Educated: A Memoir

This is a thought-provoking book that can be at times inspiring, heartbreaking, and absolutely enraging. It's a page-turner, for sure, which had me reaching back for the audiobook every time I had a spare minute to see what happens next. The story of the Westover family is one that is fraught with abuse and ignorance, but also tied irrevocably with the bonds of family. This is a fascinating read, and really sheds light on just how hard it is for abused people to really untangle themselves from their abusers, particularly when those people are family, especially when the abusive member of the family is protected by others within the family unit for the sake of ‘keeping the peace.'

While Tara Westover may very well be an unreliable narrator–she speaks a lot about questioning her own judgment and memories, and acknowledges her trouble with recalling facts, particularly when she has paved over her traumas with justifications–it's valuable still to recognize how much work she has done in her life to try and get to the roots of her own life and release herself from the grasp of her own past. The work she has done to make a life for herself while preserving what she values is impressive, and ultimately I think the book is worth reading. It is a testament to just how hard someone has to work to untangle themselves from an unorthodox and harmful upbringing such as this one.