This memoir is absolutely mental in terms of how toxic a family can be to someone. In the beginning, I could not fathom why Tara's story deserved a memoir since it felt like a normal ignorant Mormon family acting as Mormonish as they can be. They denied education, medical needs, and other normal conditions for the children.  However, the back stories of how they actually decided they do not need medical care when they get into accidents, how they condemn them from doing anything that is considered 'normal' were important to the later part of the story. The story in the start was somewhat too much information and it was dragging to a certain point. There were numerous times I was annoyed as to why Tara or anyone in the family did nothing to stop the tyrannic father who always preaches something ignorant. They believe he suffered from bipolar disorder. The mother always ignored all the abusing happening in her children's life. Both of them overlook how the brother Shawn is always violent and abusive towards the younger siblings, even after they are adults the bullying and the death threats continue under their noses. 

Tara's journey to get educated is not limited to the doctartes and degrees she later presues, it was for her to realize the toxicity runs within her family and to break away from it. For the education she gets, she ends up paying the price of disowning the family. For her it sounds like a pretty big cost to afford.