What a wonderful book. What an amazing woman. Despite the sad and brutal parts I found it hard to be parted from the book. An astonishing read. Highly recommended

Both fascinating and horrifying memoir by Tara Westover. A fascinating tale of a young woman who manages to get an education despite her family and who struggles to become part of the 21st century while desperate to remain part of her Mormon family. Informative and sad but the triumph of education over the attempt of her father and elder brother to retain control of the women in the family by bullying and physical and emotional control. Many thanks to Netgalley for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was an all absorbing read. I was surprised at how grim some of the content was but it only painted the truth of Tara’s life and experiences. The journey Tara had from uneducated to educated was something quite inspirational, alongside a childhood of a variety of abuses. Tara had very few positive influences in her life but she had something within that was special. I think this is going to be quite memorable.

I've read some memoirs but this one is bonkers. Westover shares how she left her rural upbringing of homeschool and hard labour and went on to study at Cambridge and Harvard. If not for Westover's way with words, this wouldn't be an easy read. She frankly discusses mental health, racism and physical and psychological abuse. She shows a bravery that is astonishing to read. And she doesn't try to make excuses for any of her own behaviours or actions. I took some issue to the handling of mental health, however. The symptoms of mental disorders of course are real, but conflating her father's actions with a potential diagnosis and seemingly nothing else could be harmful. Having said that, Westover's story is utterly fascinating. Learning about reclusive survivalist communities wasn't on my TBR bingo card this year, but I'm glad I did it. It is truly heartening to learn that being born into and raised by racists and misogynists doesn't mean that you have to be the same way. It gives me some hope for us

Born into a fundamentalist Mormon family in rural Idaho, Tara had an unconventional childhood. Her father believed strongly in “prepping” for the end of the world, stockpiling everything from food to fuel, and he had very strong views about anything that involved interacting with “the government" - as a result, the children didn’t go to school and received very little medical treatment even for major injuries (car accident, falling off a roof …). Tara’s mother was a herbalist, using tinctures & traditional remedies to treat anything from a headache to head injuries & major burns, and she also trained as a midwife (unregistered obviously!). She had been brought up in a religious but not extreme family and ultimately knew that the way she was living was extreme. She gave the children basic home-school lessons until they were old enough to go & work for their father and seemed much more understanding/sympathetic to her children, dropping them at the library to read, and encouraging Tara to take dance classes or develop her singing. However, her husband was the master of the house and his word was law - he expected his wife to be subservient and his children to obey his commands. He decided that this was the correct path for his family and if something happened (such as a car accident) it was “the will of the Lord”. Through no encouragement of her parents, Tara developed a love of learning. Encouraged by one of her older brothers, Tyler, she overcame her struggles to pass an exam which allowed her to access higher education. She was able to gain a scholarship to attend Brigham Young University, a Mormon-run establishment in Utah. This was really the start of her transformation. She had to learn how to "learn", how to write an essay, but having the church-structure in place really helped Tara to navigate her new world – one where she didn’t have to confirm to her old ideals (eg she could wear different clothes or shop for groceries on a Sunday) but where other parts of her life had to change (her roommates didn’t appreciate the smell from unwashed clothes/dishes in the sink or the fact that Tara never seemed to use soap) and she was very, very naïve. Her classes, particularly in History, Philosophy and Psychology were influential in helping Tara to grow, develop her own ideas & more importantly to trust those thoughts. Her childhood was entirely shaped by her father – what he believed/taught, she believed. Her natural curiosity served her well when it came to topics she had never heard of/experienced - the civil rights movement, the holocaust, medicine/health care - and her determination to succeed, along with incredible support from her bishop (pastor) led to her gaining a degree and being offered the chance to do further study at Cambridge University in the UK and later at Harvard. She also started to understand that some members of her family were likely suffering form mental illnesses, bipolar and/or schizophrenia. I could understand the behaviours of most of the family members, after all they were following what they had been taught. However I did not understand/like her brother Shaun at all - whilst he had moments of kindness, his anger & brutality were directed at his own family, specifically his sisters. A final incident, which her parents witnessed & later denied, was really the final straw that led to Tara disassociating herself from her family. The book is skilfully written – Tara is a scholar after all – but it is not a novel, it’s Tara’s own story. I am uncertain about the accuracy of everything depicted – Tara was a child when things happened & its easy to only see part of the picture or remember the highlights/lowlights and not the bits in the middle. Ultimately it is a personal story, but also one which is very relevant as more people seem to be shunning “the system” and turning to self-sufficiency, off-grid living. Children brought up in these environments can be experiencing abuse in many forms – denial of medical care, physical abuse, verbal abuse, neglect & more – and nobody is picking it up.