An amazing woman in an unbelievably difficult family.

she had to deal with within her family dynamics and within herself in order to find out who she really was and really wanted to be

For anyone suffering from a fractured family, read this

It's an in depth view into family dynamics, love, honor, loyalty and self awareness.

She appears to still want her family's approval in spite of the abuse she received at their hands and continued to put herself in their power to continue to be psychologically and emotional abused.

This is the life of a woman whose family practically doles out shame, self-hatred, and adherence to ideals that obstruct happiness and health in life

No one grows up with a perfect family and many of us have to disconnect for our own sanity

Her family is INSANE and she was absolutely, horrifyingly mistreated by some of them

Then there is the question about why people stay in an abusive family

Did she love her family, or fear them, or resent them for not protecting her from her brother, name-calling, nor believing when she turned to them for help.

She gets herself beyond this upbringing and the abusive family members at considerable personal cost

The family dynamics and abuse was unbelievable

Despite escaping, the author seems more focused on being loved and accepted by a very abusive family

Her family was opposed to public

The family is not illiterate

Family can build you it can also kills you

All families have “issues”.

So painful to know there are people destroying their families through ignorance and fear

It was very interesting learning about Tara's life and what she went through as well as her family.

My husband read it after me and we had some good discussion about both the value of education and family myths and dynamics

It isn’t a pretty story about education but about a strict harsh and abusive family story

Being from a modest but comfortable family this story makes me admire this tenacious author

Writing of an almost surreal family experience, Tara Westover takes us into the frightening world of mental illness and fundamentalist religious extremism and emerges a whole person, close to a miracle considering the odds against her

She loves her family and she is so uneducated that...whatever

Having worked with abused family members as a psychologist, the book seemed relevant to me

She did have some good relationships that formed with some healthier family members that made a lot of difference for her

The family I've been with and how we have been together and how Faith trust and family can mix stretch and pull.

He supported the family by scrapping and building contracting

Dysfunctional families often ostracize the person who tries to get healthy--creating some distance, truth telling, bettering herself

These scenes were as chilling as any horror flick and another reason I had to remind myself how young she was when her isolated family started making negative impressions on her brain—because it just didn’t make sense that she’d put herself in a vulnerable situation like that

Family violence, manipulation, fear, paranoia, and the very virtue of cutting oneself off from the rest of humanity is to cut oneself off of the ability to grow and understand and demonstrate compassion

Many people obviously do not understand what being raised by an abusive family is like.

I'm glad she finally found freedom from her repressive family

Anyone who thinks that the stories she tells are false has never experienced rural communities or families like the Westovers

She ultimately earns a PhD.Through all of her remarkable accomplishments, the specters of family betrayals, injuries, deaths, and disavowment continue until she questions her own memories, and sanity

Against so many odds, the author got a top notch education and escaped (physically) from her pathetic family.

No one could have had a more difficult family and yet became so successful in spite of (or because of) them.

A young woman who fights against all the odds to remove herself from a toxic family, go to school and obtain an education with so little support from her family

Sad family dynamics

She must decide whether a fulfilled life out in the world, enjoying soda and an education and sleeveless shirts, is worth losing her family

Definitely not a feel good read but glad the author was able to find some semblance of her true self and gain liberation from her toxic family members via her education.

My best friend and her husband got sucked into a religious cult and the stories about them I could tell are horrific & would sound unbelievable (he's currently in a prison for the mentally insane after terrorizing his family with guns and knives threatening to kill them - and that's the short

escaping some extreme religious family, the author gets "Educated" by life, not by schooling.

One reader who told me about the book was at a loss to explain why the writer stayed in an abusive family

Even though the father loved his family his bipolar disorder and paranoia put his family In Harm's Way

...” that statement is from a 16 year old girl who was in an abusive, manipulative, abusive ‘family’ who CLEARLY is abused by her father!!!?

In making that choice, she must lose her family.

This is, however, a well written memoir, places you in her life very vividly, shows how strong family bonds can be, reveals the lives of survivalist, touches on mental illness and most significantly, education.

This book is more about her letting go of her abusive family rather than how she succeeded on to getting a phd

She pulls herself through the adversity that she faces with a realer sense of self and true knowledge of who she is, but you hurt alongside her through the gas-lighting, self-doubt, destruction and abuse her family and circumstance force her to claw through

and I could relate to despite the very unusual family circumstances

A story of complex family and human interaction and love

Instead the family protects him and apologizes for him ??????

