Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Educated by Tara Westover

115 reviews

jjb21's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Stunning, fascinating, sad. Couldn’t believe some of the stories. A painful read at times. Beautiful writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Confinement, Cancer, Bullying, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Medical content, Antisemitism, Gore, Violence, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent

_mac_'s review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

The gripping story of Tara Westover (the author), who goes from semi-illiterate to Ph.D. in Harward/Cambridge over a period of 10 years.  The story covers about 20 years of her life, and it's divided in 3 parts:
- A first one where she details the life in her religious and highly dysfunctional family
- A second part where she details her first brush with education
- A third part where she shows how she reach her full emancipation from family

The story is gripping.  The prose is nicely written.  The occasions to pause and think frequent.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Gore

The book has multiple explicit but not excessively graphic descriptions of violence perpetrated on women and animals. The book has multiple explicit and somewhat graphic descriptions of serious wounds including ripped flash, severe burning, body disfiguration, etc...

tigerkind's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

Both praising and criticizing this  feels wrong, as it contains  fairly detailed accounts of abuse. However, it was extremely well written and constructed, allowing for a reflection on the broader systematic workings of power relations in religion, family and education. Even though a memoir, it was at times written with so much detail and emotion that I had to remind myself I was listening to a non-fiction work and not a novel by Barbara Kingsolver. Unfortunately, it feels like the legal challenges the author apparently faced, which forced her to include disclaimers, paraphrase and use pseudonyms, somewhat hampered the overall impact of the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Death, Animal death, Antisemitism, Blood, Car accident, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Physical abuse, Racism, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexism, Gaslighting, Body horror, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Child abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Classism, Slavery, Pregnancy, Gun violence, Cancer, and Terminal illness

Minor: Genocide, Islamophobia, Murder, and Police brutality

heatherchrisman's review

dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Car accident, Mental illness, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Racism, Body shaming, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Violence

maddiet425's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Car accident, Physical abuse, Animal death, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Gore, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Racial slurs and Antisemitism

aislinnh's review against another edition

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexism, Animal cruelty, and Injury/Injury detail

alreads420's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Torture, Medical content, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Animal death, and Antisemitism

elspethmigliore's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

this was such a powerful read. tara’s writing is so beautiful and reflective. 

i can’t imagine myself rereading, but maybe ☑️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Addiction, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Miscarriage, Gore, Grief, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Body shaming, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Racism, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Medical content

aliwhaley's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This book is fantastic and tragic and inspiring all at once. It’s hard to believe people like this really exist, and the fact that they do is so harrowing. With or without the Mormonism and end-of-days bent, these stories of manipulation and abuse play out time and again, and it is so difficult to read it from inside the mind of the victim. I am so impressed by Dr. Tara Westover.

As a writer, her ability to convey at once how she felt at the time events unfolded, whilst also conveying the incongruity of those feelings now that she has reflected and grown, but also having compassion for her former self is astonishing. She writes terrifying people, and yet their moments of loveableness are believable. You feel every blow with her.

And, as a human, her strength is just incredible. I wish everybody in a similar situation could read this book and know they’re not in the wrong

All the content warnings - this is not a light read 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Blood, Domestic abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence and Genocide

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

shlymiller's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, Grief, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Blood, Animal death, Gore, Gaslighting, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders