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A review by amy_park
Educated by Tara Westover
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
This memoir was not what I expected. From the blurb and title, I thought we would follow Tara's path to education as within her early childhood there was no opportunity for her to encounter mainstream learning due to her family's beliefs, which caused restrictions on access. In a sense this book does look at this but it's not the sole basis of the book, which was slightly disappointing for me.
To be honest, I found the book quite disconnected from her path to education as some areas didn't make sense and too me maybe wasn't believable. There was no exploration on how she got into Cambridge, and a disconnect on how a person who doesn't go to "traditional" school and be able to acheieve a PhD at Cambridge within 10 years! Finances was briefly touched upon at the start but after getting to England it wasn't, this is a big when looking at access and achieving a higher education, by not discussing this again, I found irritating.
I also think this book centred on way way way too much injury and accident detail, I felt every other chapter focused on an accident (not including the abuse, which was horrific in it's self). Maybe listening to this on audio made the details even more harder to stomach but this wasn't what I expected, I felt injury and accidents were more the main focus of this book than Tara's education.
This all being said, I did think this was a good book. Tara's childhood and family life was surreal to read about. I also like the discussion on recollection at the end of the written book and how memories, recollection and stories differ from each person's point of view, especially when facing a traumatic event.
If you enjoy memoirs, do read! But there is a LOT of gruesome injuries along the way.
To be honest, I found the book quite disconnected from her path to education as some areas didn't make sense and too me maybe wasn't believable. There was no exploration on how she got into Cambridge, and a disconnect on how a person who doesn't go to "traditional" school and be able to acheieve a PhD at Cambridge within 10 years! Finances was briefly touched upon at the start but after getting to England it wasn't, this is a big when looking at access and achieving a higher education, by not discussing this again, I found irritating.
I also think this book centred on way way way too much injury and accident detail, I felt every other chapter focused on an accident (not including the abuse, which was horrific in it's self). Maybe listening to this on audio made the details even more harder to stomach but this wasn't what I expected, I felt injury and accidents were more the main focus of this book than Tara's education.
This all being said, I did think this was a good book. Tara's childhood and family life was surreal to read about. I also like the discussion on recollection at the end of the written book and how memories, recollection and stories differ from each person's point of view, especially when facing a traumatic event.
If you enjoy memoirs, do read! But there is a LOT of gruesome injuries along the way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death and Religious bigotry