A harrowing and heartbreaking memoir about life in a survivalist, ultra mormon family.

I binged this audio in the span of hours, unable to stop listening. Tara's childhood was one that I can not comprehend and had trouble imagining as truth. I was enraptured by her disturbing recollections, her feelings and my own reactions to them. This was dually difficult to listen to and yet impossible to put down.

Until the age of 17, Tara Westover never went to school. Her father was convinced that the government was out to get them so his children were homeschooled. The Westover's idea of homeschooling was not traditional by any means. It involved very limited reading and math. Instead the children were taught their father's interpretations of the bible and life lessons on preparing for the End of Days, canning fruit and stewing herbs, salvaging metal in the family junkyard and preparing for an inevitable siege on their property.

Some of Tara's recollections seem wild and outlandish but she does explain that many of her memories come from her own journals which were tainted by her family's actions and views and her family whom always spun tales to suit their own desired outcomes. I definitely had questions and wished some things were explained fully but there is no denying that Tara's childhood was wrought with mental and physical abuse, blatant brainwashing by her father and her continual subjugation by both her father and older brother.

I applaud her desire to be educated and her willingness to go into therapy to explore her beliefs, her upbringing, her family and the chains they formed around her. Overall, a powerful memoir and Tara's formidable journey of being self-taught and overcoming her lack of education, ultimately going on to accomplish great things in academia was definitely inspirational.