A review by kristinaray717
Educated by Tara Westover

4.0

This was a hard read for me as it hit close to home. I almost DNFed it because it was making me so uncomfortable at certain points.

My husband grew up in a similar way, except the reasoning was based on Christian fundamentalist rhetoric. In his family the roles were reversed as well. His mother is the revered prophet that has the perfect knowledge on truth. We went through very similar things with his family when we spoke up, and like Tara he struggles with the estrangement caused by it.

Overcoming indoctrination by your parents can be extremely hard to overcome. It’s such a hard thing to accept about one’s own parents which makes it that much harder to actually deal with the issues caused by the indoctrination(brainwashing).

I know there are a lot of people questioning Tara’s story, whether it’s been embellished or made up. It’s not like finding out she lied would some how mean this is an impossible story that didn’t happen and could not be true. In reality it doesn’t really matter if it was Tara’s true story or not because it is the true story of many kids. This book is important because it brings to light the issues they have to deal with both as kids and adults. Even if it’s an uncomfortable read I think this book will be very cathartic, insightful and hopefully inspiring to others who were or are in the same boat as the author.