahoan Mormans? I’m left a tad confused.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

froggoz13's review against another edition

emotional reflective

4.0

Gripping story all throughout the book and beautifully written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

catcherinthepi's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

What a memoir. This is an incredibly detailed and often grotesque account of a life under the thumb of religious extremism in an extraordinarily abusive household. I was shocked at how casually violence happened in this house...and how so much was brushed under the rug of "God's plan" or "God will strengthen us through this". Chilling stuff. 

Westover being a historian makes a lot of sense, with the way she tells her story and how her life taught her the importance of how we tell stories to ourselves to make sense of the world. People will be studying this one for a long time, I hope. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail