Tara Westover wrote this memoir about her life growing up with survivalist parents. I have watched that show about Doomsday Preppers, and this kind of reminded me of that. I would hate to have parents that made me live like that. The parents in this book honestly reminded me of some families from where I live that I have been in contact with- when you think of stereotypical backwoods mountain Southern folks, that is exactly what I mean. Super "religious", cynical and fearful of education, and of course the weird way of describing things. People one hundred percent do say "book learning" and "studies". People also speak with double negatives. I have seen reviews saying that people really do not speak like that, and that is certainly not true. I have also seen a review criticizing her calling her Mom Mother because she was born in the 80s. I was also born in the 80s, and I call my Mother that a lot. (Mother most of the time, sometimes Mom, and also Lisa.) I do not understand why that is something that seems weird? I'm not sure that I would have considered her life isolated, though I do believe she was severely undereducated. I believe that she was abused, and I also believe that the perspectives of all players in a family like this vary. People live their experiences and recall things that happened and block out other things. A lot of times, perpetrators brush their actions off and victim blame. I'm glad that the author developed a thirst for knowledge and travel. A day is not wasted if you learn one new thing a day! (My personal motto.) I hope the rest of her life is more amazing than the first part of it.

I have had this book on my to read list for quite a while. I found it at the local library, and, since the summer reading program is still going on, I figured this would be a good opportunity to pick it up and see what all the hype was about. To be honest, I was slightly let down. I thought it was going to be some revelation from all the rave reviews. Frankly, it just didn't do it for me. That isn't to say that it wasn't a good and interesting book, because it was. I just had high expectations that were not quite met. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in memoirs, survivalists, or just different family dynamics.