There were times that I felt infuriated at the lack of basic care to protect his family from harm, and ignoring the basic needs of children

The memoir of a woman who lived in love with and fearful of her father who lead his family of seven with religious values under the mental constraints of paranoia.

People often forget that there are people like Tara’s extremist family living off the charts

god’s pharmacy” and she used her healing skills to heal all of the terrible injuries that her family suffered while working in the father’s scrap yard

First of all, the number of those accidents and injuries would prove to be fatal for most people, but Tara’s family miraculously sailed through fatal car accidents, brain mass leaking out, flesh cut to the bones, 3rd degree burns, charred flesh, collapsed lungs, serious infections and multiple serious brain injuries

The author Tara takes us into her struggle to break free of the family ties and emotional bondage that at once both ties her to her family and haunts her perceptions of herself

This memoir shows the reader how a talented individual can overcome unbelievable family obstacles and can succeed in fulfilling potential.

Even though the father loved his family his bipolar disorder and paranoia put his family In Harm's Way

Tara Westover says repeatedly that her father was a father who loved his family dearly and thought what he was doing was best for them.

Book club choice, not sure I will ever finish it, just how many major accident can a whole family have without anyone getting killed, losing a limb or dying from complications, I will be giving it a D for Delusional.

I believe some day your family will be proud of you and will realize their mistakes

Her family manages to drag her down and as a result mental problems develop

The fact that there are families like

Sad family dynamics

I was absolutely amazed the author, Tara Westover, actually lived through such a brutal family experience with an abusive sibling and nutty parents.

Unbelievable what her family was like and thought it was normal.

Her family nearly destroyed her

The story about a crazy survivalist family and how the author managed to extricate herself and become a PHD from Cambridge and an author.

I hope that love and introspection may help this family

Secondly, and more importantly, what I find rather disturbing, is that despite the formidable education she accomplished, she protects that family, her bipolar (her words) father and her cruel and violent elder brother

Family, friends, and church members become suspicious if not outright hostile, and the temptation to strike back can be very strong.

Where is it written that toxic families must always be part of one's life

So many descriptions of violent family behavior and agonizing mental states of the various family members.

In it, she tells the story of her childhood as part of an isolated Mormon family living in rural Idaho

Insight into off the grid fanatic Mormon families

Combining this with the authoritarian family structure, with the family’s isolation and denial of the greater society, even Mormon society, with a survivalist approach to life in which the end times were about to befall them every day, the only suitable way to characterize the environment in which Tara grew up and which, through her own will and instinctual intelligence, she was able to escape, is toxic

Losing the support and acceptance of one's family is heartbreaking but losing one's self is tragic

It gave lots of insight into how a disfunctional family can have a negative impact on children while other children in the same family can thrive regardless

A very interesting account of a young girls life within a strict Mormon family

It also makes you realize that there is no situation a person can’t escape from, it is possible to not repeat the cycle of one’s unhealthy family relationships

and she’s flying back to Idaho to, I guess, check back and see whether or not every insane member of her criminal, scuzzfest family has done a complete turnaround and become completely different and normal, as she’s obviously expecting to happen, oh, any minute now

Amazing tale of a young girl in a very tough male dominated family, who was required to perform hard and dangerous work, as required by her father.

I feel like this author's family is far right, and she went far left

She loved her family but could see beyond their flaws to pursue what she wanted.

This story helped me realize why it is so hard to break from an abusive family which has been one’s only context for years

Tara presents her family as ignorant, cruel and backwards, for a good 12 chapters in the beginning ex:”Mom never wanted to be a midwife..but Dad insisted..”Dad always forced Mom to deliver another baby because he said ‘WE NEED THE MONEY

For everyone who blames their family for their bad life.

A series of epic accidents cripple her family, and despite all her education, she still has trouble seeing her family as the destructive mess they were

If this was fiction I would have said the heroine is frustratingly and irritatingly too stubborn and too stupid (despite her illustrious education) to see right from earlier on that there was no other choice but to lose the family, and take definite actions to stay as far away as possible and make her own new life

For anyone who has had a violent family member who goes unchecked by the very people who are supposed to protect to you and who not only dismiss your experience but make you feel less somehow because of it, please read this book.

