The book is written as a compilation of short stories, chapter by chapter. While reading, you feel as if you’ve been on a journey of self discovery and determination. I’m in awe of her ability to overcome, self educate and persevere. I highly recommend this book. It is one of the best memoirs I’ve read.

The true story of how a young woman grew up living off-the-grid, with no birth certificate or education, in a violent, mentally unstable, survivalist family, and found her own way, step by jagged step, to a Ph.D. at Cambridge University. A riveting account of growing up in a world where violence is part of every day life, and the emotional toll that takes on a child, to the incredible, potent power of education to haul oneself out.Educated is a series of absolutely gripping set pieces. There's the story of nine-year-old Tara finding her older brother Luke, his leg on fire, in the front yard, and wrapping his leg in a trash bag so it wouldn't get infected before submerging it in a garbage can to stop it from burning. And then being scolded by her mother for using plastic trash bag, which melted to the skin. And the humiliation of her first college lecture, when one of the words on a slide was unfamiliar and she asked her professor what the Holocaust was.There is also the devastating account of an entire family held hostage to the madness and violence of their father, and the brutal terrorism of one son; how each member of the family tries at different times to free themselves from this madness, and how so many of them fail, and the cost that comes with success.It's about the unimaginable toll of a lifetime of mental and physical abuse, of being denied not just education, but a sense of self; of how the people we love can try to destroy us by taking away our own history, and how hard it is---but how vital---to fight back.Brilliant book. Wouldn't be surprised if it's the best thing I read this year.

I was enthralled and moved by this powerful memoir. The author grew up in a survivalist family in Idaho, the youngest child. She was not homeschooled---instead, she simply didn't go to school at all, due to her father's mistrust of public schools. Her family didn't believe in modern medicine. Instead, her mother was an herbalist and midwife. Her father owned a junkyard. Her childhood is affected over and over by serious injuries of family members, injuries which are not treated.As Tara gets into her preteen and teen years, one older brother in particular starts tormenting her, and the tormenting rises to the level of hugely severe abuse. In part in response to this, she decides to go to college, and by pretty much sheer force of will, does well enough on the ACT to get into Brigham Young University. From there, she starts a storied college career and eventually gets a doctorate from Cambridge. However, each time she is drawn back to the her family, her brother's abuse continues, and the family denial turns more and more severe. The memoir becomes a story of her internal struggle---to believe her own version of her life and to have the strength to break away from her past.I've struggled with some issues of my own in remembering the past differently than others, and I well know the feeling that the author has over and over. One line, "reality becomes fluid", hit me very hard. When you know something happened a certain way, but others can't accept that reality and attempt to change the past by denying it---Tara Westover is able to write about this so powerfully I was crying at points.I hope this book gets wide readership. It's an amazing glimpse into a way of life that most of us will never know, and an inspiring story of one woman's ability to change her future.

This Book Is Awesome, I am only half-way thru it and cannot put it down....I'll write more when I finish. ......already ordering it for 2 daughters!!March 10, 2018 It is midnight and I just finished this book. I give it 8 stars on your scale of 1 to 5. If anyone reading this review favors Memoirs, this one is an absolute Must. Up until now, my favorite was "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls - I now have placed this book in the top position. Tara Westover never lost my attention and I realize that the only thing I can say is quite simple.....the Story took my breath away. I did a lot of underlining because I will reflect on it for a long time.

After reading just a couple chapters of Educated, my first thought was that it is similar to Glass Castle, a book I loved. Upon reading further, I realized there were some similarities, but Educated is actually quite different.I found this book so interesting that at times, it read like a novel. There were also a few times where I thought the book dragged and the author repeated herself.I'm glad Tara was able to see there was a whole other world out there than the one she was living. She seemed to recognize from an early age that most families didn't live like hers. As a young child, she really received very little teaching--very little other than how to help her dad with his scrapping business and how to help her mother as a midwife and and homeopathic specialist. It is clear she has innate intelligence, as she is able to teach herself what was needed to pass the ACT with a score high enough to be accepted to BYU. Upon attending BYU, it was clear she knew very little about how to live as a traditional American. She had never heard of the holocaust. She didn't know how to dress to attend lectures.I would have liked Tara to have included a little more information about her relationship with the men in her life outside of the family. The only real experience with men prior to college were with one of her employers and her repressive father and abusive brother. I think it would be interesting if she had described how these relationships affected those with the men she dated throughout her college experience, but most of this is glossed over.All in all though, this is an interesting and well-written story. I would recommend it for all fans of The Glass Castle, as well as those who are simply fascinated with stories of people who live non-traditional American lifestyles.