Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

600 reviews

kaitlyncookies's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

While I generally liked this book, I found the content to be a bit repetitive, and the pacing to be quite slow. I think I was just not in the mood for a book that had so many domestic abuse scenes. To be fair I couldn't help but compare it to the memoir "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls, so this story sounded very familiar to me. Nevertheless, it was well-written, and quite shocking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

ollietarp_'s review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring tense fast-paced

5.0

Tara’s story will stick with me the rest of my life. 
The writing here is beautiful. It’s horrible to hear a story like this and to know what she went through but it’s incredible to see how far she went despite her upbringing and the resistance she received along the way. Tara’s willpower and drive is astonishing and inspiring. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

amanda884's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racial slurs

katiey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

This is such a worthwhile read. It took me a bit to get through the first 1/4 of the book, adjusting to the writing and the depth of the things that happen in the novel. It's very dark and difficult to read, especially initially, and I had to take short breaks in reading because of the emotion. The writing is vivid and immerses you in the tension and difficulty of her childhood. It made me reflect upon the value of education and how lucky I am to be a person with access to education. I also really valued the commentary on feminism, the healing process, and family. An incredibly impactful read and brought up a lot of emotion in me. I only didn't rate it 5 stars because it was so emotionally difficult to read throughout, but it is so worth reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Violence, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Blood, Car accident, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, and Antisemitism

mollison's review against another edition

emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Gaslighting

becandthebooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

“My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.”

I think this is one of the best books I've ever read! Not just memoirs and non-fiction, but out of any genre.

Educated is a vast array of emotions. It's fascinating, sad, hopeful, confronting, inspiring, unbelievable, addictive and educational. Tara is truly a force to be reckoned with. The bravery she shows by writing and publishing a book like this would have be been very difficult emotionally for her, but I also imagine very healing as well. She has run the risk of shutting herself off from her family forever, but in gaining her education she has learnt how important it is to record and understand history, and that is exactly why she has shared her story.

I honestly wish Tara the absolute best, she has been through so much and deserves peace.

“The decisions I made after that moment were not the ones she would have made. They were the choices of a changed person, a new self.
You could call this selfhood many things. Transformation. Metamorphosis. Falsity. Betrayal.
I call it an education.” 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

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

alpettit's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Wow, what an incredible human story. It’s a story about finding your own strength, of perseverance, of survival. It’s about self discovery and renewal. I couldn’t put it down. The retelling was vivid and dramatic. I was committed to every phase of the Tara’s development. I’m glad she found her peace. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, 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