I can not say that in my 80 plus years of life I ever met any family like hers.

The mother (Lorraine) was an illegal midwife and self taught herbalist who became very subdued when married [although she ended up supporting her family with her “Butterfly Miracles with Essential Oils” that are marketed on the

While also having my family dynamics reiterated so clearly

Did she love her family, or fear them, or resent them for not protecting her from her brother, name-calling, nor believing when she turned to them for help.

It was a very good book - amazing that families actually live like that

This is the life of a woman whose family practically doles out shame, self-hatred, and adherence to ideals that obstruct happiness and health in life

This complicated story of family life, mental illness, faith, abuse and trauma is compelling and very well done.

Fascinating look at the power of education and the role education played in one woman’s escape from the hellish bonds of horrific family dysfunction.

Tara had to work against unusual circumstances and difficult family relationships to do this

But it made me certain this woman is not bitter , not trying to harm her family ( as many other books I’ve started reading actually do !

This book demonstrated how intelligence, mental illness and religion can come together to destroy a family

There is no point in reading this book, unless you enjoy reading about dark dysfunctional families.

She believed that the government was against homeschooling and had killed the Weaver family for it.

Tara's childhood, spent in rural Idaho, is shockingly harsh and terrifying to contemplate by someone raised in a reasonable family environment with caring parents

They always make me appreciate how blessed I was to have a loving and stable family.

This poor little girl had to fight her own memories of growing up in a family so horribly insane

Instead I read a rude family treating their daughter like a slave

In an interview, the author made it sound like the family was isolated from the world and living off the

that need someone watching out for them, that mental illness effects an entire family, and education can break cycles!

Her mother, who calls herself a healer but yet cannot heal her own family and see where the disease is festering

Honest family history

It is basically just a story of her life, her eccentric family, and how she went on to get a PhD and all these great opportunities despite not having any formal education at all

It’s not enough to marvel at this extraordinary family, one must condemn it.

Two stars for the writing; 0 stars for the story of this poor family.

An abusive family member makes the struggle much more difficult

Anyone who has ever experienced or known a person who has lived with a severely dysfunctional/abusive family/family member will benefit from the growth Tara went through

Throughout her story, we were also led to believe that her family was poor and living off metal scrapping, but then later in the book you get hints that her mother had a well-developed business with half a dozen women working for her, her father was getting large construction contracts

Instead, it is a book on horrific family drama, psychology and a few other issues, tangential, if not peripheral to my expectations

It is a hard to digest as it vividly shows how destructive a family can be on the health and well being of their children.

And while I appreciate and respect family values and coherence and loyalty, that very family is under threat, physically and psychologically

Having been raised in a violent, extremist family with a mentally ill, authoritarian father, Tara takes us on her journey of choosing to be herself

A series of epic accidents cripple her family, and despite all her education, she still has trouble seeing her family as the destructive mess they were

(Of course, as Tolstoy tells us, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way

This is a powerful story of one person’s journey growing up in a family defined by love, loyalty, control and mental illness, all co-existing and creating a complex family dynamic and a wounded self

Instead I read a rude family treating their daughter like a slave

I know a number of people who have simply walked away from untenable family situations.

Nowhere does Tolstoy’s observation that : "…every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" proves to be more true that in Tara Westover account of her insane Mormon family whom she loves beyond reason

I have spent the majority of my life in rural Utah and Idaho and was amazed at how many families I have known like this

Half the family disowned him and the other half stuck around to protect each other.

It was not an engaging story, rather a list of gruesome family accidents and abuse... boring...

It’s a roller coaster of emotions of change and trying to reconcile family or education

Fairly interesting story about a women who clearly could not separate her family’s seriously flawed perception of their own religion from the actual religious beliefs of the real doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Compelling and raw - so sad that families (and specifically men) are out there like this who treat other humans so badly.

I should think that abuse as brutal as she described and the family denial will take her much longer to recover from than she describe

Tara’s story might help people to better understand who they are and inspire them to make themselves a fundamental change in their lives, as well as it might help the world, the public opinion, and people in position of leadership to better understand the dramatic lives of people isolated from education and health services

Furthermore, like her old sect, her new religion will reward her so long as she follows its tenets.

Brave as in everything she went