Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

A Menina da Montanha by Tara Westover

1052 reviews

tommierayel's review against another edition

challenging inspiring sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Car accident

jahara's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

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

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

simplystef's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Religious bigotry

wayward's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racial slurs, Racism, and Medical trauma

lindsssreadsss's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, and Religious bigotry

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