Tara Westover's story really had me gripped from start to finish, which I find fairly rare for a book to do. Reading about her upbringing in an extremely conservative and fundamentalist Mormon household constantly made me go from utter disbelief to horror - the careless treatment (or lack of any treatment in fact) the children and their mother received by their Dad - at times risking their health if not lives -, the denial of any education and knowledge and the extreme views on women's rights and equality (and complete lack thereof). Tara manages to write her story in a neutral enough way to allow a glimpse beyond her own feelings and impressions and she focusses so well on the actual facts recounted by her or some of her siblings to build a strong, enticing story about what life is really like within extreme religious circles.

No other book will make you appreciate education more than a book called EDUCATED. Tara Westover hasn't had the education most fortunate people have had. She never went to a public school (or a private school). She was taught by her parents - a father with escalating delusions and paranoia and a mother who really should have gone to a hospital after a near-fatal car accident. While other girls were learning History and English and Algebra and Geography, Tara was learning how to care for her family, how to survive working on a scrap yard and saving up enough money to afford a future with possibilities. This book pulls no punches. I've been reading a lot of autobiographies lately and the thing that separates the good from the great is that the great don't come across as sanitized. The author allows themselves to feel completely vulnerable, warts and all. As inspirational as every aspect of EDUCATED is from overcoming hardships to fighting for yourself when no one else will, the thing that inspires me the most is Westover's courage and blunt honesty. Confronting a traumatic past is not easy. Undoing abusive survival tactics can take a lifetime and I truly appreciate how Westover makes this clear. EDUCATED ends not in a neat bow but in marking the end of a chapter of Westover's life. Read it. Enjoy it. Appreciate it.

“I had begun to understand that we had lent our voices to a discourse whose sole purpose was to dehumanise and brutalise others - because nurturing that discourse was easier, because retaining power always feels like the way forward.” I could have pulled so many quotes from this book, but this excerpt particularly resonated. Educated is quietly impactful; Westover’s prose is so clean and her story so necessary, I would give this book 6 stars if it was possible. Everybody should read this memoir.

This is quite simply the best autobiography I have ever read. Think Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle then times it by 100. I couldn't put it down, dinner was delayed every evening because I wanted to get in from work and immediately read - "Supper will just have to wait!", I cried, for a full week, as soon as I got home. Read it, read it NOW!

An outstanding memoir of a caliber rarely found. I will be highly recommending to my fellow book lovers.