ktxx22's review against another edition
5.0
You wanna read a book that will surprise you on multiple levels? Make you uncomfortable at the blatant mental and physical abuse? And put the fear of god, read mental illness here, in you... read this book. It’s a raw real book, and peels back the cover on growing up in a home with a religious zealot and a doomsday prepper and how it affects the people in that family different ways. It’s a fabulous read, and I throughly enjoyed it start to finish. Easy 5/5 another fabulous nonfiction read from this year!
joyful_patatas's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
cestelaine's review against another edition
3.0
2.5?
My main issues with this are with the unreliable narrator. There were quite a few things that didn’t correlate, which I don’t have the care to elaborate on because this book just didn’t do much for me. I didn’t hate it, it’s just another in a long line of intensely hyped books without much merit.
Memory is a complex beast and while Westover acknowledges this a little, it is also heavily glossed and glazed over in favour of her gruesome versions of truth. I agree with many of the comments from other 3 star reviews - this was missing something very deeply and it’s hard to call that out without calling the author a pathological liar. This memoir has come too soon in Westover’s journey to recovery of her experiences, IMHO.
For me, this was relentless trauma porn at its most tepid.
My main issues with this are with the unreliable narrator. There were quite a few things that didn’t correlate, which I don’t have the care to elaborate on because this book just didn’t do much for me. I didn’t hate it, it’s just another in a long line of intensely hyped books without much merit.
Memory is a complex beast and while Westover acknowledges this a little, it is also heavily glossed and glazed over in favour of her gruesome versions of truth. I agree with many of the comments from other 3 star reviews - this was missing something very deeply and it’s hard to call that out without calling the author a pathological liar. This memoir has come too soon in Westover’s journey to recovery of her experiences, IMHO.
For me, this was relentless trauma porn at its most tepid.
leaps's review against another edition
3.0
"My strongest memory is not a memory. It's something I imagined, then came to remember as if it had happened."
3.5
My expectations have been so high for this book (and maybe it was my fault for not reading the synopsis) but it was really not what I expected. I did not expect it to be about Taras story about how she grew up secluded and Mormon and never going to school but still got into college. I could not care for her. I don't know what the book was missing but it feels like something was missing.
I wanted to read more about her brother and what led him to be like that than her education.
The time jumps was annoying, I wish the story was chronological instead of theme based.
3.5
My expectations have been so high for this book (and maybe it was my fault for not reading the synopsis) but it was really not what I expected. I did not expect it to be about Taras story about how she grew up secluded and Mormon and never going to school but still got into college. I could not care for her. I don't know what the book was missing but it feels like something was missing.
I wanted to read more about her brother and what led him to be like that than her education.
The time jumps was annoying, I wish the story was chronological instead of theme based.
abigable's review against another edition
5.0
Traumatizing, triggering, and utterly beautiful. I will never read this book again I hope, but everyone else should.
nick_millsap's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
alyssastag's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
Super important read, beautifully written and engaging. Through her personal story, Tara Westover sheds light on the story of so many Americans who are denied education. I think this is an important reminder that ignorance is no one’s fault, but also that everyone has the power to choose to learn— as difficult as that may be.