Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Educated by Tara Westover

627 reviews

breadgrandpa's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Sexism, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

hannahdrake42's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

A beautifully written story. It’s amazing to think how far Tara Westover has come after the start she was given. It has really made me think about the way our realities are shaped by the information given to us in childhood and what a powerful position that is to be able to shape someone’s reality as a parent. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: 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

ljzsreadsandreviews's review against another edition

informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

This was such an interesting read. I wasn’t familiar with Tara’s story prior to reading this so I went in pretty blind which is honestly one of my favorite things to do when I read, especially for memoirs. A memoir by definition is the record of someone’s experiences in life so who better to hear a story of a life from! Hearing not only what Tara went through, overcame and achieved but her thoughts and feelings during it all was astounding. There were so many times where I couldn’t help but scream at her or roll my eyes because she was so naive to what her parents were doing to her, but then I remembered it was all she knew and no wonder she felt a certain way. I was more dumbfounded by her parents though because I could never fathom acting the way they did. even though I could infer how Tara’s story concluded, I still felt happy for her and a sense of pride on behalf of her accomplishments. This really is a remarkable story of overcoming obstacles out of our control and Tara Westover told it beautifully. I also want to note that Julia Whelan is exceptional for the audiobook reading - highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

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

whatchapterareyouon's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Amazing writing style that is utterly engrossing demonstrating how an interpretation of religion can lead to violence, isolation, distraction and severe abuse. 

This follows a woman who overcame all of this to gain her doctorate. True story of resilience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Violence

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

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

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