vireogirl's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Violence, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Antisemitism, and Bullying
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Death, and Pregnancy
rumay's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, Racism, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Gun violence and Vomit
Minor: Genocide
madz_lyr's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Car accident, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Sexism
muravyevaa's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Racial slurs, Misogyny, Bullying, Gore, Gaslighting, Death, Religious bigotry, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Racism, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Sexism, and Fire/Fire injury
sarahflanders's review against another edition
4.0
Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Grief, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Medical content, Toxic relationship, and Violence
raccacoonie's review against another edition
5.0
When it comes to people saying it’s exaggerated, I don’t think you can fully expect anyone to 100% accurately recount their childhood, especially one as tumultuous and traumatic as the one she had to go through. Despite this the author clearly does her best to parse through the cloudy parts of her memories and even adds footnotes for potions she believes to be remembered less accurately than others. She has clearly consulted all the people in her life about most of what she writes in the book, and even has an afterword to further clarify the 2 uncertain parts of the book.
The second biggest criticism I see is about her education costs and how her family’s as able to afford the costs of their accidents. For her education, she clearly explains that she spend most, if not all of her time outside of school, working to save money for the cost of tuition. This is on top of the scholarship she received for half of the tuition. Afterwards she is able to get help to apply for a federal grant which gave her $4000 per semester based on the income of her parents, which covered the rest of her expenses and I’m sure some of the tuition as well.
As for how her parents were able to cover the costs of the 2 accidents, Tara states in the book that her parents weren’t necessarily poor. The reason why her family never had enough money was because her father spent most of the money he could get on survival equipment. I’m paraphrasing here, but in one part of the book she states that they had actually accrued a good bit of money, but her father had gone to spend it on guns and equipment to better prepare themselves for the “end of times”.
Finally the third biggest criticism I see come up about this book is in relation to the vast amount of injuries the family sustained, and their remarkable recoveries. I personally don’t believe that the way her family was able to recover was unbelievable. It was definitely reckless the way they went about many of the things they worked on in the book, but the author makes it clear through her writing that this air of recklessness was fostered by their father’s paranoia and need for speed. She states at the end of the book that it was almost as if he couldn’t comprehend that his children or he could get seriously injured, or if they did that he couldn’t understand the severity of their injuries. These injuries didn’t just happen because they didn’t care, but because even if they did they were more terrified of disappointing or possibly angering their father/entire family by not doing the dangerous things he requested of them.
As for their recoveries, I don’t think that it is implausible the way they were able to survive their injuries. For Shawn, the author discusses that since she was not there for when he first hit his head, she cannot accurately recount the events, but she does her best to explain. It is very much possible to recover from such an injury, and it’s not as if there are no repercussions from it either. I don’t disagree that there was a high chance he could have died from this injury and the one that followed after, but I also don’t think it’s impossible that he survived them.
As for her father, she explained that he still suffered for a long time afterwards the consequences of the burn on his lungs through his weakens immunity. She also writes that it’s possible the trauma of the situation caused her and her bothers to believe the severity of the injury was worse than it was, but that there is still evidence of it happening on his hand as well as a bit on his face. Clearly her mothers finger snapping or tinctures did not cure it, but I don’t discount that she had some affinity for dealing with burns as was discussed in the earlier burn incident with her brother Luke. I understand that much of her mothers holistic methods were not effective, but that does not mean everything she did was useless. There were 2 things that the author said she was good at, which was midwifery and dealing with burns, which are the only two things the author ever writes her treating/helping with effectively.
I’m sure there are other things said about this book that I haven’t expanded on in this review, but overall even if there are some embellishments in this book, I do not think it’s fair to completely dismiss it due to one’s own disbelief in the possibility of events such as these being able to be true. I understand that emotional and physical abuse to this degree is taboo and not often discussed, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. I think that many of these critiques can be dismissed with just a closer look at the book and an open mind to be able to listen to the story of a victim of severe abuse and trauma, trying to recount the events of her life to the best of her ability.
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Racial slurs
madisonrose1519's review against another edition
4.5
Westover’s accounts of what she endured in her childhood were shocking. I’ve been trying to read books I find more challenging, and having been on a memoir kick lately, and this was perfect for that. This is the second memoir I’ve read that exposed some of the darkest sides of Mormonism, and I’m blown away by how little I knew about it before.
Westover’s writing is formal yet still easy to read and enjoy. It’s somber yet thrilling. I love how she ended so many of her chapters with such poignant, concise remarks, particularly after the most emotionally difficult to read portions. It made it easy to feel like I could set the book aside and say to myself, “And that’s enough of that for now,” so, without a cliffhanger, I could reflect and collect my thoughts on what she had written without getting too overwhelmed by all the trauma she experienced as a child.
Graphic: Child abuse, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Car accident, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Miscarriage, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Death
Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, and Panic attacks/disorders
gabyisafreeelf's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child abuse, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Death, Animal cruelty, Sexism, Racism, Body shaming, Cursing, and Domestic abuse
teaselkie's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Car accident, Misogyny, Animal death, and Death
madelinegl's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical trauma, Car accident, and Child abuse
Minor: Racial slurs, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Cancer, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Animal death, Blood, Cursing, and Death